Assassinating Awlaki: Obama Can Kill Anyone He Wants To

[The Northerner]

Now we know what embattled Yemeni President Saleh meant when he cryptically told reporters from the Washington Post and Time yesterday: “We are fighting the al-Qaeda organization in Abyan in coordination with the Americans and Saudis.” The defiant Saleh, who’s long promoted himself as an asset in America’s seemingly nonstop Long War on Terrorism (LWT), apparently knows what he’s talking about. Hours later, Yemen’s military announced that a missile strike had killed Anwar al-Awlaki, the bombastic, American-born Islamist who’s been linked to Al Qaeda and to recent terrorist attempts against the United States.

He’s not exactly Osama bin Laden, whose takedown in Pakistan in April helped spark the current US-Pakistan confrontation. But Awlaki’s assassination, and that’s what it was, is a signal that the Obama administration intends to pursue the LWT to the ends of the earth, regardless of the consequences, even if it means an extra-judicial killing of an American citizen.

Not that killing non-citizens is kosher, but killing an American isn’t. Still, rules are rules, and American citizens are supposed to have legal and civil rights that protect them from political or prosecutorial assassinations, even if they’re bad guys. Apparently, no longer. Still, Awlaki’s killing comes as no surprise, since the Obama administration long ago deemed him kill-worthy. As the Wall Street Journal points out, the CIA tried to kill Awlaki recently: “The US narrowly missed Mr. Awlaki in a failed assassination attempt back in May. US drones fired on a vehicle in the southern Yemen province of Shebwa that the cleric had been driving in earlier the same day.”

Since then, the United States has vastly expanded its Predator and Reaper drone capability far beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan, setting up bases on Indian Ocean islands and targeting Yemen, Somalia and other countries.

Read more: http://www.thenation.com/blog/163724/assassinating-awlaki-obama-can-kill-anyone-he-wants

[RZM]

1. LOL. What is 'cryptic' about that quote?

Sounds pretty straightforward to me. It's not like it's a brand new revelation that the US has been using drones in Yemen.

[JuniperLea]

2. This is so late in the game...

That it is really making people look silly. Honestly! Since when has the president or the FBI been held accountable for this shit?

I call bullshit on all the outrage. Quite frankly I'm disgusted by it. If people truly cared about it, there would have always been outrage! Oh, I see, it conveniently works within the "program."

I still think it is seriously weak... and seriously fucked up to start using this shit now!

If you haven't been screaming about it until now, you're a fucking poser and you should be ashamed of yourself.

[Angry Dragon]

3. It just means that if the President thinks you are a terrorist

no matter what country you are from or which country you are in
this country will hunt you down and kill you

This country slides further and further down the slope of decay.........

Look around and just picture what it must have looked like for the Roman Empire
and their slide into the history books.........

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Let's just depersonalize this. ANY President.

President Perry.
President Romney.
President Bachmann.
President Gingrich.
President Paul. Strike that. He thinks this was an assassination.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Let's just depersonalize this. ANY President.

President Perry.
President Romney.
President Bachmann.
President Gingrich.
President Paul. Strike that. He thinks this was an assassination.

[chillspike]

6. John Dilinger and Bonnie & Clyde

Also American citizens. Not justifying it. Just pointing that out.

[AngkorWot]

7. Slippery slope argument.

It's a logical fallacy.