Kucinich Asks: “Is It Legal for the President to Have a Hit List”?

President Obama has succeeded some extremely bellicose warmongerers who have served as President and yet he is the first President to assert that he had the right to have American citizens killed without due process of law. Even if you trust Obama with all your heart, do you want all Presidents to have this power? Dennis Kucinich asks the question.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today urged fellow lawmakers to support, H. Res. 819, a Resolution of Inquiry that would compel the Administration to release to Congress documents which form the legal basis for the targeted assassination of American citizens abroad. Those documents would include memos from the White House’s Office of Legal Counsel.

A Resolution of Inquiry must be considered within 14 legislative days. Unless Congress adjourns before the deadline, Kucinich will be able to call up the bill with privileged status. Kucinich introduced the legislation on November 28, 2012.

The full text of Congressman Kucinich’s remarks follow.

“Before Congress adjourns, this House should vote on my Resolution of Inquiry about the U.S. use of drones.

“The vote will not be about the thousands of deaths of innocent civilians caused by drones, though that is important. It won’t be about whether the drones are creating more terrorism. It won’t be a vote to stop the killing of American citizens without the due process guaranteed by the Constitution.

“It won’t be about whether our ongoing use of drones constitutes violations of the Constitution and violations of international law.

“The vote will, however, be about something fundamental. We will determine whether or not Congress has the power to require the Administration to release their still-secret legal justification to use drones.

“In matters of the Constitution, in matters of war, ‘trust us’ is neither sufficient legally, constitutionally, nor is it morally acceptable. I urge members of the House to reclaim Congress’ constitutional imperative by supporting H. Res. 819, the Resolution of Inquiry demanding the White House produce its legal justification for drone strikes.”

It Depends Upon What the Meaning of “Is”, Is

The Obama Regime thinks that it looks bad (not caring as to whether it IS bad) for the Government to announce civilian deaths when Mr Obama drops drones willy-nilly around the world. So Obama has ordered a redefinition. If a “civilian” is a male between the ages of 17 and 60 and close enough to the bomb site to be killed then they will be considered a “militant” regardless of their innocence. Problem solved.

On the Obama Hit List

 

The man on the left is Mustafa Yazid. Yazid was an Al-Qaeda commander who President Obama ordered killed by drone this past week. The little girl on the right is Fatima who was also killed by President Obama’s drone. She was not a member of Al-Qaeda, she was not a member of an Al-Qaeda family nor was she a friend of anyone in Al-Qaeda. She was a little girl in the neighborhood where the drone hit. Fatima was not on the Official United States “Kill List” that Mr Obama keeps in his office. Mr Obama is very proud that he killed Mustafa Yazid, wonder how he feels about Fatima?

Will Obama Kill You?

Recently an American-born alleged spokesman for Al Qaeda was killed by a U.S. drone missile.

This killing without due process of law: no arrest, no evidence, no filed charges, and no trial, was authorized by an executive order of President Obama.

The recently deceased was selected by a “secret court” attached to the National Security Council. The proceedings of this court are secret. The membership of this court is secret. The evidence considered by this court is secret.

The secret court was established by an executive order of President Obama.

The authority of the President to set up secret courts and to kill selected American citizens was established by an executive order of the President.

No President in the history of the United States has ever held that he could kill an American citizen without due process of law. There is nothing in the Constitution delegating the President the power to kill American citizens or to establish secret courts. Indeed, a reading of the Constitution based on plain-language and original intent interpretations indicates that such practices are not constitutional.

The White House announced that it has an opinion from the Justice Department which found that the President did have the power to establish secret courts and kill Americans. This opinion, however, is secret and will not be released to the public. Not only is the opinion a secret but the legal precedents and court opinions, if any, which were relied upon in this opinion are also secret.

Murdoch Hit by Pie; Witness Against Murdoch Takes a Hit

Sean Hoare, age 47, died of unknown causes at his home in England.

Mr Hoare is the journalist-whistleblower who first reported on the unethical and unlawful activities of Rupert Murdoch’s media gang in the United Kingdom. The allegations indicate that British police have been in on the take from Rupert’s rogues.

Police at the scene stated that they did not have any suspicions about the untimely death of a key witness in the affair.

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YEAH, that’s the ticket, it wasn’t suspicious at all, no. It was an accident (like the BP oil whistleblower) or maybe it was suicide (like the whistleblower who outed Tony Blair as Dubya’s lapdog on Iraq).  Suicide? Sure that’ll do.

Isn’t it  a strange COINCIDENCE that whistleblowers, or truthtellers, have shortened life expectancies?

S.D. Republicans Declare Open Season on Doctors

No this can’t be true . . . Not even the Republicans would make it legal to KILL abortion doctors and nurses, would they???

Yes, Virginia, THEY are that nuts!

There is a bill in the South Dakota Legislature to make it LEGAL to Kill a medical provider who assists a woman in an abortion.

“A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand
the definition of “justifiable homicide” to include
killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus-a
move that could make it legal to kill doctors who
perform abortions. The Republican-backed legislation,
House Bill 1171, has passed out of committee on a nine-
to-three party-line vote, and is expected to face a
floor vote in the state’s GOP-dominated House of
Representatives soon.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Phil Jensen, a
committed foe of abortion rights, alters the state’s
legal definition of justifiable homicide by adding
language stating that a homicide is permissible if
committed by a person “while resisting an attempt to
harm” that person’s unborn child or the unborn child of
that person’s spouse, partner, parent, or child. If the
bill passes, it could in theory allow a woman’s father,
mother, son, daughter, or husband to kill anyone who
tried to provide that woman an abortion-even if she
wanted one.” ___ MOTHER JONES (February 2011)

Killing for God, Killing for Obama

President Barack Obama has ordered that Anwar al-Awlaki be killed as a suspect in planning terrorist attacks against the United States.  Al-Awlaki is an American hiding in Yemen. He is not engaged on the battlefields of either Iraq or Afghanistan. He is suspected of a crime but he has not been tried.

The President can order this killing because . . . . . because it’s a bad guy, because since 9-11 the rules have changed . . . . . . because he’s the Peace President . . . . . just because.

9-11 did not change the Constitution nor did the election of 2008. The President, even “good Presidents” who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, does not have the power to order murder. George Washington did not have this power, Abraham Lincoln did not have this power, Franklin D Roosevelt did not have this power — and Barack Obama does not have this power.

Some day justice will require the prosecution and trial of every living President and their minions since 1980 for war crimes and malfeasance in office — Iran/Contra, the invasion of Grenada, the invasion of Panama, the bombing and dismantling of Yugoslavia,  the bombing and subsequent invasion of Iraq, the negligent genocide that accompanied Katrina and the intentional murder of suspects.

SOURCE: The Nation (May 3, 2010), p.4