Posted on 10/03/2011 10:32:55 AM PDT by Captain Kirk
The killing on Friday of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen described as a powerful al-Qaeda terrorist, has stirred considerable debate about whether it's appropriate for a president to order an American assassinated.
Evidently, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain shares those concerns.
The above video was recorded just after the first nationally televised GOP presidential debate of the 2012 campaign cycle, held in Greenville South Carolina on May 5 of this year, according to its YouTube page.
"He should be charged. And since he's an American citizen, he should be tried in our courts," Cain said of al-Awlaki. When asked if he considered it legal for President Obama to order al-Awlaki killed, Cain said, "In his case, no, because he's an American citizen."
It has been known since early 2010 that the CIA and the U.S. military's special-operations division maintain kill lists with three to four Americans on them. Al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric, was on the list. He was reportedly killed in Yemen on Friday in a U.S. drone and jet strike. A classified Department of Justice memo authorized the killing, The Washington Post reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
And the same holds when it’s the “Tea Party terrorists?”
Homophobic Christian enemy combatants of tolerance?
You’re right-—he ain’t gonna make it, and he’s proved over and over that he IS in over his head. BUT he has his hardcore fans who will be with him to the bitter end and will have to throw their support somewhere else eventually.
All of it adds up to an eminently exploitable image of a “fractured” Republican Party that the MSM will love exploiting.
You seriously think that the President of the USA should be allowed to order the non-judicial sanctioned murder of US Citizens?
Don't let your mindless adoration for Perry cause you to act with such reckless abandonment of all contact with rationality.
Yes, I think the President should have the right to snuff anyone like Awlaki. Cram your Perry assumption because my last 2 hopes are based on Palin or Christie getting in the race.
I’m in the Cain camp, I don’t agree with him on this issue, but after all, he is siding with the constitution so I think he can stand on this.
. Your complete ignorance of even the most basic principals of US law are pitiful. Simply no excuse for your level of irrational ignorance in a supposed adult mind.
I’d like to see Cain do well. I disagree with this opinion.
There is no slippery slope. Citizen or not, he was an enemy combatant on a foreign field. I would have preferred that Awlaki was given his citizen due rights. I’m not upset that, since that was not an option, he was otherwise neutralized.
I would like to make a side comment because it seems that Cain’s hardest opponents here are Perry supporters. I think that the Perry people consider that Perry’s fall was a case of fratracide (I think he vetted himself negatively by calling Conservatives heartless and doubling-down on illegal alien subsidies). Since Cain has been the primary beneficiary of Perry’s fall, I see the Perry people as more than invested in some fratracide of their own in hopes that people will turn their attention back to Perry.
I’ve been accused of basically this very same thing here. I’m a Palin supporter that would be equally happy to see Cain move forward. I have serious problems with the idea of Perry as the nominee based on his record in Texas.
I see in-state tuition as just an operative example that stuck.
My problems with Perry is not a case of electioneering for Palin. I would - and do - have those same problems with Perry regardless if Palin gets in the race or not. I classify Perry in the same category as Romney as far as being a conservative, which is why I find it cute and not-on-any-sort-of-point for the Perry people to claim that he’s the only alternative to Romney. I believe in ABO, but Perry is no better than Romney.
If my only goal were to clear the path for Palin, I’d have the same problems with Cain. I do not. From years of listening to Cain on the radio, I know that he is a Conservative whereas I also know, as a Texan, that Perry has a history of being a Conservative six months before every election. I’d like to see Cain do well, even if that ultimately hurts Palin. If Cain can outdo Palin, so be it. I hope to compare them both in the Primary before this is over.
It’s not fair to say that Palin supporters had it out for Perry just to buck up Palin. I think the contrast between the Palin supporters here being fairly supportive of Cain points that out. We want the best Conservative elected possible. For many of us, the rules out Perry.
I don’t support Cain on this issue, or several things he’s done or said this weekend. I am willing to give him and his new communications director a chance to right that ship. That said, I’m more than willing to call Cain out on something that I consider to be wrong, while still offering qualified support that he might be the man. It strikes me as crazy that some of Perry’s supporters have now pretzeled (for the gas jets, or something like that) their positions into something even THEY wouldn’t have agreed with 2 months ago in order to support their man.
You really want to argue the President of the USA should have the power to order the non-judicial sanctioned murder of US Citizens?
Ding. Ding. Ding. IMHO, if done within an armed conflict authorized by Congress, the morality or legality of such action can be based on the same reasoning as the 'Just War' doctrine. This targeted bomb is a part of the shooting in contemporary warfare and if you are on the wrong side of the fight, regardless of your citizenship, you've forfeited any "special handling". You don't get a Miranda warning in a war.
Not this one for sure. I don’t trust him as far as I can spit. I guess the question is if osama was a citizen what we would do then?
I am still Cain 2012!
“Not once he becomes an enemy combatant. “
some people are worried that the president could claim the tea party is terrorist and take us out.
Agreed. I thought taking this guy out was a good idea until I learned that he was an American citizen. And with this administration labeling former military vets, pro-lifers and others on the Right as "terrorists", what's to stop them from sending a Predator drone to the National Right To Life or veterans groups to "take them out" for their "perceived" threat to America?
What has my strong support to Perry has anything to do with the subject we are discussing. Terrorist Anwar Al Awlaki was a traitor and hence he automatically abdicated his US citizenship, it is that simple. Also for those who are calling that he needed to be arrested and tried, did you ask yourself how many US troops would risk their lives for such a mission? Are you willing to lose brave US troops to capture this POS evil terrorist so we can try him in the US? I do not want to see a single US military personnel harmed in order to capture this evil SOB and I am very glad that he was blown out by a missile.
Herman, Herman, Herman - wrong answer.
You really want to argue the President of the USA should have the power to order the non judicial sanctioned murder of US Citizens?
Stop, put your emotional angst on hold and actually THINK about what you are saying here.
You really want to argue the President of the USA should have the power to order the non judicial sanctioned murder of US Citizens?
Who knows how being in the White House and knowing the things the general public does not know can change ones opinion on different matters related to our security. I would bet Obama this time back in 2007 would have also been adanantly against carrying out a kill like this - yet now approves it. Who is to say if Cain "knowing what a president knows" would have not done the same.
Nobody’s perfect.
Cain is still at the top my list for Primary.
Yes, but generally we try to negotiate with the hostage taker before shooting him, if it comes to that. If they can do this to one citizen they can do it to any citizen. At the very least they should have a trial in absentia on criminal charges, to revoke his citizenship, or something.
Cindie
It could pretty easily be argued that since this guy was in a foreign country fighting against the U.S., he had renounced his American citizenship.
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