With drones suddenly a part of the conversation during the Brennan confirmation hearings, senators are said to be considering an idea to create a secret “assassination court” on the model of the FISA courts that rubber-stamp wiretapping, only this court would be charged with deciding if “suspects” can be assassinated by US drone strikes.
The idea has some support, though officials say it is unlikely any such proposals will be acted on any time soon. The notion of a secretive court deciding who gets killed by robots looming overhead anywhere on the planet strikes some as somewhat morbid.
On the other hand, the drones are already looming overhead and killing people by the thousands worldwide as it is, and the change would just be some nominal court oversight to the whole process of killing people en masse, which at present is entirely up to President Obama. That is a power he is unlikely to be willing to give up.
John Brennan expressed some skepticism about the idea, saying he would consider it but that it would have to be a different type of court from anything in existence. He argued that drone strikes aren’t about guilt for past actions but rather are aimed at preventing a future action, adding that this is an “inherently Executive Branch” function.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D – CA), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is spearheading the effort, seeking some method of regulating the killings and hoping to translate the FISA model more or less directly.
Sen. Angus King (I – ME) suggested even that might be a bridge too far, and that he believes such a court should be limited only to considering the execution of American citizens, while the executions of everybody else would never see the inside of a court, secret or not.
On the other hand Sen. King did express concern about the killings of Americans, saying that making the president “prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner all in one is very contrary” to US tradition. That apparently did not apply to foreigners.
How LOW AMERICANS want to fall. Shame on America and on Americands. US think wrongly that owns the world therefore has a right to kill whoever they want. This is sickening. World population must be united and DO THE SAME TO THOSE WHO CARRY ASSASSINATION.
YOU CANNOT BE A SHEEPLE ANYMORE. Rise up, Rise up, Rise up and destroy the evil.
The whole thing is probably illegal. It's about time it was challenged in that way…
The entire government is illegal.
They should also investigate the criminal appointments to the SCOTUS…and those involved should be prosecuted and imprisoned.
Hey FBI – you don't like me much do you?
Agreed – YES RISE UP AND DESTROY THE EVIL
How's that FBI? Or should I say Mossad/FBI?
Spineless fucking losers. You deserve everything you've got coming…
Couldn't care less about the morbid bit. The right to confront one's accuser before a jury informed of it's duty to judge both the law and the facts is the issue. Even the tormented nobodies in the US run dungeons are, in some fashion, talking back –and apparently showing their star chamber to be populated by sloppy little nutjob conspiracy theorists often enough. (e.g. Maher Arar). How much more so when the Feds already claim to be practicing probabilistic telepathy (prevention of future actions) even as, domestically, persuading some jack-ass to agree to something 'terroristic' (though where's the rest of the tape?) is now a normal route for generating gwotaganda.
Hence the emphasis on whackings by photo album presented by "a wash as an analyst," who distances himself from torture when confronted… After all, if they ever had to prove anything, they'd never automate their murder industry or develop it's faux-legal basis….
Want to Make a illegal killing look legal.., create a illegal court with a judge, jury and executioner replacing that blinded angel with a balanced wight in one side out balancing the other…, then start the killing process.., it looks so legal that you want need any bible nor Quran or whatever that they swear on before or after the killings.., and when the question of legality becomes a real "justice" issue.., hey.., they own the justice department.., they got the justice in its entirety in their pocket.
A secret court to "oversee" secretly what's presently being done in secret? This is assinine! This sounds like that already "secret" court that rubber-stamps all those warrants, or not, so you have no idea why your life is being silently destroyed. In conclusion all of this is your typical "two steps forward, one step back" waltz of lies.
'(Brennan) argued that drone strikes aren’t about guilt for past actions but rather are aimed at preventing a future action, adding that this is an “inherently Executive Branch” function.'
So was Hitler's final solution of the Jewish question.
One must remember that the US thinks it is exempt from international law, if we go back we can remember after 911 the comments that is a little old woman from Switzerland gave money to a charity that provided medical help to a terrorist she could be arrested for aiding terrorists! Yet the Geneva conventions specifically state
Article 16–General protection of medical duties
1. Under no circumstances shall any person be punished for carrying out medical activities compatible with medical ethics, regardless of the person benefiting therefrom.
Just the tip of the iceberg!
We see many such American made laws that in essence are an anathma to both Geneva and International law, and I wonder how American Politicins would feel if say Iran publically said they have had an Iranian Court ruling that it was now lawful for theit operatives to execute various American Politicians anywhere on the basis that they have made threats of warfare against Iran, hang on we know what they would say and do, isnt that the reason for the Iranian sanctions, and wasnt it the reason for Libyan Sanctions and North Korean sanctions!
The Hypocracy is stagering!
