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http://www.salon.com/2011/09/30/awlaki_6/singleton
Friday, Sep 30, 2011 10:31 AM UTC2011-09-30T10:31:00Zl, M j, Y g:i A T
The due-process-free assassination of U.S.
Without a shred of due process, far from any battlefield, President Obama succeeds in killing Anwar al-Awlaki
FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2010 file image taken from video and released by SITE Intelligence Group on Monday, Anwar al-Awlaki speaks in a video message posted on radical websites. A senior
(updated below)
It was first reported [1] in January of last year that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens whom the President had ordered assassinated without any due process, and one of those Americans was Anwar al-Awlaki. No effort was made to indict him for any crimes (despite a report [2] last October that the Obama administration was “considering” indicting him). Despite substantial doubt [3] among Yemen experts [4] about whether he even has any operational role [5] in Al Qaeda, no evidence (as opposed to unverified government accusations) was presented of his guilt. When Awlaki’s father sought a court order barring Obama from killing his son, the DOJ argued [6], among other things, that such decisions were “state secrets” and thus beyond the scrutiny of the courts. He was simply ordered killed by the President: his judge, jury and executioner. When Awlaki’s inclusion on President Obama’s hit list was confirmed, The New York Times noted [7] that “it is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing.”
After several unsuccessful efforts [8] to assassinate its own citizen, the U.S. succeeded today [9] (and it was [10] the U.S. [11]). It almost certainly was able to find and kill Awlaki with the help of its long-time close friend President Saleh, who took a little time off from murdering his own citizens [12] to help the U.S. murder its. The
What’s most striking about this is not that the U.S. Government has seized and exercised exactly the power the Fifth Amendment was designed to bar (“No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law”), and did so in a way that almost certainly violates core First Amendment protections [14] (questions that will now never be decided in a court of law). What’s most amazing is that its citizens will not merely refrain from objecting, but will stand and cheer the U.S. Government’s new power to assassinate their fellow citizens, far from any battlefield, literally without a shred of due process from the U.S. Government. Many will celebrate the strong, decisive, Tough President’s ability to eradicate the life of Anwar al-Awlaki — including many who just so righteously condemned those Republican audience members as so terribly barbaric and crass for cheering Governor Perry’s execution of scores of serial murderers and rapists — criminals who were at least given a trial and appeals and the other trappings of due process before being killed.
From an authoritarian perspective, that’s the genius of
* * * * *
In the column [15] I wrote on Wednesday regarding Wall Street protests, I mistakenly linked to a post [16] discussing a New York Times article by Colin Moynihan as an example of a “condescending” media report about the protest. There was nothing condescending or otherwise worthy of criticism in Moynihan’s article; I meant to reference this NYT article by Ginia Bellafante [15]. My apologies to Moynihan, who rightly objected by email, for the mistake.
UPDATE: What amazes me most whenever I write about this topic is recalling how terribly upset so many Democrats pretended to be when Bush claimed the power merely to detain or even just eavesdrop on American citizens without due process. Remember all that? Yet now, here’s Obama claiming the power not to detain or eavesdrop on them without due process, but to kill them; marvel at how the hardest-core White House loyalists [17] celebrate this and uncritically accept the same justifying rationale used by Bush/Cheney (this is war! he was a Terrorist!) without even a moment of acknowledgment of the profound inconsistency or the deeply troubling implications of having a President — even someone as good and kind as Barack Obama — vested with the power to target U.S. citizens for murder with no due process.
I was on Democracy Now earlier this morning discussing the Awlaki assassination and presidential due-process-free killings. I’ll post the video of the segment when it’s available, but for now it can be viewed here [18], beginning at roughly 11:00.
URLs in this post:
[1] first reported: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/01/27/yemen
[2] a report: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/09/15/assassinations/index.html
[3] substantial doubt: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/opinion/20johnsen.html
[4]
[5] any operational role: http://twitter.com/#%21/gregorydjohnsen/status/75837444557258752
[6] DOJ argued: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/09/25/secrecy
[7] The New York Times noted: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/world/middleeast/07yemen.html?hp
[8] several unsuccessful efforts: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/05/07/awlaki
[9]
[10] was: http://twitter.com/#!/blakehounshell/status/119711090237120512
[11]
[12] murdering his own citizens: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/world/middleeast/21yemen.html
[13] The Next bin Laden: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/06/22/anwar_al-awlaki_the_next_bin_laden_257933.html
[14] violates core First Amendment protections: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/06/01/free_speech
[15] column: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/nyregion/protesters-are-gunning-for-wall-street-with-faulty-aim.html?_r=1&hp
[16] a post: http://jdeanicite.typepad.com/i_cite/2011/09/winner-of-most-condescending-coverage-of-day-of-rage-colin-moynihan-new-york-times.html
[17] hardest-core White House loyalists: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_09/al_qaeda_leader_killed_in_yeme032528.php
[18] viewed here: http://www.democracynow.org/
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"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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