What? The Constitution grants our President the right to act like a Mafia don, ordering “hits” on his enemies? The answer is “Yes”, at least, according to one official in his administration:
Feb. 13, 2006 issue – In the latest twist in the debate over presidential powers, a Justice Department official suggested that in certain circumstances, the president might have the power to order the killing of terrorist suspects inside the United States. Steven Bradbury, acting head of the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, went to a closed-door Senate intelligence committee meeting last week to defend President George W. Bush’s surveillance program. During the briefing, said administration and Capitol Hill officials (who declined to be identified because the session was private), California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Bradbury questions about the extent of presidential powers to fight Al Qaeda; could Bush, for instance, order the killing of a Qaeda suspect known to be on U.S. soil? Bradbury replied that he believed Bush could indeed do this, at least in certain circumstances.
This really shouldn’t shock anyone. This is the same administration which believes the President can order torture willy-nilly without worrying about our country’s treaty obligations under the Geneva convention or our own constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. A President who believes he can secretly spy on American citizens without obtaining a warrant as required by law and the Fourth Amendment, and a President who has his underlings arrest people at public events he attends because they wear t-shirts that implicitly criticize his actions.
Officially sanctioned murder on American soil is only the next logical step. Hypothetically, of course. Let’s just hope no one ever gets the mistaken impression that you or I have terrorist connections, because we all know where that leads:
The family of an innocent Brazilian shot by London undercover police who mistook him for a terrorist called on the capital’s police chief to consider his position after reports that evidence to an inquiry had been faked.
Special Branch officers from London’s Metropolitan Police tried to change a surveillance log detailing the movements of electrician Jean-Charles de Menezes to hide the fact that they had wrongly identified him, a Sunday newspaper claimed.
De Menezes, 27, was shot several times in the head on a London Underground train at Stockwell station in south London.
The interesting part of this story is that the question was asked at all. Why did Senator Feinstein raise this issue? Does she have information about possible murders already ordered and carried out by the Bush administration? I find it difficult to believe she decided to ask this question off the top of her head without any forethought whatsoever. It makes me wonder, once again, what don’t we know about how Bush is waging his “War on Terror.”
Now to be fair, I can see instances where a President would be faced with such a situation. Flight 93, which had been hijacked and redirected toward Washington on September 11, 2001, presents the most obvious example. I am not going to say that the President and our Government have no right under those circumstances to order the plane to be shot down, even though it would result in the deaths of innocent civilians.
But I don’t believe that was what Feinstein was attempting to get at with her question. The President has the authority to act to prevent a greater loss of life if he has sufficient information to indicate that an imminent threat to our nation’s security exists. No, what I believe Feinstein’s query was focusing on was not an ad hoc emergency in which the President’s options are limited, but instead a premeditated plan by the Government to murder “terrorist suspects” in which the threat is not imminent, and indeed may only be based on pure supposition.
Admittedly, that is specualtion on my part. But I sure would like to know why she felt the need to ask that question at a closed door session of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Wouldn’t you?
the sham NSA hearings are on.
First up Specter and GOP colleagues agreed Gonzalez need not be sworn. Of course that lets Gonza off the hook for previously lying under oath. Remember the fury that Clinton lied under oath? Can you say impeached? Thought so.
Do you think democratic senators should continue to aid this farce? Gives truth to the perception there’s no difference between the two parties.
Move along here. Don’t waste your time. At the end of these sham hearings, I expect Spector will proclain the official coronation of the king. Tickets anyone? I’ll pass.
Pathetic. just pathetic.
they should aid the farce, not aid the hearings. They should do everything they can to slowly expose the farce edifice, and then they should storm out at an oppoutune point. But they won’t.
“[t]they should storm out at an opportune point. But they won’t.”
You’re right, they won’t. I suggest that opportune point was right after Specter ruled Gonza need not be sworn. Sending the message that the president and cohorts can break the law and it’s ok. Not important.
Does anyone still think the Republic is not dead?
It’s Dead. So we can stop the pretense including holding elections;-diebold elections robs democracy.
I’m so pissed, I’m off to find a hammer.
US claims the right to kidnap and/or exterminate any person anywhere, any time.
It has granted Israel the same privilege.
The world at large has always known that the benign image that our propagandists like to portray is a sham.Just ask the people of Vietnam,Nicaragua,Chile,Argentina,and others.That benign image was to hide the essential truth of the brutality of our intentions and actions against people less fortunate than ourselves. With Bush,those covert activities have emerged to the fore as,one by one, the world has wised up to the intent behind our smiles and those smiles don’t work any more like they used to.Just say Hugo Chavez,Evo Morales,Kirschner or Ahmadinejad and you will know what I mean.
We the people need to give this Regime a reverse kick to their hairless, chickenhawk balls.
In fact, I have hoped for it for some time. I believe that such a kick, were it to come from millions of American feet, as opposed to billions of non-American feet, would be better for ordinary Americans.
Of course, this is a decision that only Americans can make, they may be more inclined to wait quietly for their name, or their child’s, to be called, than the rest of the world.
Sadly I know it will take a draft to wake up people and make them think. I wish it wasn’t so. I wish we could collectively rise up and so NO MORE INSANITY…
but look at American priorities. TWO WEEKS of superbowl coverage!!! TWO WEEKS. The media didn’t even afford that for the wars yet nor the hurricanes.
Watch – four days is the extent of american’s John Q. Publics range of attention and compassion span.
Hard to say if Feinstein’s just looking at the logical limits of their assertions, or if there have been assasinations we haven’t heard about.
Officially sanctioned murder on American soil
Many of us refer to that as the death penalty, approved by the highest levels of all three branches of government, subject only to the constraints of dues process which our courts & congress are diligently working to diminish.
A number of commentators have characterized the FBI’s shooting death last September of Puerto Rican independence activist & fugitive, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, left to bleed out for 12 hours, as a political assasination. Still, the FBI claimed self-defense, rather than the bald-faced assertion of a right to murder.
This really shouldn’t shock anyone. This is the same administration which believes the President can order torture willy-nilly without worrying about our country’s treaty obligations under the Geneva convention
It shouldn’t but I hope it does. Obviously there aren’t enough people paying attention and some nice, shockingly cold, buckets of water is what it’s goign to take to wake people up. But, if the past is any guide they’ll probably just mumble and roll over and go back to sleep.
The real concern I have is… OK.. admin officials are bandying this “power” of taking out suspected terrorists. I think we should be asking ourselves who and how many peopel they have already taken hits on. This may be more cover up and/or groundwork to cover their asses for something they have already done or something they are about to do.