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Anyway, on May 6th, an American drone tried to kill Anwar al-Alwaki (full story). An American in Yemen. this occurred without the benefit of trial, judicial oversight, evidence or anything approaching legality. Last I heard the United States was still a government run by laws. Obama has no right to be judge and jury and pass the death sentence on an American.
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Furthermore, al-Alwaki hasn't done anything, except speak out against the US. He didn't plan, he inspired. So, you ask, why doesn't someone stand up for him. Well, his father did but... well let me quote here because this is fucking scary for all Americans...
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Mr. Awlaki's father, Nasser al-Awlaki, who contends that his son is not the terrorist the administration portrays him to be, filed a legal challenge to his son's inclusion on a list of people to be killed by American forces or agents without a trial. The lawsuit was dismissed on Dec. 7, 2010 by a federal judge who ruled that al-Awlaki's father does not have the authority to sue to stop the United States from killing his son.
In addition, the judge held that decisions to mount targeted killings overseas are a “political question” for executive officials to make — not judges. In the 83-page opinion, Judge John Bates of the District of Columbia district court acknowledged that the case raised “stark, and perplexing, questions” — including whether the president could “order the assassination of a U.S. citizen without first affording him any form of judicial process whatsoever, based the mere assertion that he is a dangerous member of a terrorist organization.”
.Anyway, I note this because we didn't kill him. The drone did however, kill 2 - 5 bystanders that "may have been" terrorists, albeit it - child terrorists. Here are pictures of Yemeni children.. or as the State Department likes to say, possible child terrorists - or maybe they will grow up to be terrorists - so we are justified in killing them.
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(PS - that was sarcasm - I don't think it is in any form remotely "American" to kill children 1/2 a world away. If a terrorist, who we have declared "war" on, sent a drone to a school yard to kill future troops I would support nuking them. I can only imagine our actions increase odds of terrorism in the future.)
