Anwar al-Awlaki's extrajudicial murder | Michael Ratner

The law on the use of lethal force by decree is specific. This assassination broke - that creates a terrifying precedent

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Is this the world we want? When U.S. President can make an American citizen, or anyone for that matter, living outside a war zone on a targeted assassination list, and then killed by drone attack.

This was the result as the Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU fear when he filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Federal Court in the name of the father of Anwar al-Awlaki, in the hope to prevent this targeted killing. We lost the case on procedural grounds, but the judge considered the implications of the practice as raising serious questions "," asking:

"Can the Executive order the assassination of a U.S. citizen without first offering him any form of judicial process whatsoever, based on the mere assertion that he is a member of dangerous terrorist organization? "

• Yes, Anwar al-Awlaki was a radical Muslim cleric. Yes, his language and speeches were incendiary. They may even have participated in plots against the United States - but not because he was never charged with a crime.
• This profile should make him a target of assassination without trial and without any effort to capture, arrest and prosecute them. The U.S. government knew his location for purposes of a drone strike, so why had made no effort to stop Yemen, a country that apparently was allied in the U.S. efforts to monitor?
• are - or were - laws about the circumstances in which they may use deadly force, even against those who are willing to harm the United States. Outside a war zone, as Awlaki was lethal force may
only

be used in the threat closer and Extraordinary when a concrete, specific and imminent attack and even then, deadly force must be a last resort.

demand, after the fact, by President Obama that Awlaki "directed efforts on the operational plan" to attack the United States has never been to court before being placed on the " kill "list and not tested. While President Obama's statement has some validity, unless Awlaki's alleged terrorist actions were imminent and unless deadly force as a last resort, this killing constitutes murder.

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