What part of the Geneva Conventions do these foolish Senators not understand remembering that those Geneva Conventions are actually US TReaty law and have similar overrides of Constitutional law in essence making such a court unconstitutional
Article 75–Fundamental guarantees
2. The following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever, whether committed by civilian or by military agents:
( a ) violence to the life, health, or physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular:
(i) murder;
(ii) torture of all kinds, whether physical or mental;
(iii) corporal punishment; and
(iv) mutilation;
Criminals don't care about the law. That's what makes them criminals.
Amerika has sunk to a new low. It is only a matter of time untill the rest of planet earth's citizens put A STOP TO THIS DIABOLICAL MADNESS .
That's the image of a Global Hawk though, which is used for surveillance and unarmed. You want a Predator.
The Nazis created laws that made everything they did, holocaust and all, legal under their legal system. What's the difference?
Ditz censorship strikes again
[moderator’s note: It’s not Ditz censorship, it’s Knapp sleeps in on Saturdays moderation delay – TLKI]
Knap, Considers himself a Zionist…….. I believe….
Yes … and what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?
OOOO I suppose if there was a Nazi doing the moderation many of the comments adverse to the third Reich would be deleted, or moved down the column of comments….. I really couldn't presume to understand any effect or even affect regarding a price for Marijuana in Newark, much less tea in China. Still,anyone able enough to touch their fingers together at night should see how having a Zionist editing content concerning Palestinians homes being destroyed to make way for "settlers", of I CAN presume, the Zionist stripe leaves scant space for balance……
And then there is the country with elastic borders, or is that just a ruse to gobble up all and everything in the area….?? What exactly IS the Zionist position on other peoples land…. OOOPS, I forgot, to the Zionists, the Palestinians aren't a people…. No just inconvenient mongrel squatters on the land(s) of the Chosen People. Maybe for much beloved balance, we could get someone of a not so much a skeptical persuasion, but one of say a retro Aryan European Supremacist mindset to go over the content and exclusions of content including YOURS a few days of the week? Henceforth I shall try to limit my talking out of school to only those who are elephant blind and deaf from birth, and not cost of chi in China.
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Still,anyone able enough to touch their fingers together at night should see how having a Zionist editing content concerning Palestinians homes being destroyed to make way for "settlers", of I CAN presume, the Zionist stripe leaves scant space for balance……
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If you're suggesting that I delete comments that criticize the Israeli "settlements," then the answer is no, I don't. In point of fact, I object to them being called "settlements" outside of scare quotes. They aren't settlements, they're squats, in stolen homes.
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Maybe for much beloved balance
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Not sure where you get the idea that we're about "balance" here.
Not from you, that's sure…….
> it's Knapp sleeps in on Saturdays moderation delay
Everyone needs some rest
A sad day in America when moving to a star chamber court is an improvement. Wow. What a country we have become.
I've said for years that every successful American president has the instincts and morals of a Mafia don. The fact that Jimmy Carter is derided and held in contempt by most Americans today, simply because he lacked the killer instinct, goes a long way in explaining why this country is considered by most moral people as a sewer pit.
Check out Arthur Silber's blog. Mafia men have rules!
Gotta wonder who is gonna represent the soon-to-be-victim.
When Senators seriously discuss this sort of rubbish you know due process is finished here.
EASY Project I'm sure…….. Like the rest of the ersatz "war on terror" from the appointment of Bush (just as Hindenburg appointed Hitler after the deadlocked election then) to 911 (the American Reistag fire).. and then the Patriot Act… (the American Enabling act)… the wars… for the Nazis, Poland and Czechoslovakia, for the Neocons Afghanistan and Iraq…. Just go to the history books, find out how the victims of the Reich were 'handled' legally and viola….. Why go off script now…??? After all, the current legend with its never ending "new" plots against empire by shoeless derelicts in Miami to Army privates has been a huge success for the asset strippers and occupiers… Just so long as you fudge the numbers…. the same way that the facts have been…….
As Bush codified the unConstitutional invasion of privacy ("legalizing" wiretaps of Americans), Obama is going to codify the unConstitutional killing of Americans without due process. And the Congress – that den of "Constitutionalists" (just ask them…) – are going to do the deed just as they did for Dubya. How any one of the Congresscritters can say with a straight face that they are defending the Constitution is beyond me. But, the majority of the American people will stand by and allow this to happen. And when the jackboots come down, it will be a moot point that the rights of Americans have been taken away. Just because the Congresscritters can reach into a pocket and pull out their little book of the Constitution – and they do it all the time and more and more – does not indicate (to me) that they understand what is in the book and what it means. But the sheep continue to believe them regardless…
More proof that the US government is an outlaw government and not worthy of support or respect by anyone or any government. The federal government is so far gone that it is not reformable.
Watching the hearings and listening to the government employees and politicians carefully mince their words was pathetic. Worse, were the mainstream media pundits discussing this as if it was a debate about garbage collection schedules.
For the US everything is downhill now, not only in material terms but above all in moral terms. The US save itself if it were just the former but since it's rotting inside, there is nothing that can be done until its citizens take radical measures from the bottom up.
