Administration Officials Perform Some Very Public Handwringing Over Extrajudicial Drone Killing
from the the-eternal-martyrdom-of-the-executive-branch dept
The administration has sort of painted itself into a corner with its new rules on drone strikes. It's apparently seeking to take out a US citizen who has joined al-Qaeda and is "actively plotting" against the US. Multiple issues have arisen, thanks to Obama's better-late-than-never drone guidelines, which were issued last year to appease the many countries perturbed by the US government's increasing reliance on drones to take out suspected terrorists.
The CIA drones watching him cannot strike because he's a U.S. citizen and the Justice Department must build a case against him, a task it hasn't completedOddly, the DOJ hasn't completed its case against the targeted American, despite officials (anonymous ones) claiming the man is a "facilitator" who has been "directly responsible" for attacks on Americans overseas. Flimsier cases have floated entire prosecutions (including many, many of the FBI's homegrown terrorists). It must be the potential stripping of due process (no matter how meaningless that process has been in practice) holding the US back.
Four U.S. officials said the American suspected terrorist is in a country that refuses U.S. military action on its soil and that has proved unable to go after him. And President Barack Obama's new policy says American suspected terrorists overseas can only be killed by the military, not the CIA, creating a policy conundrum for the White House.
It may not even need a case. It may just need to offer sufficient justification for carrying out a death sentence without due process. That's the sort of thing Rep. Mike Rogers seems to think the US should be doing anyway. His unwavering belief that the US is a country constantly besieged by attackers leaves no room for constitutional nuances like due process. This, along with "transparency" is referred to by Rogers as "red tape."
Even as the "case" is being built, there are other concerns. As we just covered recently, the NSA aids in tracking down strike targets, but it's doing so using (no big deal, it's just) metadata, some of which is less than precise. Those who think they are targets are swapping SIM cards around as quickly as possible to thwart geolocation tracking, which ultimately means the target being killed may not be the person the NSA thinks he/she is.
But moving beyond Rogers' histrionics and the NSA's haystacks, these statements by anonymous government officials don't look like much more than further appeasement. Rules were put in place to make other countries happier and this very public hand wringing looks for all the world like the administration stage-whispering "See how very complicated this is, and how restrained we're being in response." Admittedly, stagecraft is a large part of politics, but this particular incident is notable for its overacting.
The government has killed four Americans with drone strikes since 2009, so this open-air discussion has less to do with concerns about following proper steps than it does with letting unhappy foreign nations know how seriously we're suddenly taking our targeted killing responsibilities. The limitations on drone strikes were a long time coming, and it has taken a sustained uproar over several years to get them implemented. The last time the administration spent any time considering the implications of its hands-off approach to extrajudicial killing was towards the end of Obama's first term in 2012, when there was the momentary concern that The Bad Guys (the other party) might have the same unfettered access and authority.
As much as the unnamed American might be deserving of punishment for his attacks on Americans, the administration should stick to its self-imposed rules and follow the processes it implemented. And the least it could do is follow the rules without carrying on in public, trying to conjure up some sort of sympathy for the difficult decisions it faces.
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Filed Under: barack obama, cia, doj, drones, targeting, us citizens, white house officials
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How is this difficult?
Also, that double-standard hypocrisy is showing it's head again, the fact that the country the person is in refuses to allow US military action should be the end of things, no matter how much it would grate to let someone like that 'go', as you can bet if another country killed off someone in the US, someone they were 'sure' was guilty, via bomb, everyone from the president on down would be screaming about how it was an 'unprovoked act of aggression', and would be demanding the heads of those responsible.
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Re: How is this difficult?
Even if the DO have enough evidence to build a case with, dropping a bomb on the guy, potentially killing innocent people in the process shouldn't even remotely be considered.
What is it with the US? Frankly targeted killing of any kind especially bombing someone other than as part of a proper declared war is itself terrorist behaviour and should not be considered by a nation that wants to think of itself as civilised.
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Re: How is this difficult?
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Re: Re: How is this difficult?
Trying someone in court when they're not there to defend themself is ridiculous enough, doing the same thing when the death penalty is on the table is a slap in the face to the whole concept of justice.
Even then, he's still in a country that refuses to allow US military action, which bombing someone would sure as hell qualify as, so unless you'd be fine with foreign countries trying people in the US without them ever setting foot in the court room, and then sending over people to execute them should they be found guilty, that fact alone should make this a complete dead end.
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Re: Re: Re: How is this difficult?
In the following days, 3 drones executed a targeted killing on them, causing minor collateral damage in the process.
The united states were most understanding to the situation.
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There was no reason to implement them until Obama came up for re-election. Suddenly he was scared that Romney would have the same ability to just continue them as he saw fit, providing Obama lost. I seriously believe this was the main reason why the new rules were put into effect and why drone strikes were turned over to the military from the CIA's hands.
Obama has several times made mention of the belief he is some how more moral than others who could step into power after him. He has what appears to be this huge blind spot that somehow he is an exception to absolute power corrupting absolutely, or at least that is the fodder he attempts to feed the public.
