Obama did right

[Danno 1,228]

Was Awlaki an American?

By Patrick J. Buchanan

Tuesday - October 4, 2011

Friday morning, Predator drones operated by the CIA and Joint Special Operations Command rendezvoused over Yemen and launched Hellfire missiles that blew to pieces the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

A declared enemy in the war on terror was eliminated.

Yet Awlaki was a U.S. citizen.

Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul denounced the action. Kucinich said President Obama "trampled on the Constitution." Paul said Awlaki had never been convicted. "Nobody knows if he killed anybody." Paul described what was done as "assassinating" an American.

Did we have the right to target and kill Awlaki?

According to U.S. intelligence, Awlaki inspired or incited the Fort Hood massacre and Times Square bomber. Intelligence officials say he played a direct role in the attempt to bring down an airliner over Detroit at Christmas 2009. That would make him an accomplice in attempted mass murder.

Indeed, there is more hard evidence tying Awlaki to acts of terror against the United States than there ever was tying Saddam Hussein to acts of terror against us.

Yet it is also true that Awlaki was never convicted of these crimes. What, then, is the legal case for killing him?

Answer: America is at war with al-Qaida -- a war authorized and funded by Congress. In that war, Awlaki, hiding in a foreign country, has been inspiring and inciting Muslims to massacre U.S. citizens who are noncombatants -- a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. Adds Obama, Awlaki was the "external operations" chief for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

And even if Awlaki were not an operations officer in al-Qaida, only a propagandist, his actions would seem to constitute wartime treason.

When killed, he was traveling with 25-year-old Saudi-born Samir Khan, another American, who edited and wrote Inspire, the English-language magazine of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Khan, who had proclaimed, "I am proud to be a traitor in America," was also killed in the drone attack.

Do we have a right to target enemy propagandists who do not carry out acts of mass murder but encourage or instigate them?

Ezra Pound, the American poet and expatriate who made wartime broadcasts from Mussolini's Italy attacking Jews and FDR, was charged with treason and spent a dozen years in St. Elizabeth's Hospital for the Insane.

Lord Haw-Haw, the American-born William Joyce, who broadcast from Berlin during World War II, was executed by the British, though like Pound, he killed no one. Mildred Gillars, the American-born "Axis Sally," was imprisoned for treason in the United States after World War II.

Ikuko Toguri D'Aquino, the American woman branded "Tokyo Rose," was imprisoned for treasonous radio broadcasts, though later pardoned by President Ford.

Would it have been unconstitutional for the U.S. military to target the radio station broadcasting Tokyo Rose?

Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi ideologist and race theorist, was convicted at Nuremberg and hanged. One does not have to kill in wartime to get the death penalty for war crimes.

Several of the German saboteurs put ashore in Florida and Long Island were U.S. citizens who were tried in secret and executed. Their executions were upheld by the Supreme Court.

As the Obama administration argues, were Japanese-Americans to have been found engaged in support of Japanese forces in wartime, they could have been targeted and killed.

The order to intercept and shoot down the aircraft carrying Adm. Yamamoto, architect of Pearl Harbor, would appear to qualify as wartime assassination. As does Winston Churchill's decision to drop British-trained Czech and Slovak agents into Czechoslovakia to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich.

That assassination produced severe blowback. The Nazis exacted retribution on the Czech village of Lidice, killing all the males over 16 and sending the women and children to concentration camps.

But the controversy over the Awlaki-Khan killings raises real issues.

The lack of a declaration of war prevents us from charging such individuals with treason, which, under the Constitution, "shall consist only in levying War against" the United States "or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."

The issue of dual citizenship also arises. Awlaki was a citizen of the United States, having been born here. But he was also a citizen of Yemen. What was his nationality: American or Yemeni? Was he really one of us?

In the Oath of Allegiance to the United States, the new citizen pledges, "I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen."

Did not Awlaki's leadership of al-Qaida contradict any allegiance? Obama did the right thing, but we need clarity in this new kind of war.

Having struck al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, where else is it permissible to use drones to kill enemies?

If American propagandists for al-Qaida are legitimate targets, who else is? Sympathizers? And for how long can we launch such attacks?

A decent respect for the opinion of mankind would seem to require answers.

SOURCE: http://buchanan.org/blog/was-awlaki-an-american-4885

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

He was served justice by Judge Drone.