You cannot found a morality on commerce. Sorry. Just. Can't. Be. Done. We have not shared a philosophical ideal since LBJ, and it's too late to try to buy one.
I think morality has or should have an effect on everything including the way people do commerce. Or else contracts would be just wet paper. And this can be applied ad infinitum in this realm. Your argument is similar to those who say that states cannot be subjected to the same standards of morality and ethics than ordinary citizens do, and then they extend this twisted theory to politicians. Look where this thinking has taken us. Morality is all encompassing, and there is nothing under the sun that can be excepted.
Using the FISA court as a model is apt since even though it was a rubber stamp kangaroo court, it was considered an affront to Bush and his Imperial war court. Since Obama chose to carry on the Bush tradition and give immunity to criminal lawlessness and the guys in charge of enforcing the law are the same ones saying the President is above any laws and can kill or throw anyone he likes into a concentration camp, its up to Congress to impeach him. Pelosi is a loathsome piece of work for not impeaching Bush and Cheney and the loathsome scum Republicans that failed to enforce the Constitution and demand his impeachment show how screwed we all are.
"He argued that drone strikes aren’t about guilt for past actions but rather are aimed at preventing a future action"
So it's basically the death penalty for pre-crime?
Yeah, in a real world this guy would be scorned for saying anything so vile. "Geez, we don't kill people for things they've done but for things they might do".
Growing up in the sixties during the cold war I used to wonder what it was like living in the USSR. Now I know.
Launch On Warning by 2017.
Missile engineer Bob Aldridge -www.plrc.org-on the missiles in Eastern Europe:"Whether they are on ships or land, they are still a necessary component for an unanswerable first strike." Dr Bob Bowman, Chief DoD "Star Wars" Program:"Missile defense is the missing link to first strike." Professor J. Ed Anderson:"Deployment of anti-missile missiles in Eastern Europe is part of a first-strike strategy." The missiles will be deployed by 2018 and they´ll lead to Launch On Warning by 2017. More info: claus eric/antiwar.com esp. interview with Ray McGovern.
This is the new normal of our thoroughly corrupt government. Instead of punishing unlawful, unconstitutional behavior, the effort is to make the unconstitutional actions of the political leadership seem more palatable.
Somehow this is even WORSE than having cloaked technocrats wiping out suspects in rogue secrecy. A COURT? How about a public defender for the target? Wouldn't be much to say, would there? Should the judge be sober? Why?
Hanging Judge Roy Bean, the only law west of the Pecos and governmental icon.
This country is lost. We are now no better than the Soviets and their vassal states were.
The Beast
It’s very difficult to recognize the beast
for he is usually dressed in a wrap-around flag seemingly righteous shining brightly & quite glorious
he sparkles brilliantly studded with seemingly flawless justice & untarnished virtue, proclaiming protection for the helpless & mercy for one and all
so very honorable & is most humbly pious boasting of his merciful means
good intentions that the complacent churches proclaim as well-blessed
for his glorious constitution is the pinnacle of principles & probity at a master freemason level
Ah, but you see the devil is wrapped in deception for his core is corruption
many names does he go by for he is quite exceptional
numerous laws does he develop for he is above them all
all worship & adore him so he believes is the best that’s ever been
Clichés & simple minded maxims he spews forth aplenty
for he supports the troops as he demands that you do & of course it is a faultless force for good as he wars for peace by total terror
all are in wonder &awe shocked by his militarized magnificence
who can dare stand against him in war or peace
Swollen with pride & self-worship he is quite comfortable with his xenophobic vanity on steroids
above all reproach & criticism none care to complain or subject to rendition
the best before & the greatest that will ever be for he is above all, quite incomparable
who would dare not acknowledge such grandeur or criticize his ever cracking whip
Born of fire but such a noble birth
none have ever seen the like or ever will to match its pinnacle of pride
for this path is golden & soars as an eagle above any & all that's even been or ever will be
carved by the gods into perfection from global girth a whole continent cannot contain this hunger
No stranger to violence, terrorism nor war
a day has not gone by that was absent of the three
the city on the hill calls for peace as it wars against friend & foe alike
e'er with patriotism & nationalism his hubris jingoism
When your the biggest, baddest & bawdiest kid on the block anything goes
who could stand up to you when you will bribe, hector or instill regime change anytime anywhere
Your desire is absolute domination & utter global subjugation
as you swallow your youth by indoctrinated brainwashing & turn them into war hoes to tour the foreign sites with a gun in your hand & elitist ego as your demeanor
Freedom is a eves-dropping cage while bravery is propaganda fear
a totalitarian police state of democracy you've'e built on the sheeple’s back into a plutocracy
a house of cards shaped into a tiger roaring rabid rants of diatribes & rage
but one day coming soon the emperor will be shown to have no clothes…
As the eagle has morphed into a vulture
the united states of sparta is a land of mammonistic locust whose ethos is to consume it all
and though no man is no island i have heard
what was once grandiose and manifested to be destined
is now to perfidy to become Easter island as it then consumes itself…