The Obama administration has gone rogue

[SA210]

NAPOLITANO: The Obama administration has gone rogue

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/9/napolitano-when-government-goes-rogue/

http://media.washtimes.com/media/image/2013/10/09/obama-budget-battlejpeg-0288c_s160x113.jpg?debb239a22a5ca5f4b3dfa9e4a52450 c0dbf72a5


Before you rejoice that the government has seized an alleged terrorist in Libya (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/) who was indicted for planning the notorious 1998 U.S. embassy (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/us-embassy/) bombings in Africa, before you join the House of Representatives (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/house-of-representatives/) in a standing ovation for the Capitol Hill police (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/united-states-capitol-police/) who killed a woman whose car struck a White House (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/white-house/) fence and who then drove away at a high speed, and before you commend the New York Police Department (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/new-york-police-department/) for quickly getting to the bottom of an alleged assault by a motorcycle gang that tormented a young family on a city street, please give some thought to the rule of law.

Last weekend, a team of Navy (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/navy/) SEALs kidnapped a Libyan, Abu Anas al-Libi (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/abu-anas-al-libi/), off of a public street in Tripoli. The Navy (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/navy/) men did not have a warrant for his arrest, did not have the permission of the local authorities or the Libyan government (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libyan-government/) to carry out this kidnapping, and were unlawfully present bearing arms in public in Libya (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/). Many of al-Libi (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/abu-anas-al-libi/)’s alleged accomplices already had been arrested, prosecuted and convicted in the United States. The U.S. could have sought his extradition, as it did with some of them, had President Obama not bombed the American-friendly government (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libyan-government/) of Col. Moammar Gadhafi (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/) out of existence, without a congressional declaration of war.


Obama apologists have praised this maneuver as a bloodless way to obtain justice without using drones to kill. (How low we have sunk when Mr. Obama can be praised for not executing someone with a drone.) Secretary of State John F. Kerry (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/john-f-kerry/), acknowledging that al-Libi (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/abu-anas-al-libi/) is innocent until proved guilty, has claimed that the rule of law was followed here because he will be brought to a civilian U.S. court (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/us-court/) for trial. Former George W. Bush (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/george-w-bush/) administration Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/michael-b-mukasey/) claimed that because the embassy bombings constituted an act of war, the kidnapping of al-Libi (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/abu-anas-al-libi/) was a lawful wartime assault, and he should be tried before a military tribunal.

It borders on the ridiculous for Mr. Kerry (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/john-f-kerry/) to profess fidelity to the rule of law when this criminal gambit was anything but. Fact: We are not at war with Libya (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/). Fact: We cannot lawfully — under international law, American law or Libyan law — engage in law enforcement or offensive operations in Libya (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/) without the express consent of the local and national authorities. Fact: As a defendant in federal court in the 2nd Circuit, al-Libi (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/abu-anas-al-libi/) must be brought to a federal judge in New York City within 48 hours of his arrest.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for him in lower Manhattan, as the feds will “debrief” al-Libi (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/abu-anas-al-libi/) aboard ship before turning him over to federal prosecutors for trial. One can only imagine what that debriefing will be like. It will no doubt consist of torture. That’s why the interrogation is being conducted on the high seas, where the government (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libyan-government/) will claim it is free to disobey any federal law. That’s why the Geneva Conventions prohibit housing prisoners of war aboard ship.

What kind of government seeks venues in which it can break the law? One that has forgotten that every time Mr. Bush (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/george-w-bush/) made his extraterritorial argument to the Supreme Court, it was rejected. Wherever the American government goes and whatever it does, it remains subject to the confines of the Constitution.

Not to worry, administration sources claim, the FBI won’t learn of whatever beans al-Libi (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/abu-anas-al-libi/) spills while the CIA is simulating his drowning. Wrong again. While no federal court will admit evidence obtained under torture, the Patriot Act — that monstrosity that permits federal agents to write their own search warrants and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court judges to evade the Constitution — requires intelligence interrogators and law enforcement interrogators to share information — even the results of torture. So much for the presumption of innocence, the right to a lawyer, the right to remain silent, the right to be brought before a judge, and the rule of law.

