US District Corut Judge John Bates today dismissed an ACLU lawsuit aimed at preventing the extralegal assassination of US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, saying that the officials named in the lawsuit were immune from such suits and that Awlaki’s father, Nasser al-Awlaki, lacked standing to oppose his son’s pending killing.
Bates conceded his decision raised “perplexing questions” about the idea that President Obama needs a warrant to wiretap a US citizen but not to order his summary execution, but insisted that it was “up to the elected branches of government” to decide whether President Obama had the authority to order assassinations.
Bates then went on to say any citizen calling for “jihad” shouldn’t expect to use the courts to defense his constitutional rights. Awlaki has been alleged to have ties with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but has yet to be charged with crimes related to this allegation, and the public charges have centered around him making anti-US speeches.
The ACLU condemned the verdict, with one of their lawyers noting that the ruling said “the government has unreviewable authority to carry out the targeted killings of any American, anywhere, whom the president deems to be a threat to the nation.” This has indeed been the position of the Justice Department.
The "judge" as an employe of the regime did his job by giving the regime veneer of legitimacy. Tzarist Russia, Stalin's USSR had judges like him and Mubarak's "judges" are a lot like him.
The US has lost all rights to call itself a law abiding country.
And interestingly, it would not matter who sits in the White House.
The US president is the slave holder who is entitled to kill any of its citizens and
naturally since he defines the state of war anybody outside hie country.
Are we back in Feudalism, or even further back?
W
We haven't been a "law abiding country" ever. For that matter, no state ever has. All states use violence and coercion to acheive their ends.
I had thought, though naively, that McCarthyism and Trotskyism had disappeared from contemporary discourse and unseemply innoculation of the American political landscape and the pursuit of justice. But since the revival, often called Bushism-articulated policies,
This great country is being led down the slope to dictatorship. What the Hell are we doing??
It is sad but true that every time this so-called American Democracy was but to the test; it flunked miserably. American judges through out our history, with very few exceptions, were prostitutes to the money interest. No legal challenge to the money interest ever succeeded in America. This shameful record began with the slaughtering the native Indians, to enslaving Africans, to the illegal wars of Nixon, the Bushes and the CIA assassination and toppling of foreign governments. Democracy and the rule of law are mere slogans, perpetuated on the gullible Americans to make feel good.
The courts and news media used to be the last line of defense for the republic. No more.
Exactly PTR! It is about time people are starting to wake up to reality and notice that both parties (and all states) lead to the same end result. Maybe with Wikileaks a stateless society will finally stand a chance. Never have individuals had this much power (i.e.- internet) to show what goes on behind the curtains. Just a matter of time before they try to pass a bill (see Rap News the Juice Media for a humorous looks at internet censorship) to lockdown the net. Doesn't matter though. An underground secure net will overtake their attempts.