[Peace-discuss] Obama orders execution of an American

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Who gave Obama the right to decide that an American citizen should be killed? 
Or anyone, for that matter.  Even the deeply conservative authors of the 
Constitution would be amazed at the suggestion that the president could order 
executions, which even the British monarch couldn't do. Why doesn't this 
justify, e.g., Castro's ordering the assassination of John Kennedy, who did far 
more damage to Cuba than Alawlaki ever did to the US? How many other 
assassinations - of Americans or others - has Obama ordered? --CGE]

	# The New York Times
	April 6, 2010
	U.S. Approves Targeted Killing of American Cleric
	By SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of 
authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim 
cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks 
on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and 
counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.

Mr. Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico and spent years in the United States as 
an imam, is in hiding in Yemen. He has been the focus of intense scrutiny since 
he was linked to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of 
killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., in November, and then to Umar Farouk 
Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound 
airliner on Dec. 25.

American counterterrorism officials say Mr. Awlaki is an operative of Al Qaeda 
in the Arabian Peninsula, the affiliate of the terror network in Yemen and Saudi 
Arabia. They say they believe that he has become a recruiter for the terrorist 
network, feeding prospects into plots aimed at the United States and at 
Americans abroad, the officials said.

It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for 
targeted killing, officials said. A former senior legal official in the 
administration of George W. Bush said he did not know of any American who was 
approved for targeted killing under the former president.

But the director of national intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, told a House hearing 
in February that such a step was possible. “We take direct actions against 
terrorists in the intelligence community,” he said. “If we think that direct 
action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that.” 
He did not name Mr. Awlaki as a target.

The step taken against Mr. Awlaki, which occurred earlier this year, is a vivid 
illustration of his rise to prominence in the constellation of terrorist 
leaders. But his popularity as a cleric, whose lectures on Islamic scripture 
have a large following among English-speaking Muslims, means any action against 
him could rebound against the United States in the larger ideological campaign 
against Al Qaeda.

The possibility that Mr. Awlaki might be added to the target list was reported 
by The Los Angeles Times in January, and Reuters reported on Tuesday that he was 
approved for capture or killing.

“The danger Awlaki poses to this country is no longer confined to words,” said 
an American official, who like other current and former officials interviewed 
for this article spoke of the classified counterterrorism measures on the 
condition of anonymity. “He’s gotten involved in plots.”

The official added: “The United States works, exactly as the American people 
expect, to overcome threats to their security, and this individual — through his 
own actions — has become one. Awlaki knows what he’s done, and he knows he won’t 
be met with handshakes and flowers. None of this should surprise anyone.”

As a general principle, international law permits the use of lethal force 
against individuals and groups that pose an imminent threat to a country, and 
officials said that was the standard used in adding names to the list of 
targets. In addition, Congress approved the use of military force against Al 
Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. People on the target list are 
considered to be military enemies of the United States and therefore not subject 
to the ban on political assassination first approved by President Gerald R. Ford.

Both the C.I.A. and the military maintain lists of terrorists linked to Al Qaeda 
and its affiliates who are approved for capture or killing, former officials 
said. But because Mr. Awlaki is an American, his inclusion on those lists had to 
be approved by the National Security Council, the officials said.

At a panel discussion in Washington on Tuesday, Representative Jane Harman, 
Democrat of California and chairwoman of a House subcommittee on homeland 
security, called Mr. Awlaki “probably the person, the terrorist, who would be 
terrorist No. 1 in terms of threat against us.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/world/middleeast/07yemen.html?hp

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