The United States is a signatory to treaties that prohibit kidnapping, no matter the governmental need for the victim. Just ask Robert Seldon Lady, the former CIA station chief in Milan, Italy, who was convicted in absentia a few years ago in Italy of kidnapping a Muslim imam there, and then was arrested on an international warrant in Panama this summer. Mr. Bush (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/george-w-bush/) himself and others were convicted in absentia of war crimes by a court in Malaysia last year. Can you imagine the outcry if Mr. Bush (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/george-w-bush/) or Mr. Lady were kidnapped off of American streets by foreign agents? How can it be lawful for the U.S. government to kidnap innocent foreigners, but not for foreign agents to kidnap guilty Americans?


While much of the above was going on in secret, two public spectacles played out on American TV last week. One involved a gang of bikers in New York City who chased a family in a Range Rover at high speeds and eventually pulled the driver from his car and beat and kicked him. Eventually, the cops caught the gang, but not all gang members will be prosecuted, as at least three of them are cops — and they did nothing to stop the assault.

Also last week, a deranged, single mom rammed her car into a fence that surrounds the White House (http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/white-house/). Then she sped toward Capitol Hill, a few blocks away. Instead of using any one of a number of nonlethal procedures to stop her, dozens of police gave chase and fired military-grade weapons wildly at her. After containing the car, the cops slaughtered her in a hail of bullets. Then the cops discovered that she was unarmed and had her 1-year-old baby with her.

What’s going on here?

What’s going on is the flow of government lawlessness down from the feds to the cops in the streets. Like children observing and imitating their parents’ unsanctioned, inappropriate, yet repeated behavior, when cops see the use of the military today to pull off government crimes, to shortcut the law and to evade the Constitution, they arm themselves with military-grade hardware and do the same.

In America today, to paraphrase Voltaire, criminals are punished for their crimes, except when they commit them to the sounds of official rejoicing.

Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the author of seven books on the U.S. Constitution, including his most recent, “Theodore and Woodrow: How Two American Presidents Destroyed Constitutional Freedom” (Thomas Nelson, 2012).


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/9/napolitano-when-government-goes-rogue/#ixzz2hkPBQXQE
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter (http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=ctd-fI3Dar4z1uacwqm_6r&u=washtimes)

[boutons_deux]

moonie times? :lol still crazy after all these years.

[SA210]

moonie times? :lol still crazy after all these years.

What part of the article do you disagree with or think is wrong?

[ElNono]

If anything, I would argue that when it comes to matters that the government refer to as national security/war on terror in general, it has gone rogue a long time ago.

Things like the war on terror, NSA wiretaps or extraordinary rendition are merely a continuation of policies from the previous administration.

They were bad back then, there's still bad now.

[byrontx]

Its hard to give a shit. These aren't angels they are grabbing.

[ChumpDumper]

Won't somebody think of the terrorists?

[Nbadan]

Nappy makes a lot of claims with no proof..does he have inside sources that Abu Anas al-Libi, or any other terrorists is being tortured?

Libyan Al-Qaida Suspect Abu Anas al-Libi Arrives In New York


WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Libyan who has been held and interrogated for a week aboard a U.S. warship is now in New York awaiting trial on terrorism charges, U.S. officials said Monday.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/libyan-al-qaida-suspect-abu-anas-al-libi-arrives-in-new-york

Perhaps Nappy is just being consistent....remember all those articles he wrote admonishing the Bush Administration when it renditioned, tortureded, kidnappeded and murdered alleged terror suspects....yeah, neither do I...

[SA210]

Won't somebody think of the terrorists?

You and Obama certainly do, he aids them in Syria and you support it :lmao:lmao

[boutons_deux]

washingtontimes, freaky moonie toilet paper, didn't publish this kind of shit with dubya and dickhead were doing it.

