White House Mulls Legality of Assassinating US-Born Cleric
Can US 'Take Out' a Citizen Not Charged With Any Crimes?
According to US intelligence officials, the Obama Administration has “missed” several opportunities to assassinate US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki because lawyers are still unclear on the legality of killing him.
At issue is that Awlaki, a New Mexico-born Muslim cleric, is not charged with any crimes under US law and is only speculatively linked by the Obama Administration to terrorism through secret “intelligence reports.”
As a native-born citizen of the United States, assassinating him on the basis of secret evidence which is so shaky that officials haven’t felt comfortable issuing charges against him is a legal grey area, to say the least.
But despite this legal concern, officials had no problem in backing Yemeni air strikes which attempted to assassinate Awlaki just last month. US officials said Awlaki was ‘probably’ killed in those strikes, though it later turned out he wasn’t even present at the site of the attack.
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lydia
January 26th, 2010 at 8:29 am
The Israelis have been sing this trial by missiles on the Palestinians for decades. The US it seems hesitate to assassinate an American citizen because their 'secret evidence' is shaky, however the equally shaky evidence does not hinder them mowing down unarmed civilians including women and children, who are not American citizens.
It seems the cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is guilty of the same crime as Rev. Wright voicing the obvious ie that we have allowed support of Israel to lead us down a shaky path to self destruction in waging proxy wars on the Muslims. Will Rev. Wright be targeted as well.
WasHal
January 26th, 2010 at 10:17 am
"…however the equally shaky evidence does not hinder them mowing down unarmed civilians including women and children, who are not American citizens…"
completely agree with you on this one !..well said.
"American citizens are the only civilized lot on the face of earth…..all others are blood-thirsty animals, coming after our freedom !!."
Sometimes, this is what I think is taught to children in American schools
Tweets that mention White House Mulls Legality of Assassinating US-Born Cleric -- News from Antiwar.com -- Topsy.com
January 26th, 2010 at 4:35 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ali Abunimah, AngelaKeaton, AntiwarNews, jesse stewart, Remi Kanazi and others. Remi Kanazi said: RT @avinunu: Obama wants to assassinate US citizens abroad http://bit.ly/90KGC8 [...]
Bruce Richardson
January 26th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
This is reminiscent of Judge Roy Bean who, in "Law West of the Pecos", hung em up first and then attempted to get at the facts. Guilty until proven innocent. Of course when innocence may be established at a later time, it is of no value to those already assassinated.
anti_republocrat
January 26th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
They're unclear as to whether or not lynching is legal?
Major Variola
January 26th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Folks in glass empires shouldn't fly drones.
The US has collapsed already if it can't decide if assasination without trial
is ok.
Regime change starts at home.
Robert Menard
January 26th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
How about if we start "Taking out" these maniacs that are doing the "mulling" They are a clear and present danger to the safety of anyone who doesn't look, speak and act the same as them.
January 26, 2010 « Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?
January 26th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
[...] “White House Mulls Legality of Assassinating US-Born Cleric [...]
masmanz
January 27th, 2010 at 12:07 am
This way we can claim to be a nation of law. Now, nation of justice is another matter.