Obama Administration Justifies Targeted Killings

[YankeeFan]

I guess John Yoo wasn't available.

The Obama administration on Monday plans to outline how U.S. laws empower the government to kill Americans overseas who engage in terrorism against their home country, a source familiar with the matter said, months after a drone strike killed a U.S.-born cleric who plotted attacks from Yemen.

Civil liberties groups have been pressuring the administration to offer justification for what has been described as a top-secret "targeted kill" program in which Americans who have joined al Qaeda or other militants are deemed legitimate targets to be killed overseas.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder plans to address the issue and the underpinning legal principles for using lethal force during remarks at Northwestern University School of Law on Monday afternoon in Chicago, the source said Sunday on condition of anonymity.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-security-americanstre824024-20120304,0,3506684.story

 

[Armchair_QB]

So Barack was against it before he was in favor of it?

 

[Starman]

And of course if he ordered it to stop: "Appeaser, weak on terrorism, candy-ass."

 

[Azrael]

I guess John Yoo wasn't available.

Do you think this administration's arguments won't be based on precedents set by the previous administration?

 

[Armchair_QB]

Yeah but the Democrats said it was illegal when Bush did it. Is this more of the "change" we heard about in 2008?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Yeah but the Democrats said it was illegal when Bush did it. Is this more of the "change" we heard about in 2008?

You're catching on.

 

[micropolitan guy]

No, I think the change is terrorists such as bin Laden who pose a threat to our nation, and who have attacked US military and civilian targets, are actually effectively being hunted down and eliminated.

 

[LongTimeListener]

"They shouldn't have hunted Osama so aggressively" does not strike me as a great tactic for the GOP to make hay in an election year. But they are free to try.

 

[Armchair_QB]

I hope they keep it up but the hypocrisy is breath-taking. I just hope they didn't water board anybody...

And I guess all the terrorists killed during the previous administration don't count?

 

[Azrael]

A lot of us said it was illegal then and say it's illegal now. I'd be more inclined to listen to partisan gloating if Republicans hadn't worked so hard to justify torture and assassination last go 'round.

 

[Armchair_QB]

A lot of us said it was illegal then and say it's illegal now. I'd more inclined to listen to partisan gloating if Republicans hadn't worked so hard to justify torture and assassination last go 'round.

In their defense it sure has made things easier for Obama.

 

[Azrael]

Funny to see them all elbowing one another out of the way to fall into step behind the ACLU.

 

[Boom_70]

I guess John Yoo wasn't available.

Do you think this administration's arguments won't be based on precedents set by the previous administration?

No - name an American citizen that Bush targeted?

 

[king cranium maximus IV]

So:

The right ignores this wholesale because Obama = Weak On Terra, and that's just the way it's gotta be. Either that, or they bring it up because nyah nyah, libs are hypocrites because they aren't protesting.

The left ignores this because, well, Obama's the best thing we've got, and rather him bending the rules than President Romney.

And the loudest quasi-kinda-sorta-lefty-libertarian voices against this are those who align themselves with a racist old kook or the Koch Bros. or both.

Meanwhile, the Bush Administration's expansion of executive power gets closer and closer to being codified.

USA! USA!

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

I guess John Yoo wasn't available.

Do you think this administration's arguments won't be based on precedents set by the previous administration?

No - name an American citizen that Bush targeted?

Valerie Plame.

 

[Boom_70]

I'm a bit confused. Was The Patriot Act an Executive Order or legislative act?

 

[Boom_70]

I guess John Yoo wasn't available.

Do you think this administration's arguments won't be based on precedents set by the previous administration?

No - name an American citizen that Bush targeted?

Valerie Plame.

Sorry I stand corrected. I forgot that she was killed in drone strike.

 

[YGBFKM]

This country's ****ed.

 

[Azrael]

No

We'll see.

 

[Ace]

Has there ever been an administration that didn't take out "unfriendlies?"