[SA210]

Perhaps Nappy is just being consistent....remember all those articles he wrote admonishing the Bush Administration when it renditioned, tortureded, kidnappeded and murdered alleged terror suspects....yeah, neither do I...


http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRI-D9-eWOU7I20wM1W0pPOsKoNKBbKlRqhuKeLnq5bLgk3enqQZQ



Napolitano says "Bush and Cheney should be indicted!"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TosF6Ope53E



:lmao:lmao

[boutons_deux]

Did Napo ever say that after he was hired by and on Fox Repug propaganda network?

[SA210]

^^^ Yup lol

Conservative Napolitano on Bush/Cheney lol

Andrew Napolitano, Fox Contributor: Bush And Cheney 'Absolutely Should Have Been Indicted'http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/14/andrew-napolitano-fox-con_n_645671.html


Napolitano: … What President Bush did with the suspension of habeas corpus, with the whole concept of Guantanamo Bay, with the whole idea he could avoid and evade federal laws, treaties, federal judges, and the constitution was blatantly unconstitutional, and in some cases criminal.

Nader: What’s the sanction for President Bush and Vice President Cheney?

Napolitano: There has been no sanction except for what history will say about them.

Nader: What should be the sanction?

Napolitano: They should have been indicted. They absolutely should have been indicted. For torturing, for spying, for arresting without warrant. I’d like to say they should be indicted for lying, but believe it or not, unless you’re under oath, lying is not a crime — at least an indictable crime. It’s a moral crime.

Nader: So you think George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should — even though they’ve left office — they haven’t escaped the criminal laws. They should be indicted and prosecuted.

Napolitano: [...] the evidence … is overwhelming, when you compare it to the level of evidence required for a normal indictment, that George W. Bush, as President, and Dick Cheney, as Vice President, participated in criminal conspiracies to violate the federal law, the guaranteed civil liberties of hundreds, maybe thousands, of human beings.

[Clipper Nation]

washingtontimes, freaky moonie toilet paper, didn't publish this kind of shit with dubya and dickhead were doing it.
So that makes it okay for Obama to have the exact same foreign policy now? Oh I forgot, when a Repug is in charge, it's their fault, but under a Democrat POTUS, it's "the unstoppable MIC" that "no president could possibly stop or slow down" :lol

:lol Partisan hack

[boutons_deux]

So that makes it okay for Obama to have the exact same foreign policy now? Oh I forgot, when a Repug is in charge, it's their fault, but under a Democrat POTUS, it's "the unstoppable MIC" that "no president could possibly stop or slow down" :lol

:lol Partisan hack

yep, no Pres can stop the corporate-welfare, wealth-sucking/redistribution MIC, it's beyond civilian control. The MIC must invent an enemy to justify it's $1.5T budget

Did WT publish this kind of article 2001 - 2008?

I'm not defending Obama here, just pointing out that WT is piece of shit

"Partisan hack" link?

[TeyshaBlue]

Lol..bot destruction.

[Clipper Nation]

yep, no Pres can stop the corporate-welfare, wealth-sucking/redistribution MIC, it's beyond civilian control.
And yet you just said that Dubya and Cheney "did it" when they were in office, implying that they were responsible for their own foreign policy and could have stopped it at any time.... yet now that we have a Democrat as President, you're not holding him to the same standard :lol

Partisan hackPERIOD

[SA210]

"Partisan hack" link?


http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=223241&p=6880044&viewfull=1#post6880044

[boutons_deux]

Lol..bot destruction.

TB :lol eloquent ankle-biting, as ever.

[ChumpDumper]

You and Obama certainly do, he aids them in Syria and you support it :lmao:lmaomisinfowars

[SA210]

I just lied, again

[ChumpDumper]

No, your hero Alex Jones lies quite a bit so he can sell water filters and iodine pills.

[SA210]

No, your hero Alex Jones lies quite a bit so he can sell water filters and iodine pills.

You just lied again. :lol

Alex Jones :lol

[ChumpDumper]

Are you laughing at Alex Jones?

