Thursday, October 13, 2011
Last week you will recall, American-born Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim
cleric hiding in Yemen, had his U.S. citizenship permanently revoked by a
CIA drone strike. But had Awlaki been accorded due process as guaranteed
by the Constitution? War is due process, I wrote. Bad mistake! We are
not at war with Yemen. Angry readers, many of them old friends, objected
to what they saw as my support for an illegal action of the administration,
and threatened to unsubscribe to WN. Its not like I get paid to do this,
but they were right. A part of me had enjoyed too much the adrenalin rush
that comes when your team scores a goal, even if its against an inferior
opponent. Awlaki was an instigator not a fighter; his offences were
deplorable and illegal, but not capital. To me the most troubling aspect
of the whole affair was how good the U.S. is at this assassin stuff.
Satellite images tracked the target. A drone waited for the order to launch
its missile. It was not just a lucky shot. We have the power to take out
anyone on Earth. I hope we dont. But if we do, would someone please take
a look at my list?
We are told that a Justice Department memorandum, drawn up by a couple of
Justice Department lawyers following months of interagency deliberations,
sanctioned the Awlaki hit in spite of an executive order banning
assassinations, a federal law against murder, protection under the Bill of
Rights, and numerous international agreements. Charlie Savage, writing in
the NY Times, says the legal debate led to one of the most significant
decisions made by President Obama - to move ahead with the killing of an
American citizen without a trial. Then why is the memorandum classified as
secret? This is bull shit the Presidents decision led to the memo, not
the other way around.
Two years ago on board a Northwest Airlines flight en route to Detroit,
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to detonate plastic
explosives hidden in his underwear. The flight from Amsterdam was just
moments from landing when Abdulmutallab tried to detonate the bomb in his
pants. It failed to go off, but his pants caught fire. Passengers jumped
him when they saw smoke and flames. At a hospital after landing
Abdulmutallab was treated for burns to his uh, groin. Yesterday, in a
Federal Court in Detroit, Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty in the attempted
murder of 289 fellow passengers. He said he targeted the U.S.-bound flight
at the urging of Anwar al-Awlaki. The episode will no doubt be
immortalized in a new volume of the brilliant Darwin Awards, created by
Wendy Northcutt, that commemorates individuals who improve our gene pool
by removing themselves from it, or in this case, removes their gene-
delivery device, from it.
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