Lord Testicles
15th March 2010, 01:24
GEORGE BUSH was denounced around the world for allowing his intelligence agencies to install wiretaps without warrants from the courts. But Barack Obama authorizes the killing of citizens without any semblance of due process, and there's scarcely a whimper of protest.
Protesting against the wiretaps four years ago, Al Gore asked:
Can it be true that any president really has such powers under our constitution? If the answer is yes, then under the theory by which these acts are committed, are there any acts that can on their face be prohibited?
If the president has the inherent authority to eavesdrop on American citizens without a warrant, imprison American citizens on his own declaration, kidnap and torture, then what can't he do?
We now have an answer: he can order executions without recourse to a court. Confirmation that Obama has arrogated the power of life and death over citizens to himself came in evidence to a congressional hearing from Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair earlier this month.
Blair explained that the criteria to be met before giving the go-ahead for citizen-assassination included "whether that American is involved in a group that is trying to attack us, whether that American is a threat to other Americans. Those are the factors involved."
There was no mention of outside checks of any kind, or of what weight was to be attached, and by whom, to the factors referred to. The right embedded in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution--that no one should be deprived of life without due process--appears to have been entirely abandoned by Obama.
Full Article (http://socialistworker.org/2010/03/09/obama-does-bush-one-better)
Can any Americans shed some light on this? I hadn't heard about this untill a couple of days ago and you'd think a story like this would be all over the news.
Protesting against the wiretaps four years ago, Al Gore asked:
Can it be true that any president really has such powers under our constitution? If the answer is yes, then under the theory by which these acts are committed, are there any acts that can on their face be prohibited?
If the president has the inherent authority to eavesdrop on American citizens without a warrant, imprison American citizens on his own declaration, kidnap and torture, then what can't he do?
We now have an answer: he can order executions without recourse to a court. Confirmation that Obama has arrogated the power of life and death over citizens to himself came in evidence to a congressional hearing from Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair earlier this month.
Blair explained that the criteria to be met before giving the go-ahead for citizen-assassination included "whether that American is involved in a group that is trying to attack us, whether that American is a threat to other Americans. Those are the factors involved."
There was no mention of outside checks of any kind, or of what weight was to be attached, and by whom, to the factors referred to. The right embedded in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution--that no one should be deprived of life without due process--appears to have been entirely abandoned by Obama.
Full Article (http://socialistworker.org/2010/03/09/obama-does-bush-one-better)
Can any Americans shed some light on this? I hadn't heard about this untill a couple of days ago and you'd think a story like this would be all over the news.