Obama Asserts Right to Kill American Citizens Without Trial

While it is true that the American Citizen he is starting with is a bad guy, a dangerous and constitution-trashing principle has been set. The citizen marked for death without trial is Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico but is now based in Yemen. He has been linked to Maj. Nidal Hassan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in November.

This establishes the principle that the Executive Branch alone can execute any citizen it deems a "terrorist" without judicial oversight and without a trial by jury. Can't he at least be convicted in abstentia? It appears even that option, convicting a person in a trial where they are not there to defend themselves, is too limiting for the administration, since someone else gets a say in not only guilt or innocence, but in sentencing. The Empire is not big on the concept of separation of powers.

One of the scarier quotes from the piece is "U.S. officials assert that international law permits the use of lethal force against individuals and groups who pose an imminent threat," International law may provide that option, but we are supposed to be governed by the US Constitution, and it does not.