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The Spectacle Blog
National Review’s Andrew McCarthy, who thinks that President Obama’s drone killing of radical Yemeni-American al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki was “obviously the right call,” notes a gross inconsistency in the administration’s attitude toward due process for Islamist terrorists:
So here is the Obama Left’s position. If an alien enemy combatant, such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mass-murders 3000 Americans and is then captured outside the U.S. in wartime, we need to bring him to the United States and give him a civilian trial with all attendant due process rights. If an alien enemy combatant is sending emails from outside the U.S. to an al Qaeda cell inside the U.S., the commander-in-chief needs a judge’s permission (on a showing of probable cause) to intercept those communications. If an American citizen terrorist outside the United States — say, Awlaki in Yemen — is calling or emailing the United States (or anyplace else), the commander-in-chief needs a judge’s permission to intercept those communications. If we capture an alien enemy combatant conducting war operations against the U.S. overseas, we should give him Miranda warnings, a judicial right to challenge his detention as a war prisoner, and (quite likely) a civilian trial. But, if the commander-in-chief decides to short-circuit the whole menu of civil rights by killing an American citizen, that’s fine — no due process, no interference by a judge, no Miranda, no nothing. He is a proven threat because … the president says so.
To put my cards on the table, I think that we should, at the very least, approach the extra-legal executive-ordered killing of a U.S. citizen with extreme caution. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that Obama and Eric Holder’s position on this question has been a little less than principled.
By the way, Jed Babbin discussed the possibility of assassinating Awlaki in our February issue.
View all comments (23) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/09/30/andrew-mccarthy-on-holder-and
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gdog| 9.30.11 @ 11:43AM
Makes you wonder if Awlaki was about to spill some beans that might cause problems for some very influential individuals!! Ok, call me a conspiracy theorist!
SJC| 9.30.11 @ 2:23PM
You're a conspiracy theorist
Skippy| 9.30.11 @ 3:58PM
Just don't call me late for dinner.
Pelligrino| 9.30.11 @ 11:51AM
While I appreicate and understand what the focus of this short piece is, the real question is: How did someone like Awlaki become (or get to be) an American citizen in the first place?
WHY is Awlaki an American like you and me?
No reader here is dumb. The grand scale plan is for so many muslim US, Canadian, UK, Australian, German, Swede, French, etc. "citizens" that they just pull down our entire societies.
We can do a "thumbs up" in a brief moment of glee at the needed demise of Awlaki. But just, please, a brief moment. There is so much work to still be done.
Case in point: We learn this week of the Massachusetts radio controlled model airplane D.C. buildings wanna-be bomber.
Our problem: These people have already obtained citizenship -- so they can be your equal.
And that is the sword they will use to kill you.
No, they are not your equal. These people need to have their citizenship revoked. And we need to forver turn off the mechanisms which permit them into this country.
Otherwise we we will be dealing with this very same thing 15 years from now -- and they''ll slowly be winning and gaining ground.
No citizenship, visas, or green cards for muslims. It is that simple.
CMac| 9.30.11 @ 12:32PM
He is a US citizen because he was born here. Read a little bit.
Pelligrino| 9.30.11 @ 1:11PM
CMac, the question is: Why was he born here? (if he really was -- rememember, he lied about his citizenship on his Colorado State U. application and financial aid documentation)
Are you just dumb or wishing to be so?
Do you allow known Mexican cartel operatives to move into your neighborhood, say, just two houses down from yours? (The kinds of cartel types that behead women bloggers) Do you?
They "legitimately" moved to your neighborhood, right? And paid with "legitimate" cash. They were sold the house; just nothing you can do?
No, you don't allow vile criminals freely into your neighborhood. You would either move to stop it or move yourself away. Yet we allow muslims arriving daily.
You might be too old. But if you have a grandparent still alive, ask grandma or grandpa if they recall ever a muslim fellow student, neighbor, co-worker, or mosque just a 1/2 mile away.
No, there were no such things in their lives.
The very reason a Awlaki becomes a US citizen is so that you can lose day by day in the global jihad waged against you. Don't you think his parents perhaps influenced his belief system? Or are you so daffy as to think that his parents -- upon arrival and in their first 5 - 10 years here -- were red,white, and blue apple-pie loving, Ford driving, baseball enthusiasts?
Sean| 9.30.11 @ 12:08PM
This guy has been reported killed a few times before.