[SA210]

I'm laughing at you lying and desperately attempting to attach Alex Jones to this thread or me simply bc you lost a debate on your messiah Obama before it ever began, per par :lol Also laughing at your lie that you're attempting that I got my info from AJ..when both liberals and conservatives have admitted to Obama aiding Al Qaeda in Syria. But you have to spin and lie bc you lost badly. I get that. :lol

[pgardn]

9/11 had huge consequences.

Fear can be very unreasonable.
The people of NYC who went through the nightmare have a diff. view of security.
The president who gets caught with his pants down is gonna pay dearly.
We have a never again complex. This leads to excesses.

[ChumpDumper]

Really, they all admitted to it?

Link or run away.

[SA210]

I never said "ALL". That's just another chumpdumper lie in preparation for a fake e-victory to an answer you're waiting for based on your own pathetic lie, per par :lmao

[SA210]

:lmao liar chump just got annihilated, again. Too easy haha

[boutons_deux]

9/11 had huge consequences.

Fear can be very unreasonable.
The people of NYC who went through the nightmare have a diff. view of security.
The president who gets caught with his pants down is gonna pay dearly.
We have a never again complex. This leads to excesses.

yeah, tell "never again" to Boston, after 10 years of the police/security state raping our privacy. Fucking CIA/NSA/FBI are bunch of fucking incompetent losers.

[TeyshaBlue]

TB :lol eloquent ankle-biting, as ever.

Delusional bot getting bitch slapped as ever.:lmao:lmao

[boutons_deux]

Delusional bot getting bitch slapped as ever.:lmao:lmao

TB :lol in your dreams

[TeyshaBlue]

No, just in threads.:lmao

[ChumpDumper]

I never said "ALL". That's just another chumpdumper lie in preparation for a fake e-victory to an answer you're waiting for based on your own pathetic lie, per par :lmaoQuote anyone who admitted it.

[pgardn]

yeah, tell "never again" to Boston, after 10 years of the police/security state raping our privacy. Fucking CIA/NSA/FBI are bunch of fucking incompetent losers.

Yeah Boutons, exactly the same scale...

These type of attacks are very difficult to stop. And notice how the perps were immediately brought to justice which is a huge part of the psychological effects. How long after 9/11 did we get the perps. It took a war and a very risky venture into special operation into a sovereign country.

Not a good analogous situation at all. Though it will again have a tendency to give intelligence entities even more latitude. You again venture into another difficult theme debated in many countries; the greater good of society vs. individual rights to privacy. You, however, skip through a difficult subject like its black and white. Typical.

[boutons_deux]

Yeah Boutons, exactly the same scale...

These type of attacks are very difficult to stop. And notice how the perps were immediately brought to justice which is a huge part of the psychological effects. How long after 9/11 did we get the perps. It took a war and a very risky venture into special operation into a sovereign country.

Not a good analogous situation at all. Though it will again have a tendency to give intelligence entities even more latitude. You again venture into another difficult theme debated in many countries; the greater good of society vs. individual rights to privacy. You, however, skip through a difficult subject like its black and white. Typical.

The Russians WARNED the FBI or CIA about those brothers visiting over there. WARNED! and the FBI/CIA did nothing, TOO FUCKING BUSY buying our info, and today Snowden reports our address books/contact lists, from US network operators for cheap.

[SA210]

Quote anyone who admitted it.

Too late liar, you lose. :lol

Besides, you already know :lol You're just lying

[pgardn]

The Russians WARNED the FBI or CIA about those brothers visiting over there. WARNED! and the FBI/CIA did nothing, TOO FUCKING BUSY buying our info, and today Snowden reports our address books/contact lists, from US network operators for cheap.

And how many times has a WARNING been a false alarm? Do you have any clue how much of this stuff comes through every minute. We will never be able to stop all of this. It's all hindsight. Just like the military psychiatrist who shot innocent folks. There were many hints in hindsight that he was unstable. But unstable enough to shoot people?

You think this is easy?

[ChumpDumper]

Too late liar, you lose. :lol

Besides, you already know :lol You're just lyingNah, you knew no one admitted anything and are now running scared since you got called on it.

