SANAA, Yemen (AP) — In a significant new blow to al-Qaida, U.S. airstrikes in Yemen on Friday killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American militant cleric who became a prominent figure in the terror network's most dangerous branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits for attacks in the United States.
The strike was the biggest U.S. success in hitting al-Qaida's leadership since the May killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. But it raises questions that other strikes did not: Al-Awlaki was an American citizen who has not been charged with any crime. Civil liberties groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an American without trial.
The 40-year-old al-Awlaki was for years an influential mouthpiece for al-Qaida's ideology of holy war, and his English-language sermons urging attacks on the United States were widely circulated among militants in the West.
But U.S. officials say he moved into a direct operational role in organizing such attacks as he hid alongside al-Qaida militants in the rugged mountains of Yemen. Most notably, they believe he was involved in recruiting and preparing a young Nigerian who on Christmas Day 2009 tried to blow up a U.S. airliner heading to Detroit, failing only because he botched the detonation of explosives sewn into his underpants.
This is what we've come to in America.
Civil liberties groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an American without trial.
Stated as if that's just some sort of hippy whining. That's what 9/11 did to this country. It turned the Constitution into something you wipe your ass with.
Seriously? The idea that every American is entitled to due process is not one that we all agree on?
Really?
Obama - the "progressive" candidate.. or the "Liberal".. just had an American executed abroad without any due process.
And now the news outlets will repeat all of the accusations against al-Awlaki as if they are true because Obama and the rest of the fascists say so. Maybe they are. Maybe not. That's why we have these things called "courts", and "juries", and "evidence". Obama, the "Constitutional scholar" doesn't need any of that antiquated shit.. He can just point at somebody and have them killed... because he says so.
I certainly would like to see other nations launching cruise missiles into the US in order to execute their citizens that might happen to be residing here. I'm sure every other American wouldn't have a problem with that. So what if some other nearby people get killed in the process.
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See here why total bottoms love Obama.
Essentially, Sullivan is making the argument that the "war on terror" is "new" kind of war.. and it is fought with unconventional means. He has no problem with Obama deciding to execute an American citizen abroad. In fact, his first reaction isn't about the lawfulness of the execution, but simply an adoration of Obama as the "commander-in-chief" who seems to do what Bush/Cheney only talked about.
Obama killed Bin Laden.. and now he's killed al-Awlaki. See how effective he is! I want that giant black cock up my ass!!!1
The point I've been trying to make for years is that the vast majority of people in the US think and reason on emotional terms. Most of the current crop of American "intellectuals" twist and turn through emotions when forming an opinion on something. That's how we ended up in Iraq.
Then you have the Greenwald type who consistently apply reason and logic to every situation. Circumstances do not matter to Greenwald. I obviously agree.
What the vast majority of the pundits and American citizens are missing.. is that it's just one person, Obama, who is telling us that this was some bad guy that that needed to be killed. Further - he needed to be killed not because of some terrorist act against the US, but because he spoke, wrote.. communicated.. anti-American ideas and philosophy, including advocating violence. He was executed without any due process for his speech.
Applying that same reasoning, if some Afghan farmer, whose entire family was wiped out by a misplaced Freedom Bomb, came over here and killed the Americans responsible, that would be just fine. It's the same exact thing, but from the other point of view.
And Americans applaud.. and Sullivan's tiny impotent little cock achieves semi-erection at the idea that Obama is so strong and decisive.
This is, by far, the most outrageous criminal act since the invasion of Iraq, and I am completely disgusted by the US government and the US citizenry... neither of which share my values anymore.. if they ever did.
I could simply proclaim that I don't consider myself an American anymore.. but it's everyone else who are not Americans. It's Obama who is anti-American. It is our elected officials in Congress and the Senate that are anti-American for cheering this on.
Obama needs to be impeached and charged with murder. That's not going to happen, because laws do not apply to the President of the United States anymore. They haven't since Bush and Cheney caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings in Iraq, and subsequently imprisoned in CIA black sites other human beings of unknown guilt.. then torturing them, and sometimes murdering them.. all without even caring if it was legal or not. Of course.. it was not legal. Of course, Obama insisted we "look forward, and not backward".. which is not a standard that is applied to any other Americans.
I applaud the economic decline of the US. I hope it deepens and worsens. I know that the last thing the US will ever cut funding for is weapons and the mechanisms of the police state. Social Security will be eliminated before we stop making remote controlled death machines.. but maybe.. maybe if we can completely bankrupt the nation, we'll have no choice but to stop killing so many people in other nations.
I have zero confidence that Americans will demand a return to the rule of law. Heck, we never have followed the rule of law, but we used to pretend we did. Now, we don't even bother.
I want to see the supporters of the Presidents authority to execute Americans be subjected to government punishment without due process of law. I want to see Sullivan deported back to the UK, without any legal justification, simply on the request of some government employee.
I want to see some political pundits executed because they've written columns critical of the Obama presidency.
I want to see American citizens summarily executed for exercising their speech rights. The US Supreme Court has already established that you cannot be criminally prosecuted for speech that advocates for violence against the United States. Seriously, you can write and say anything about "terrorism" in the US. It's perfectly legal. I want to see Obama expand his "kill list" and start executing people at random.
Hopefully not me though.
Oh shit... just had a thought. If I moved to Toronto.. that would put me outside of the United States and thus subject to having a drone missile launched at me by the President just because I said some things he might not like.
Fuck Obama.. put him in jail.. grab Cheney and Bush and jail them also. Life sentences without the possibility of parole for multiple counts of murder.
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The comments on the yahoo news article are exactly as you would expect. Everyone applauds the execution of an American citizen without any legal due process. They are convinced that since he was a muslimy, he is guilty and needs to die.
Here's the part that everyone seems to be missing, including all the media articles on the killing;
Article III Section 3 of the United State Constitution;
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
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Thebigcahuna 41 seconds ago Report Abuse
It was Obama's policy that legalized it. Get your facts straight.
Because the President has the authority to make things legal.. by waving his magic wand, or something..
Jesus christ.. there's a fuck-ton of liberals admiring Obama in the comments of that article, and I'm being accused of being a "fox news teabagger" for criticizing the killing.
What the fuck?
I realize that basing my entire view of America on the viewpoints of a few hundred morons posting on a yahoo news article is not the most awesome idea ever.. but I really do think they represent the larger population of Americans well.
Isn't that great? I guess since Bin Laden was killed, al-Awlaki became #1.. so now who is the new #1 boogey-man that we need to fear? The al-Qaida #2 has been killed at least a dozen times now. I'm not sure who the new #2 is.
Lovely media we have in the US.
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