Kingofthenet| 9.30.11 @ 12:31PM
I can't believe you want to protect this POS, yeah 'tough' guy Rethugs!
Occam's Tool| 9.30.11 @ 4:04PM
I don't. I'm consistent. I'm glad he's dead! I'm wondering why you aren't shedding tears over his passing, King.
The only thing we did wrong with this guy was NOT capture him first, squeeze data out of him by either 1) Casino-Royaling his balls until he taked or 2) playing a friendly game of "telephone" until he talked, and then, 3) drowning him in a vat of lard.
That's my view. And I'm a Republican Conservative.
C Bowen | 9.30.11 @ 12:57PM
The Pentagon invited Anwar al-Awlaki to lunch shortly after 9/11, as Fox News reported.
That might have something to do with extrajudicial execution.
JmsA| 9.30.11 @ 1:08PM
Dead and gone. Well done.
Teflon93| 9.30.11 @ 2:52PM
How quickly even conservatives have forgotten 9/11.
Has Al Qaeda surrendered? No.
Then we are still at war and the traitor Al-Alawki is an enemy combatant...and fair game to be targeted and killed by any means to hand.
Go back, watch the 9/11 footage, and get a bloody grip.
c. j. acworth| 9.30.11 @ 8:36PM
Careful, Teflon, I don't think we want to use the term "enemy combatant." As such he (and others like him) would be entitled to certain rights under the Geneva Accords if ever they were captured. But he is a terrorist and as a US citizen he is a traitor in arms against us, so, yeah, we can drop the hammer on him anywhere, any time.
RND-NOW| 9.30.11 @ 11:10PM
CJ Acworth, just as you can "drop the hammer" on any enemy combatant. Why do we use the phrasing "enemy combatant?" Just "enemy soldier" is fine and descriptive enough.
Enemy soldiers are fair game anywhere, anytime. Or?
It it is not like this former Californian had gone passive, pacifist, or into inactivity.
Yes, we are at war. Until these islam evildoers are either 1) all dead or 2) suing for peace at terms of our choosing, the war proceeds.
PattyMor| 9.30.11 @ 3:28PM
Al-Alawki (along with others) proves that Muslim immigration is a very dangerous policy. Al-Alawki was born here in the U.S., yet he picked up no American values. If fact he was (apparently) behind the underwear bomber and the Ft. Hood shooter. Why are we still letting Muslims immigrate to the U.S. ? We should be infliltrating the mosques and shut down ones that preach sedition and murder. Then revoke citizenship and expel the ones that ascribe to Jihad.
Occam's Tool| 9.30.11 @ 4:04PM
Correct as usual, Patty.
crazy| 9.30.11 @ 6:33PM
Al-Alawki is a terrorist because he ordered the Ft Hood shooting, but the shooter is not a terrorist but a murderer facing a court martial. Hmmmm.
RND-NOW| 9.30.11 @ 11:14PM
Yes, it is odd and sad that the freaky fat greasy US Army mental doc is still alive and kicking. I am sure that he's already been squeezed for any available intel. Time to execute him. Time for him to meet Satan.
albert constantine jr.| 10.1.11 @ 10:04AM
I'm no physician, but reports are that Nidal Hassan is paralyzed from the waist down. If so, while he may still be alive ( a condition I hope is soon corrected), I don't think he's "kicking" anything.
Quartermaster| 9.30.11 @ 7:47PM
Lawler is correct about approaching such killings with caution. Still, I see nothing wrong with what the drone operator did. It's not like Awlaki presented himself at the US Embassy and surrendered. To send a SOF team into Yemen to capture him involves another set of problems that are similar to what we are facing in Pakistan now (part of which resulted in the killing of a US Major at the conclusion of a meeting).
All in all, this was a problem similar in nature to Bonnie and Clyde or John Dillinger. If I were the drone operator, I could sleep well tonight.
Bruce Berger| 9.30.11 @ 9:47PM
The thing is was this was all predicted by some that in the pondering of the Holder Justice Department of trying CIA employees over EIT, it would be much more efficient just to kill our enemies, rather than capture them and try to glean intelligence from them.
W| 10.1.11 @ 12:36PM
The problem is not the killing of Awlaki. The problem is fighting the terrorrists with us following the Bill of Rights.
yisong| 10.25.11 @ 8:47PM
Slewing bearing is also called slewing bearing, some people called: rotary support, swing support.