Anwar al-Awlaki targeted for assassination by CIA

[Cain]

There is a marked difference between CIA case officers offing people, CIA station chiefs ordering case officers to kill people and the President of the United States declaring it's perfectly OK for him to have people executed because he said so.  The former are crimes, whereas the latter is now apparently perfectly legal and absolutely nothing to worry about.

Even The National Review, who backed Bush to the hilt over all matters related to the war on terror, think Obama is nuts for doing this, and criticizing him from the left:

Surely there has to be some operational constraint on the executive when it comes to the killing of U.S. citizens. . . . Odious as Awlaki is, this seems to me to be setting an awful and reckless precedent.

So, should be fun once Palin gets her hands on this little executive privilege, right?

[LMNO]

Heh.

                                                       WHEN THE PRESIDENT DOES IT, IT'S NOT ILLEGAL!
                                                                                       \

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Pffft, silly people and your rule of law... what means this 'rule of law'? Do you say that before now we waged war legally? That we dotted our I's and crossed our T's and somehow we have only recently started whacking people for fun and profit? The rule of law doesn't exist for the leaders, thats for the hoi polli, just as it has been in every nation.

Silly people, rule of law...  

[Cain]

While your cynicism is amusing Rat, it does seem to be blinding you to some pertinent facts here, namely the legalization of assassination.  In the past, shit like this had to at least be kept quiet and, if the would-be assassins screwed up (and they would, since they were almost always CIA) then there could be legal repurcussions.  Which is why it was used sparingly and with inbetweens, who would act as fall men for the people actually ordering the hit.  Also, because of these issues, it actually was often deployed against targets which actually mattered.

However, now it has been declared and asserted that executive assassination is a legal tool, which will massively expand its use as a tactic, precisely because it no longer needs to be used sparingly and under conditions of secrecy.  The Preznit can just go on air and say "lets whack this guy" and it's on.  And like a kid with a new toy, you can bet it'll soon be advocated as a solution to nearly every problem, regardless of actual effectiveness or need.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

While your cynicism is amusing Rat, it does seem to be blinding you to some pertinent facts here, namely the legalization of assassination.  In the past, shit like this had to at least be kept quiet and, if the would-be assassins screwed up (and they would, since they were almost always CIA) then there could be legal repercussions.  Which is why it was used sparingly and with inbetweens, who would act as fall men for the people actually ordering the hit.  Also, because of these issues, it actually was often deployed against targets which actually mattered.

However, now it has been declared and asserted that executive assassination is a legal tool, which will massively expand its use as a tactic, precisely because it no longer needs to be used sparingly and under conditions of secrecy.  The Preznit can just go on air and say "lets whack this guy" and it's on.  And like a kid with a new toy, you can bet it'll soon be advocated as a solution to nearly every problem, regardless of actual effectiveness or need.

I do understand that Cain. I am simply unsurprised... I'm sure we used to secretly wiretap people too... and secretly held people without charges... and well secretly did a lot of bad, no-good stuff.

So we laugh or cry, cause they got all the guns, flamethrowers and drones... so fighting it is a losing proposition.

[Da6s]

I'd be more understanding if this guy weren't living in yemen at the same time the yemen government wants him taken out.

Just seems like the media's blowing it out of proportion. Not that they ever do that.

And the government always tells us the truth, and can be trusted with the ability to kill anyone they want, whenever they want, when "terrorism" is involved.

This topic will arise again, i've no doubt. And i imagine it'll be a lot closer to home. I'll save my rabble rabble rabble for when it does.

The CIA's had a list of "people it's ok to cap" since the cold war. This one just happens to be some guy that was born in the lower 48.

You're okay with this?  For real?

Not really. But it was the only topic i could have possibly had any fun with last night.

Too bad it didn't pick up then.