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Subscribe to RSSThe U.S. government is legally justified in killing its own citizens overseas if they are involved in plotting terror attacks against America, Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday, offering the Obama administration's most detailed explanation so far of its controversial targeted killing program.
"In this hour of danger, we simply cannot afford to wait until deadly plans are carried out, and we will not," he said in remarks prepared for a speech at Northwestern University's law school in Chicago.
An American-born Islamic cleric, Anwar al Awlaki, was killed in a U.S. drone attack in Yemen in late September. Some civil liberties groups condemned the attack. Others, including members of Congress, called for a more complete explanation of how such a targeted killing of an American civilian was consistent with the U.S. Constitution.
The Fifth Amendment provides that no one can be "deprived of life" without due process of law. But that due process, Holder said, doesn't necessarily come from a court.
"Due process and judicial process are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process," the attorney general said.
Holder said a U.S. citizen can legally be targeted in a foreign country if that person is "a senior leader of al-Qaida or associated forces," and is actively involved in planning to kill Americans. Killing would be justified if the person poses an imminent threat of a violent attack against the U.S. and cannot easily be captured.
Any military operation targeting a citizen overseas must be carried out consistent with the law of war. "The principle of humanity requires us to use weapons that will not inflict unnecessary suffering," he said.
The ACLU called Holder's explanation "a defense of the government’s chillingly broad claimed authority to conduct targeted killings of civilians, including American citizens, far from any battlefield without judicial review or public scrutiny."
"Few things are as dangerous to American liberty as the proposition that the government should be able to kill citizens anywhere in the world on the basis of legal standards and evidence that are never submitted to a court, either before or after the fact," said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project.
"Anyone willing to trust President Obama with the power to secretly declare an American citizen an enemy of the state and order his extrajudicial killing should ask whether they would be willing to trust the next president with that dangerous power,” she said.
The ACLU is suing the Obama administration, seeking to have documents regarding the targeted killing program made public.
Holder said it makes no legal difference that a U.S. citizen is targeted away from a traditional battlefield. "We are at war with a stateless enemy," he said.
While the U.S.-born cleric, Anwar al Awlaki, was at first believed to be merely an English speaking propagandist for the Yemen based group known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, U.S. officials say he gradually assumed an operational role in the terror group.
According to federal prosecutors, Umar Abdul Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber, told FBI interrogators that al Awlaki was deeply involved in planning his attempted bombing of a Detroit bound passenger jet on Christmas day in 2009.
Holder said Abdulmutallab told the FBI of "al Awlaki's specific instructions to wait until the airplane was over the United States before detonating the bomb."
The attorney general told the law students that the government is under no legal obligation to delay a targeted killing operation until a terrorist plotter is in the process of carrying out an actual attack.
"The Constitution does not require the president to delay action until some theoretical end stage of planning, when the precise time, place, and manner of an attack become clear," he said.
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Hmmmm...maybe the heart attack dart is in order for some of these folks (terrorists)...Just sayin...
Holder is right, on killing them before they kill you, but Holder can't be trusted, with that much power, Hitler used same tactic to rid none comforments to his way of thinking.
If you ask me, our government is acting as a terrorist organization in it's own right. The CIA running drone strikes, nightly raids in Afghanistan, black projects and bases with zero accountability. So what rights do we the people have when our leaders are power drunk and think we have the right and responsibility to dictate to the world how it should be run? NONE. I can sum it all up with one saying; those who live by the sword, die by the sword.
Bingo Boon!
Duh, Eric, ya think?
It's all OK, they got are back!
Fat,
"Our", not "are".
Anwar al Awlaki was wanted dead or alive anyways at the time so who cares. I’d think all Countries are allowed to kill or capture a wanted person if warranted. The problem is if they got it wrong and killed the wrong person. Like the guy in the Egypt airport last week. If he had been killed then that would have been a big failure because it was not him. The problem is that it sounds just as easy to capture someone so why kill them. The new thing is that now a drone will be the eyes and hands and they can’t detain or arrest someone. A drones only option is to follow them or kill them. It used to be that a person was there and now it is a drone at times. If a person had been where Anwar al Awlaki was he might not have been killed. There could have been a car chase and an arrest. The U.S. isn’t going to kill someone unless they cant avoid to. People should realize that normally people will not be shot by cops and drones. Using deadly force is a problem when you misidentify someone or use wrong judgment in a situation and so your taught to evaluate the scene and make the right choice.
Soon we'll be just like Lybia and Syria, regular people will revolt and the Holders and Obama's will be killing us as "enemies of the state". Be careful what you wish for folks
Yeah, right. I think your Mom is calling you from upstairs.
Wow, what a mature comment.
If somebody is pointing a machine gun at you you take them out. If someone is advocating it, track them down, arrest them and take them to trial. It's not that hard to figure out.
And if somebody is part of an organization that killed thousands or your citizens?
Your answer?
And if somebody is innocent and thought to be an enemy in one way or another of this Gestapo Government and speaks out and are killed just because?Your answer?Think it can't happen?It's happened already!