Next comes your meltdown. It's what you do.

[SA210]

What's funny is I was just thinking about how last night I was watching a clip of Real Time With Bill Maher where even Obama loving Bill Maher was actually talking against Obama's bogus war on Syria and was talking about how Obama is arming Al Qaeda there. :lol


Post count leader boy continues to lie about known facts :lol

[SA210]

:lmao


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6paYu3GM2Y

[SA210]

:lmao


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rG1zgbHQ6c

[SA210]

:lmao


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t2K7eU3sGI

[SA210]

:lmao

http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/middle-east-north-africa/319037-kucinich-syria-strike-will-turn-us-into-al-qaedas-air-force

Kucinich: Syria strike would turn US into 'al Qaeda's air force'

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/middle-east-north-africa/319037-kucinich-syria-strike-will-turn-us-into-al-qaedas-air-force#ixzz2hpCuHew3
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter (http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=bNYbpAvBir4Pxiacwqm_6l&u=thehill) | TheHill on Facebook (http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bNYbpAvBir4Pxiacwqm_6l&u=TheHill)

[SA210]

:lmao


Kucinich: Stopping Assad vs. arming Al Qaeda


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdBf13MDcwY

[Clipper Nation]

TB :lol in your dreams
Yet you can't respond to the truth that you grant Dubya a level of agency for our foreign policy that you don't give Obama strictly because of your partisan affiliation :lol

[ChumpDumper]

So every video you posted has no admission that anyone is actually arming al qaeda.

Good job.

Btw are you one of those who think that the cia created al qaeda? Your conspiracy theories might be doubling back on themselves.

[SA210]

:lol chump the liar defeated, yet again. Next lol

[ChumpDumper]

:lol chump the liar defeated, yet again. Next lol
Still waiting foe that admission you lied about.

[SA210]

Keep waiting for your shame to end..it won't. Sorry to expose your partisan hack lying, but someone was bound to expose you for the lying coward you are. Too bad it always has to be me who does it, with no effort. I know that burns you, regardless of any trash you spew next or ever. :lol

Al Qaeda sympathizer :lol

[ChumpDumper]

So no admission?

Thought so.

[SA210]

all :lol

[boutons_deux]

Why Washington Can’t Stop

The Coming Era of Tiny Wars and Micro-Conflicts

By Tom Engelhardt (http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/tom)

In terms of pure projectable power, there’s never been anything like it. Its military has divided the world -- the whole planet -- into six “commands.”

Its fleet, with 11 (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57363407/u.s-to-keep-11-aircraft-carriers/) aircraft carrier battle groups, rules the seas and has done so largely unchallenged for almost seven decades.

Its Air Force has ruled the global skies, and despite being almost continuously in action for years, hasn’t faced (http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175368/When) an enemy plane since 1991 or been seriously challenged anywhere since the early 1970s.

Its fleet of drone aircraft has proven itself capable of targeting (http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/) and killing suspected enemies in the backlands of the planet from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen and Somalia with little regard for national boundaries, and none at all for the possibility of being shot down.

It funds and trains proxy armies (http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175714/nick_turse_blowback_central) on several continents and has complex aid and training relationships with militaries across the planet.

On hundreds of bases, some tiny and others the size of American towns, its soldiersgarrison the globe (http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175338/nick_turse_planet_of_bases) from Italy (http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175755/david_vine_the_italian_job) to Australia, Honduras to Afghanistan, and on islands from Okinawa in the Pacific Ocean to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Its weapons makers are the most advanced on Earth and dominate (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/middleeast/us-foreign-arms-sales-reach-66-3-billion-in-2011.html) the global arms market. Its nuclear weaponry in silos, on bombers, and on its fleet of submarines would be capable of destroying several planets the size of Earth. Its system of spy satellites is unsurpassed and unchallenged. Its intelligence services can listen in (http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175713/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_you_are_our_secret/) on the phone calls or read the emails of almost anyone in the world from top foreign leaders (https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/02) to obscure insurgents (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/documents-reveal-nsas-extensive-involvement-in-targeted-killing-program/2013/10/16/29775278-3674-11e3-8a0e-4e2cf80831fc_story.html).

