Marked Imam Tests Lawn-Chair Constitutionalists

[Cold Highway]

The American Civil Liberties Union has said no, and is now suing the government, challenging its authority to target “individuals for execution who are suspected of terrorism but have not been convicted or even charged – without oversight, judicial process or disclosed standards for placement on kill lists.” Specifically, it questions whether the Obama Administration can legally execute Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen and Imam, now hiding out in Yemen, without charge, trial or conviction.

The lawsuit also points out, quite rightly, that the government has yet to disclose any evidence that al-Awlaki, 39, is an imminent national security threat nor “the standards it uses for authorizing the premeditated and deliberate killing of U.S. citizens located far from any battlefield.”

This is a serious issue that that challenges the resolve and integrity of groups and individuals who profess to defend the Constitution. While it is fairly easy to rail against government-run health care and federal meddling in the auto industry, it is quite another to defend the constitutional rights of a man who has been accused of influencing not one but at least three domestic terror suspects, and has ties, however tenuous and circumstantial, to the 9/11 hijackers.

As it seems, liberties only matter when your team is out of power.

Marked Imam Tests Lawn-Chair Constitutionalists by Kelley B. Vlahos -- Antiwar.com

 

[TacticalEvilDan]

As it seems, liberties only matter when your team is out of power.

Yep, a fact which both sides have in common.

I objected to this when the story first came out, and I still object to it. The government shouldn't be in the business of executing people beyond its jurisdiction and beyond the scope of a battlefield.