Becareful who you think are the terrorists Sir or Madam
Allegedly...........killed 2979 of your fellow citizens. You never bothered to demand the PROOF of that ALLEGATION. If he's a citizen, we need to capture, arrest, indict, take trial, convict, sentence, and allow an appeal of the conviction. That is DUE PROCESS. Holder is wrong to allege otherwise. Just as he is wrong to disallow an investigation which will prove or disprove who carried out 9/11/2001. We are living in the "matrix" of rigged results people.
There still exists NO PROOF that the Muslims were even flying the planes on 9/11. Manufactured evidence, maybe, but certainly nothing approaching PROOF.
Paul 4 or 5 witnesses were murdered during the 9/11 incident. They had something to say and all died mysteriously either by so called suicide or a car accident.Nobody ever bothered to question that either.
I'm willing to bet these people had proof, but before they could ever get it out there, they miraculously died.
Logical Voice - Track them down, give them a fair trial in a court of law and if guilty give them the firing squad. Okay?
I love the way the left (except the ACLU) agrees with this now that Holder is AG.
We never had to take a position with Bush Cheney: they never got any terrorists (only held hands with one)
bernie: this lifelong leftie absolutely does NOT agree with it.
I'm not that much for supporting a terrorist. Be it a American or a dude from out of space. War is hell, not something nice. Being nice to a terrorist during a war, can get you killed. We have lost enough soldiers from these terrorist. Alot of innocent people have been blown up by these terrorist. I'm 100% for America's laws and 100% against terrorist laws. You can support the American terrorist, but I can't. I'm for the safety of our military soldiers. We draw up a million rules from the states on military rules. You need to fight in a war, before you can realize it's a different world. I remember my first week in Vietnam. This lady from Oklahoma City directed me on getting in my jeep and drive out in the jungle and get the hours on an engine. I briefed her that it was infected with Vietgong. She read the manuel, saying it was my job to physically check it out. Did I go?(Not really-just added an hour to it.)
"Few things are as dangerous..." Yes that's right but American born leaders of terrorist groups are part of that "few".
Do the Republicans want to read them a bedtime story first?
Good - they should permit it here in the U.S. too! Maybe the military will implement that policy to take out all those crazy nuts like Timothy McVeigh, and all those extreme right wing terrorist?
Republicans love giving Gov't all that power anyhow.
We Can Do it!... Were you deprived of attention as a child? Seems that from this angle!Must you post your one sided opinions 3-6 times.Go see mommie,she has a nipple for you!
This is chilling--the AG goes through contortions to justify a clear violation of the Constitution. And if there were another terrorist attack, more of our Constitutional rights would be violated. It's a sad commentary on America.
OK, the implications of this ruling are chilling to be sure. However, can someone explain to me exactly what's wrong with taking out someone like Anwar Al Awlaki? One seldom sees a less ambiguous case.
While some of you have a point, what I'm gathering is that most of you care more about the welfare of our enemies than you do about the safety and security of U.S. citizens. This is a real War with mortal enemies and lots of innocent casualties people! I bet you'd feel differently if you lost family on 911 or over Lockerbie.
There is a wise old proverb: A Liberal is a Conservative who hasn't been the victim of a terrorist attack yet...
If one seldom sees a less ambiguous case, then put him on trial in absentia first. What's the problem with that?? You afraid you can't convict him?
You can only be a traitor if you are tried and convicted of treason. The Constitution protects everyone from being indescriminently labeled as a traitor without due process of the law.....except where made exclusionary by The Patriot Act.
Wow, Holder must've gotten his testosterone shot on Friday. He can't even say the words "Islam" and "terrorist" in the same sentence.
Furthermore, crybabies, this is a military matter, not a legal matter, regardless of whether the legal weenies have seized it as their own. That is, if a terrorist has his finger on the bomb and you, your family, your friends are about to be blown to pieces, tell me you want to call a f*cking attorney!? Well, guess what ... that's the situation we're in. But, it's nice to see Holder actually grow a couple for a change. Well, maybe one.
This is the most lawless admin ive ever seen in my lifetime!! Treasonous bunch in dc controlling everything ! they need removed. The US can now declare anyone a terrorist and deny them due process <<< Is this freedom?
You haven't lived very long - obviously you missed the previous admin. Of course reading is fundemental - they get due process - they are denied judicial process - which is fine because the victims of terrorists don't get either.
You cannot deny American citizens judicial process and still uphold your vow and oath to uphold and defend the US Constitution. To claim that you can, is Orwellian and Kafkaesque at the same time. You can't defend the country by tearing its foundational document apart. If you do this, you turn our country into two separate camps, the Constitutional and the UNconstitutional. Obama needs to address this in his second term.
logical why is it that you alway bring up the other admistration buddy this is obamas not bushs stop blamming bush please wake up...
Well, now that Holder has decided it is ok to kill Americans if "they" label said Americans as terrorists,
It is only a matter of time before they start deciding which of their political opponents is a "terrorist".
It is like...history repeating itself over and over. The nature of insanity is you keep doing the same stupid thing over and over again expecting a different result...such as turning a country into a socialist state.
So...how many bodies is it going to take?