Sen. Rand
Paul says there must be a review process before a president can authorize drone
strikes on U.S. citizens.
“It’s very
unseemly that a politician gets to decide the death of an American citizen," the
Kentucky Republican said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "They should
answer about this 16-year-old boy, al-Awlaki’s son, that was killed, not in
collateral damage but in a separate strike. They never answered that. I think
you should be tried for treason if you’re an American citizen, you go overseas
and you take up arms. I’m probably for executing you but I want to hear the
evidence.”
Paul said he
won't vote to confirm John Brennan as CIA director until Brennan clarifies his
answer about whether U.S. citizens can legally be killed by drone strikes within
the United States.
“The president,
a politician, Republican or Democrat, should never get to decide someone’s death
by flipping through some flash cards and saying, ‘You want to kill him? Yeah,
let’s go ahead and kill him,'" Paul said. Politico
A confidential
Justice Department memo concluded that the U.S. government can order the killing
of American citizens if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders” of
al-Qaeda or “an associated force” -- even if there is no intelligence indicating
they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S. NBC News Al-Awaki's
killing drew pronounced criticism from civil libertarian groups, who argued his
constitutional rights to due process had been violated. In 2010, al-Awlaki's
father — with assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union — attempted to
sue the United States government after his son was placed on the CIA's targeted
kill list. The White House invoked state secrets privilege to have that case
dismissed from courts. The Hill The lawsuit also sought to compel the
government to disclose the guidelines under which a U.S. citizen would be put on
a kill list. While the memo revealed does not outline the criteria under which a
senior American official can declare a citizen to be an imminent threat, it does
illuminate the process under which the Justice Department believes a lethal
strike could be constitutionally justified. The Hill Meanwhile, U.S.
senators are reportedly considering an idea to create a secret “assassination
court” on the model of the FISA courts that rubber-stamp wiretapping, only this
court would be charged with deciding if “suspects” can be assassinated by U.S.
drone strikes. Antiwar White House
Press Secretary Jay Carney earlier called the strikes "legal, ethical and wise,"
and said that they were constitutionally sound. Huffington
Post Carney told
reporters that the Obama administration will not be releasing any more
information about the controversial use of drones to kill American citizens. The
Daily Caller
AGB/HJ
- Latest News
- Top Hits