The CIA and its expanding paramilitary forces are capable of kidnapping (http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175650/greg_grandin_the_latin_american_exception) people of interest just about anywhere from rural Macedonia (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jan/14/usa.germany) to the streets of Rome (http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/7789/engelhardt_the_cia's_la_dolce_vita) and Tripoli (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/06/libya-kidnapping-citizen-us-forces-raid-somalia).

For its many prisoners, it has set up (and dismantled) secret jails (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mayer) across the planet and on its naval vessels (http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/10/07/230096048/heres-why-the-navy-is-holding-a-terror-suspect-at-sea). It spends more on its military than the next most powerful 13 states combined (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/07/everything-chuck-hagel-needs-to-know-about-the-defense-budget-in-charts/). Add in the spending (http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175545/tomgram%3A_hellman_and_kramer,_how_much_does_washi ngton_spend_on_%22defense%22/) for its full national security state and it towers over any conceivable group of other nations.

...

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175763/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_what_planet_are_we_on/

It's not the Obama administration alone. McLiar and BishopGecko would have do nothing to reverse the above, and would have probably increased it, since the Repugs myth is that they are experts on NatSec ( except for 9/11 :lol )

Where Washington is in truly, unshakable majority bi-partisan agreement: the American Imperial Military/Economic Empire MUST rule the planet and MUST be unchallenged anywhere.

"Why Do They Hate Us?" :lol

[DMX7]

No, your hero Alex Jones lies quite a bit so he can sell water filters and iodine pills.

THE ANSWER TO 1984 IS $14.95!!!

AT THE INFOWARS STORE!!!

[boutons_deux]

Obama Administration May Be Guilty Of War Crimes (http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/11/06/obama-administration-may-be-guilty-of-war-crimes/)

The Obama Administration’s assassination program, including its use of drones, has already proved controversial around the world. But now questions are being raised as to whether the program violates the laws of war and international human rights law. (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/05/obama-administration-drone-strikes-war-crimes) Outside of Afghanistan, or a “defined conflict zone”, the use of lethal force is subject to international laws protecting human rights. Laws the Obama Administration may have violated in Yemen and Pakistan where they have killed people using drones.


If the United Statesis only involved in an armed conflict in Afghanistan, international human rights law would be the regime that regulates the use of lethal force in Pakistan and Yemen. Therefore, as noted by Amnesty International, the use of lethal force outside of Afghanistan is legal when it can be demonstrated that:

“[It was] only used when strictly unavoidable to protect life, no less harmful means such as capture or non-lethal incapacitation was possible, and the use of force was proportionate in the prevailing circumstances.”


That is a pretty tough standard to meet when the Obama Administration is engaging in “signature strikes” or essentially killing people based on profiling people in a given area.

It is, in essence, killing by algorithm.

Signature strikes target individuals for death based not on the confirmed identity or activities of the targets, but rather “behavioral characteristics” identified as those typical of militants. This is a clear violation of the principle of distinction. Further, Amnesty International questions President Obama’s assertion that drone strikes are only launched when there is “near certainty” that civilians will not be killed in the strike – a likely reference to President Obama’s disputed method of counting “all military-age males” in the vicinity of an alleged target as militants.



If formal charges are brought against President Obama and his administration they may need to seek protection from prosecution or, once having left office, limit their travel to countries that do not extradite based on war crimes violations. Though given the prevalence of signatories to the International Criminal Court that could prove difficult. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ICC_member_states.svg)

Whether anyone in the Obama Administration will ever be brought to justice is an open question, though it seems the controversy around the assassination program is likely to continue. (http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/11/05/us-drone-strike-in-pakistan-blows-up-afghanistan-peace-talks/)

http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/11/06/obama-administration-may-be-guilty-of-war-crimes/

[m>s]

lets take him down

[lefty]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82RKQPgeYRs