Lawsuit Challenges Govt’s Right to Assassinate US Citizens
ACLU, CCR Insist Constitution, International Law Prohibit Summary Killings
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a lawsuit today challenging the right of the Obama Administration to assassinate American citizens outside of any current war zones.
“The United States cannot simply execute people, including its own citizens, anywhere in the world based on its own say-so,” insisted the Executive Director of the CCR Vince Warren.
The Obama Administration however insists that it can do exactly that, when National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair announced to Congress that US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, against whom no charges have been filed, was on the official CIA “assassination list.”
The lawsuit is an effort by Awlaki’s father Nasser al-Awlaki to stop the assassination of his son. So far the administration has not addressed this lawsuit.
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xjlm
August 31st, 2010 at 5:19 am
I'm sure this will inflame the Teatards and Republitards, but who in their right mind would ever think the US government has the right to kill its citizens? Losing your civil rights in a trial by a jury of your peers is much different than losing them by executive fiat.
vito
August 31st, 2010 at 5:30 am
Assassinations are what drones are for. Drones are a new evil toy.
Eddie
August 31st, 2010 at 6:43 am
When you sit around watcing your own govt kill other people…. and you think to yourself, 'wow the enemy's getting a good kicking'… there comes a time when you yourself will be on the recieving end…. it's a fact of nature.
good luck to you americans…
theothercanada
August 31st, 2010 at 7:24 am
Tyrants and Despots CAN and DO whatever they want, might is right in a lawless world created and maintained by Anglo-American alliance of terror.
Robert Menard
August 31st, 2010 at 8:48 am
This is organized crime, no matter what flag they're waving. What goofballs like "Counterterrorism Chief" Michael Leiter and his Godfather, Don Barak Obama need to remember is that when you put someone on a list like that, you're probably on their list, too. In fact, in Leitner's own words, at this point it would be "irresponsible" for Awlaki, or his family or supporters not to try…..
When you threaten to kill someone, you have already committed a serious crime.
generalissimo x
August 31st, 2010 at 9:02 am
as an aclu member, its about f*&king time they did something about obama's insane decree. some change, he takes evil policies instituted by bush and cheney and expands them. this guy is the biggest lieing phoney of all time. there is only one party: the war party and no matter who gets elected all we have is more war, debt and misery. the fact that obama can even assert something so insane and beyond the rule of law and not be immediately impeached illustrates how far the rot of corruption is in our gov't. rotten to the core.
Thebes
August 31st, 2010 at 9:46 am
Uhm…
Ok, lets try this headline again.
Governments do NOT have RIGHTS.
Governments have POWERS.
Powers are granted by the people to those who govern them by their consent.
People's rights come from "god" or else are inherent to the condition of humankind and our intelligence.
This is what our Once Great Nation was founded upon, please don't forget it. To say government's have rights is to deny the rights of we the people and empower government to tyranny.
j r
August 31st, 2010 at 11:20 am
And the difference between the US government and organized crime syndicates is?
V for Vendetta
August 31st, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Any government that claims the right to arbitrarily assassinate anyone – especially its own citizens – and deny them their god-given and natural rights to: 1. a fair and public trial, and, 2. the right to have counsel in their defense at said trial, and, 3. the right to be judged by an impartial jury of their fellow citizens at said trial, and, 3. the right to compel witnesses to testify in their defense at said trial – then that government has proven itself to be nothing more than an unvarnished and despotic tyranny. And that, my dear friends, is the kind of stuff that revolutions are made of.
V for Vendetta
August 31st, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Sir, you are correct. The simple truth is this: fascisim has come to America. The political puppets in Washington and their Wall Street masters constitute an organized crime syndicate. They are nothing more than a criminal gang of liars, thieves and murderers writ large. 95% of the politicians in Washington could, and should, be convicted under the Rico Act.
MvGuy
August 31st, 2010 at 7:18 pm
911 has made America CRAZY… And hitler and the Palestinian resistance has made the Israelis CRAZY too… Once the most moral army, now has turned sado-genocidal… One shot two kills, their name for shooting pregnant women in the stomach…. http://bit.ly/drqO10…... Try captured CHILDREN as WAR CRIMINALS!!!…. while the REAL WAR CRIMINALS [who killid a MILLION CHILDREN, WOMEN and OTHER UNFORTUNATE souls] are ALLOWED to SLITHER away to their Deca-Million Dollar retirements….. http://bit.ly/bbwr3a Yes America, and you too Israel… You have become a beacon of darkness for the worst type of genocidal extermination and self serving righteous delusion..