Meet Judge Drone!

[dalegg 143]

This is one of those events where Ron Paul gets himself into trouble. There's a lot of red meat you can throw at the Republican electorate to get them angry about Obama, but questioning the killing of a wanted Terrorist is not one of them. In a way it's commendable that he speaks on priciple and tries to stay consistent, but it's not getting him any popularity.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

This is one of those events where Ron Paul gets himself into trouble. There's a lot of red meat you can throw at the Republican electorate to get them angry about Obama, but questioning the killing of a wanted Terrorist is not one of them. In a way it's commendable that he speaks on priciple and tries to stay consistent, but it's not getting him any popularity.

I agree, but when ####### Cheney and Pat Buchanan are defending the Constitutionality of the method based on the result, along with all the rest of the right wing nutjobs and weekend warriors, that should make any right-thinking American very nervous.

[Dan and Judy 614]

Maybe Obama can run as a Republican next term. Then we can throw out the democrates and keep the best terrorist killer this side of the pecos.

Edited October 5, 2011 by Dan and Judy

[luckytxn 2,265]

What Obama the Socialist did was become Judge, Jury and Executioner of an American citizen. Slippery slope here and looks like no one can see it.

[scandal 951]

Slippery slope here and looks like no one can see it.

Please show us the way, oh wise one. You alone know the way.

[Danno 1,228]

What Obama the Socialist did was become Judge, Jury and Executioner of an American citizen. Slippery slope here and looks like no one can see it.

A slippery slope implies a ever growing trend moving in one direction.

When Obama starts targeting Citizens on vacation who failed to have voted for him, let me know, as it is we have two people who were traitors to their country and working to harm it.

Traitors are worse than the enemy and if they can't be conveniently picked up and charged, they should be targeted and killed if their actions justify it.

The People elected Barack Obama as Commander in Chief .....in my book, in times of war, thats a good enough "check and balance".

If we can't trust our president to make these decisions when we have troops in combat, we might as well throw in the towel because there is no fool-proof system of Government which will protect us from rouge a Presidents whose hobby it is to find reasons to Kill citizens.

Someone name for me the president in living memory who they think would target citizens on foreign soil without ample evidence of guilt?

[sandinista! 1,816]

If we should trust Obama so fully to make those kinds of decisions, why all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over health care reform? He can decide who lives or dies, but heaven forbid he should make anyone be insured.

[Dan and Judy 614]

One could argue that we started down the slippery slope with the patriot act and attacking Iraq. Taking prisoners and keeping them in gitmo was a public relations fiasco.

Then we ended up letting em go so they could attack again. Once you buy that we are at war, this guy was just another enemy combatant.

[Danno 1,228]

If we should trust Obama so fully to make those kinds of decisions, why all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over health care reform? He can decide who lives or dies, but heaven forbid he should make anyone be insured.

Thats because according to the Constitution he is Commander in Chief .... Not Surgeon in chief.

The Constitution aside, there is no compelling reason Legislation concerning the Governance of the country should not be slow and deliberate, while execution of an ongoing military conflict has an entirely different nature.

I believe in Posting traffic lights in places where accidents are a problem.... so far I have seen no evidence any president has misused his powers in this regard.

[scandal 951]

One could argue that we started down the slippery slope with the patriot act and attacking Iraq. Taking prisoners and keeping them in gitmo was a public relations fiasco.

Then we ended up letting em go so they could attack again. Once you buy that we are at war, this guy was just another enemy combatant.

Oh, the slippery slope started long, long before that.

The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 was one of the first laws we passed when our Constitution was barely even out of diapers. We've gotten pretty good at breaking our own rules as we go along .....

[Dan and Judy 614]

Oh, the slippery slope started long, long before that.

The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 was one of the first laws we passed when our Constitution was barely even out of diapers. We've gotten pretty good at breaking our own rules as we go along .....

200 years of sliding, No wonder my #### is sore

I don't know why thy put 4 marks up there. there are only 3 letters in that word and the first letter is a the second letter is s and the third letter is #####

Edited October 5, 2011 by Dan and Judy

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Oh, the slippery slope started long, long before that.

The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 was one of the first laws we passed when our Constitution was barely even out of diapers. We've gotten pretty good at breaking our own rules as we go along .....

[luckytxn 2,265]

Even traitors get their day in court.......in the past anyway.