Nothing to see here.
WASHINGTON — American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions, according to officials.
There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House’s National Security Council, several current and former officials said. Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate.
The panel was behind the decision to add Awlaki, a U.S.-born militant preacher with alleged al Qaeda connections, to the target list. He was killed by a CIA drone strike in Yemen late last month.
The role of the president in ordering or ratifying a decision to target a citizen is fuzzy. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to discuss anything about the process.
The first rule of ‘Kill List’ is that you can’t talk about ‘Kill List.’ No, just kidding. Even MSNBC is investigating it and there are still no ramifications for the extra-constitutional exercise of executive powers. The only rules are don’t get caught fucking interns, always carry your long-form birth certificate, and don’t be photographed playing tennis.
We can talk about this because no one in the wise Establishment really cares about constitutionality in the realm of civil liberties anymore. The only rights we need to preserve are (1) guns (2) not taxing millionares, (3) something about light bulbs, and (4) keeping our debt to GDP ratio lower than during the 80s. also…competitive eating.
As I discussed last week, the voices of civil libertarians have been marginalized even further in the Obama administration. What are they going to do? Elect Romney? hilarious. Now some secret panel is killing American citizens, with no explanation as to protocol or justification.
Just because the Obama administration is way better at exterminating its targets than its predecessor doesn’t make it legal.
Two principal legal theories were advanced, an official said: first, that the actions were permitted by Congress when it authorized the use of military forces against militants in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001; and they are permitted under international law if a country is defending itself.
Ya, sure. We’re just going to throw this shit out there. What are you going to do? Say we shouldn’t defend ourselves?! 9/11 sayswhatnow?
This isn’t about al-Awlaki. The guy was probably an evil asshole. The lesson here is that people don’t trust government, but if a secret government panel is killing american citizens, despite the they may not be indicted for anything, we don’t really care. Especially if they’re brown and bearded. Don’t tread on me!!! But yeah, go ahead and tread over someone from a different tribe. And by tread, I mean kill with a drone strike launched from a Nevada bunker by a minivan-driving father of 3.
Gratuitous World 