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Re:
This is not an uncommon trait in politicians, and in fact probably a major part of what motivates people to run for office in the first place.
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That should makes him immune to drone strikes, unless the USA is going to engage in terrorist tactics. The USA will respect the sovereignty of another country ... won't they. Or will they rely in the fact that th foreign country cannot realistically declare war on the USA.
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Re:
But if they keep doing things like this, and the economy keeps heading in the same wrong direction, then there will be a lot of countries who will want revenge.
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Where in the World is Un-named Al-Queda
Just imagine how bad the press will be when they start drone striking on US soil, could spark a second revolutinary war (here in the US).
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Re: Where in the World is Un-named Al-Queda
If an actual revolution occurred, they'd probably use nukes.
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Re: Re: Where in the World is Un-named Al-Queda
But the americans never do anything. Do you really think that this "Today we go black" thing will change the US?
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Didn't the WSJ imply that the NSA didn't get location data
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304680904579368831632834004?mg=reno64-wsj&a mp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304680904579368831632834004.html
If you read it one of the many things they imply is that the NSA is constrained because they have to remove the location data from the cell phone records before they incorporate them into their database.
Now clearly this was with regards to US cell phone providers I guess, and obviously it isn't true about the location data they get from cell phone providers outside the US? Certainly if they're targeting drones based on cell phone location data they clearly aren't always removing the location information.
Anyway, I think it makes the whole WSJ article sound a little fishy.
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Funny how words are used
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Yet Another Terrorist Plot Foiled
"I've personally stopped 43 terrorist plots - that's one per day - targeting locations in [Canada, the USA, GB, or insert nation of choice] so far this year, but the details are all classified, so I can't tell you anything else about them". Prove I didn't!
This is no different.
From my perspective, "can't say because it's classified" equals "I made it up but you can't prove it".
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So let me get this straight...
They don't want US military action on its soil, so their workaround is to enact military strikes through a non-military entity and say "You said no military action. We bombed you without our military. That is okay, right?"
Seriously? I mean really. SERIOUSLY?! That would be hilarious if it wasn't actually real.
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Re: So let me get this straight...
With regards to the CIA vs. military statement. The military still operates the drones. Always has. It's just the CIA before had the authority to order and command the operations which apparently isn't the case anymore. So what they are saying now is the military has to through it's normal course of operations encounter them and target them in order to kill them which would more likely than not be a battlefield situation. It's not a matter so much of weasel wording an excuse to justify it.
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Re: Re: So let me get this straight...
One other note, yesterday Democracy Now also carried an extensive report on this story which carried this quote from the AP:
"one U.S. official said the Defense Department was divided over whether the man is dangerous enough to merit the potential domestic fallout of killing an American without charging him with a crime or trying him, and the potential international fallout of such an operation in a country that has been resistant to U.S. action. Another of the U.S. officials said the Pentagon did ultimately decide to recommend lethal action."
So the Pentagon really isn't concerned at all with whether these actions are legal or not or whether anyone's rights are violated or not. They are only concerned with whether the action is worth the backlash they will receive for taking it and ultimately they have decided that the squeeze is worth the juice. This is a CRIMINAL mindset. Is the risk of being caught and punished worth what we get out of breaking the law? This is also EXACTLY why there needs to be effective oversight and accountability for these sorts of actions and underscores the reason transparency here is so important.
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Re: Re: Re: So let me get this straight...
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/10/report_obama_administration_considers_assassinating_anot her
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Whatever the cause for the prevalence of this attitude in the powers that be, it has never been more important to value due process and enforce it as and when required.
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Drones
Requiring soldiers on the battlefield to make evidentiary determinations or run out and quickly read the enemy his Miranda warning before engaging him is something out of a Monty Python sketch.
And what the hell is the relevance of objecting to drones? Why does it make any difference whether a drone drops a bomb or whether that same bomb is dropped by a fighter jet piloted by person? The end result is exactly the same. This fixation some people have on drone use is bizarre.
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Re: Drones
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Re: Re: Drones
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Re: Drones
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On Bombardment:
Add to the mix that even those three (insufficient) 'mitigating factors' are frequently lacking in the American assassination programs...
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on Capital-hill Punishment
"the administration should stick to its self-imposed rules and follow the processes it implemented"
The rules & processes are: US Laws & party Policy Positions.
We cannot say your Commander In Chief is performing "extrajudicial" killings, because Obama isn't on trail (charged, accused) of breaking any specific Law, or Policy.
What we *can* say is that Elected Officials have been law-making IN SECRET, which they are allowed to do -- unless your lawyer wants to take on the feds & argue differently.
And we can *also* say that the 1st Rule of Policy-Making, is that you hire amazing legal advisers so you're President can walk right through a mine-field of Laws to get "Due Process" waived & get that list of SECRETLY living-accused (and GOT NO TIME to seek an arrest-warrant etc, dont you know WHO I AM FFS) "bad" men dead.
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