What justification does the US government need to kill American citizens?
The Obama Administration has made a habit out of targeting and killing American citizens linked to al-Qaida with drone strikes, but they have never been forthcoming about their legal justification for circumventing the Constitutional right to due process. Now, a shocking memo has leaked which outlines how the White House determines the use of lethal drone strikes – and it’s extremely alarming.
According to the memo “targeting a member of an enemy force who poses an imminent threat of violent attack to the United States is not unlawful. It is a lawful act of self-defense.”
The memo states that a target is determined by “an informed, high-level official of the U.S. government”. The target should be “senior operational leader” of al-Qaida or “associated forces”. They must pose “an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States” and capture of the target must be “infeasible”.
As Stu pointed out on radio, many of the terms in the memo are left open-ended enough to give the Administration significant leeway in identifying and eliminating their targets. In fact, the memo explicitly states that intelligence does not need to indicate they are actively involved in a threat.
“The condition that an operational leader present an ‘imminent’ threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future,” the memo states.
Read the full memo HERE.
-
Anonymous
-
http://www.artinphoenix.com/gallery/grimm snowleopard (cat folk gallery)
-
http://www.artinphoenix.com/gallery/grimm snowleopard (cat folk gallery)
-
http://youtu.be/xm1F7ub00gk Sam Fisher
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BGC7U7QUFEWSSV3H4IFHLAFK54 mudslide
-
Draxx
-
Anonymous
-
http://profile.yahoo.com/IEWOM2ANVKPFNSOHRXR4MN7B3E Doug
-
http://twitter.com/miller17cu94 Chris Miller
-
http://twitter.com/lurker0000 Robo Fink
-
Draxx
-
Anonymous
-
http://www.facebook.com/joel.patti.3 Joel Patti
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
http://profile.yahoo.com/GW6ALM3N2YFTOT6TN3GZGAHQG4 Frank Balcer
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
mspatdev
-
mspatdev
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
Steve Purcell
-
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_X2NAPSXIXUJPOPPGU6CXVFQFLA Snorri Sturluson
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
http://twitter.com/fawnday Dawn Brayton
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
Anonymous
-
http://twitter.com/nutts2020 nutt
-
Anonymous
-
http://www.facebook.com/david.a.perry David A. Perry
-
http://www.facebook.com/david.a.perry David A. Perry
-
Bonnie Somer
-
Anonymous
-
Brave_Pa
-
Anonymous
-
http://www.facebook.com/jon.venuto Jon Rosario Venuto
-
Anonymous
