Saturday, October 1, 2011

United States Murders 2 Citizens Without Trial

Via CBS news

Was al-Awlaki a danger to the United States? Probably.

Was he someone the United States needed to deal with? Probably.

Is execution without trial a dangerous precedent to set? Absolutely.

Realize, this was not Osama. This was an American Citizen. Executed with no due process. "Self-defense" seems to be the justification of this extreme act. I am tempted to agree with that. It sounds right, and will play to the masses, especially after the media spins it. We do need to be tough on terror, right? That is one of the main perceived weaknesses of Liberals, correct?

*sigh*

I understand that the slippery slope is a logical fallacy. But normally, that seems to be due to the slope being taken to the point of absurdity. You don't have to follow the path that far to realize why this is dangerous.

The President of the United States has now claimed the power to execute US citizens without trial, based on classified information, with no checks or balances on this power. The citizen does not need to be on a battlefield. He may be sleeping. He may be playing with his children, eating dinner, anything. This places Obama to the right of George W. Bush, to the right of Antonin Fucking Scalia!

Glenn Greenwald had this to say on April 7th, 2010:

No due process is accorded. No charges or trials are necessary. No evidence is offered, nor any opportunity for him to deny these accusations (which he has done vehemently through his family). None of that.

Instead, in Barack Obama’s America, the way guilt is determined for American citizens — and a death penalty imposed — is that the President, like the King he thinks he is, secretly decrees someone’s guilt as a Terrorist. He then dispatches his aides to run to America’s newspapers — cowardly hiding behind the shield of anonymity which they’re granted — to proclaim that the Guilty One shall be killed on sight because the Leader has decreed him to be a Terrorist. It is simply asserted that Awlaki has converted from a cleric who expresses anti-American views and advocates attacks on American military targets (advocacy which happens to be Constitutionally protected) to Actual Terrorist ”involved in plots.” These newspapers then print this Executive Verdict with no questioning, no opposition, no investigation, no refutation as to its truth. And the punishment is thus decreed: this American citizen will now be murdered by the CIA because Barack Obama has ordered that it be done. What kind of person could possibly justify this or think that this is a legitimate government power?


Full article is HERE

Honestly? This scares the living shit out of me. This is not a power I trust the Government to have. Innocent people are executed in this country with due process. I trust no one with the power to unilaterally decide who lives and who dies.

Can the media please stop claiming Obama is a liberal now? Seriously?

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