The mere realization that we are having this discussion reminds me that the anti-war candidate Obama and the pro-war president Obama share little more than the ability to speak with eloquence.Attorney General Eric Holder announced at Northwestern University law school that the U.S. can assassinate U.S. citizens without any without disclosure of why they are even alleged to be baddies and without any review of any nature whatsoever by any judge, Congress or the American people.
Northwestern University's law school professor Joseph Margulies said:
I defy anyone to read [Holder's] speech and show any differences between Obama and Bush on these issues, They both say we are in a war not confined to particular battlefield. … Both say we can target citizens without judicial oversight and that can happen anywhere in the world.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.Columbia law school professor Scott Horton notes that this assassination strategy was created by Dick Cheney, and is being carried out by the Obama administration:
A lot of this seems to have been put in place under the tutelage of Dick Cheney. So here we see one of Dick Cheney's ideas being ratified by Barack Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder.
Who would have seen a president with more experience as a lawyer being complicit in this sort of undermining of liberty? Me, I did. A Chicago lawyer would only be marginally better than a Federal Reserve chairman in the oval office...(Obama is also implementing Cheney and the boys' plans for war in the Middle East and North Africa.)
Top constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley slams the Democratic Party for its complicity:
The choice of a law school was a curious place for discussion of authoritarian powers. Obama has replaced the constitutional protections afforded to citizens with a "trust me" pledge that Holder repeated.
Hipocrits in government? Say it ain't so!Senior administration officials have asserted that the president may kill an American anywhere and anytime, including in the United States. Holder's speech does not materially limit that claimed authority. He merely assures citizens that Obama will only kill those of us he finds abroad and a significant threat. Notably, Holder added, "Our legal authority is not limited to the battlefields in Afghanistan."
The Obama administration continues to stonewall efforts to get it to acknowledge the existence of a memo authorizing the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki. Democrats previously demanded the "torture memos" of the Bush administration that revealed both poor legal analysis by Judge Jay Bybee and Professor John Yoo to justify torture. Now, however, Democrats are largely silent in the face of a president claiming the right to unilaterally kill citizens.
So, does that mean that our Constitutional rights to due process will be observed when Americans become the focus of the Obama death squads? Does our future have a place for Judge Dredd?Holder became particularly cryptic in his assurance of caution in the use of this power, insisting that they will kill citizens only with "the consent of the nation involved or after a determination that the nation is unable or unwilling to deal effectively with a threat to the United States." What on earth does that mean?
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