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FIFTH COLUMN: ACLU sues over 'Targeted Killings'
Socialist-Front Civil-liberties groups filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the legality of the Obama administration's expansion of the U.S. fight against al Qaeda terrorists beyond Pakistan and Afghanistan.
| Because fighting terrorists before they blow up stuff in America is ucky ... |
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights are taking aim at what the government calls its "targeted killing" program, which mostly uses Central Intelligence Agency-operated drones against suspected terrorists.
| The CCR is, if anything, worse than the ACLU in their dislike of all things right and good with America. |
The lawsuit was filed in federal court for the District of Columbia on behalf of the father of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Islamic cleric of Yemeni descent, who is believed to be targeted for extra-judicial killing for his alleged involvement in terror plots against the U.S.
Maybe Daddy should tell Sonny to come in and answer a few questions...
| The weakness in the Obama case is that Bambi hasn't publicly declared Anwar to be a traitor. If we did that and stripped him of his citizenship then he'd be fair game, and international law wouldn't protect him in any way. But Bambi doesn't want to appear to be forceful. |
| Declaring a traitor is easy, since Mr. Al-Awlaki is a natural-born American citizen. Stripping him of that citizenship raises constitutional issues not present for those who were mistakenly naturalized. And while the issue of tourism babies is overdue to be addressed, this administration is not the one to do it. |
The administration hasn't publicly described its deliberations about Mr. Awlaki's fate, nor how it uses the secret drone program against suspected terrorists.
Mr. Awlaki is believed to be skulking about hiding in Yemen, which is far from the battlefield in Pakistan and Afghanistan,
| But right in the middle of the Arabian battlefield, oddly enough. We aren't heavily involved there, at the moment, but it's important not to be parochial about the war against the Caliphatists. |
where al Qaeda launched the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. In recent months, U.S. officials have been weighing expanded attacks on the al Qaeda-affiliated groups Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia's al Shabaab, The Wall Street Journal reported recently. The U.S. military previously has launched operations in that region.
| The simple point is, wherever the terrorists go, that's where we go ... |
The expansion would exceed the legal limits of the program, the civil-liberties groups say. Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, said "Yemen is not Afghanistan or Iraq. The legal limits on the authority they claim hasn't been specified."
It's called taking the war to the enemy, irrespective of what map grid he's hiding in.
| The legal limits can be fixed with a presidential order ... |
Vincent Warren, executive director of the CCR said: "The government chose Awlaki and put him on the targeted killing list. The government has to show he is an imminent threat to the U.S. in order to justify him being killed like this."
| He wants stuff in our country blowed up. I think that counts ... |
| The man coached Major Nidal Malik Hasan of Ft. Hood fame, and the Pantibomber. I think he has passed beyond the imminent threat stage. |
In June, CIA Director Leon Panetta was asked on ABC News's "This Week" program whether Mr. Awlaki was targeted for assassination.
"Awlaki is a terrorist and yes, he's a U.S. citizen, but he is first and foremost a terrorist and we're going to treat him like a terrorist," Mr. Panetta said. "We don't have an assassination list, but I can tell you this: We have a terrorist list and he's on it."
| Attaboy, Leon, I always figured that you had a spine, even though you're a Democrat. Nice to see that we have at least one adult in the Bambi administration. |
Posted by: Free Radical 2010-08-31 |
