It was first reported in January of last year that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens whom the President had ordered assassinated without any due process
What if they had killed Brandon Mayfield? The guy whose fingerprints the FBI said were a "100% verified" match to the Madrid train bombings? Then the FBI turned out to be lying, and knew it, and didn't care. The only reason Mayfield is not rotting incommunicado in a military prison (or now could have been killed) is because the Spanish government went public screaming that they had the wrong guy.
"On May 6, 2004, Brandon Mayfield, an Oregon attorney, was arrested by the FBI in connection with the Madrid train bombings. A bag containing detonating devices, found by Spanish authorities, had fingerprints that were initially identified by the FBI as "100% verified" as Mayfield's. But in a subsequent lawsuit Judge Ann Aiken found that this information was largely "fabricated and concocted by the FBI and DOJ". Mayfield was cleared only when the Spanish authorities protested that the fingerprints were not a match... Further, the Spanish authorities informed the FBI they had other suspects in the case, Moroccan immigrants not linked to anyone in the USA. The FBI completely disregarded all of the information from the Spanish authorities."
Next to get labeled and zapped: that punk accountant at ENRON who's going to blow the whistle and take down a few congressmen with him (the next ENRON, that is...) HEY THIS IS EASY! If Troy Davis can be possibly wrongly executed with the full apparatus of the courts, what could a vindictive Executive Branch sociopath with the NSA behind him do? In the "War on Terror" the battlefield is everywhere including your front yard and the Motel 6. Very convenient.
I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. - Oath of the President of the United States
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
IMPEACH TRAITOR TO THE CONSTITUTION OBAMA. WE WILL NOT GO WITHOUT A FIGHT.
It was first reported in January of last year that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens whom the President had ordered assassinated without any due process, and one of those Americans was Anwar al-Awlaki. No effort was made to indict him for any crimes (despite a report last October that the Obama administration was "considering" indicting him). Despite substantial doubt among Yemen experts about whether he even has any operational role in Al Qaeda, no evidence (as opposed to unverified government accusations) was presented of his guilt. When Awlaki's father sought a court order barring Obama from killing his son, the DOJ argued, among other things, that such decisions were "state secrets" and thus beyond the scrutiny of the courts. He was simply ordered killed by the President: his judge, jury and executioner. When Awlaki's inclusion on President Obama's hit list was confirmed, The New York Times noted that "it is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing."
After several unsuccessful efforts to assassinate its own citizen, the U.S. succeeded today (and it was the U.S.). It almost certainly was able to find and kill Awlaki with the help of its long-time close friend President Saleh, who took a little time off from murdering his own citizens to help the U.S. murder its. The U.S. thus transformed someone who was, at best, a marginal figure into a martyr, and again showed its true face to the world. The government and media search for The Next bin Laden has undoubtedly already commenced.
What's most striking about this is not that the U.S. Government has seized and exercised exactly the power the Fifth Amendment was designed to bar ("No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law"), and did so in a way that almost certainly violates core First Amendment protections (questions that will now never be decided in a court of law). What's most amazing is that its citizens will not merely refrain from objecting, but will stand and cheer the U.S. Government's new power to assassinate their fellow citizens, far from any battlefield, literally without a shred of due process from the U.S. Government. Many will celebrate the strong, decisive, Tough President's ability to eradicate the life of Anwar al-Awlaki -- including many who just so righteously condemned those Republican audience members as so terribly barbaric and crass for cheering Governor Perry's execution of scores of serial murderers and rapists -- criminals who were at least given a trial and appeals and the other trappings of due process before being killed.
From an authoritarian perspective, that's the genius of America's political culture. It not only finds way to obliterate the most basic individual liberties designed to safeguard citizens from consummate abuses of power (such as extinguishing the lives of citizens without due process). It actually gets its citizens to stand up and clap and even celebrate the destruction of those safeguards.
* * * * *
In the column I wrote on Wednesday regarding Wall Street protests, I mistakenly linked to a post discussing a New York Times article by Colin Moynihan as an example of a "condescending" media report about the protest. There was nothing condescending or otherwise worthy of criticism in Moynihan's article; I meant to reference this NYT article by Ginia Bellafante. My apologies to Moynihan, who rightly objected by email, for the mistake.
UPDATE: What amazes me most whenever I write about this topic is recalling how terribly upset so many Democrats pretended to be when Bush claimed the power merely to detain or even just eavesdrop on American citizens without due process. Remember all that? Yet now, here's Obama claiming the power not to detain or eavesdrop on citizens without due process, but to kill them; marvel at how the hardest-core White House loyalists now celebrate this and uncritically accept the same justifying rationale used by Bush/Cheney (this is war! the President says he was a Terrorist!) without even a moment of acknowledgment of the profound inconsistency or the deeply troubling implications of having a President -- even Barack Obama -- vested with the power to target U.S. citizens for murder with no due process.
Also, during the Bush years, civil libertarians who tried to convince conservatives to oppose that administration's radical excesses would often ask things like this: would you be comfortable having Hillary Clinton wield the power to spy on your calls or imprison you with no judicial reivew or oversight? So for you good progressives out there justifying this, I would ask this: how would the power to assassinate U.S. citizens without due process look to you in the hands of, say, Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann?
I was on Democracy Now earlier this morning discussing the Awlaki assassination and presidential due-process-free killings:
I LOL'ed. In this case, Obama has my 100% full support.
Gouverner, c'est prévoir
"When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe." … Frederic Bastiat
"When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe." … Frederic Bastiat
As much as I hate Obummer, we're at war. Anwar al-Awlaki was wearing an enemy uniform. Tough $h!t.
Bodybuilder, n. A weight lifter too weak to be a powerlifter.
Powerlifter, n. A weight lifter too fat to be a bodybuilder.
HIT Jedi, n. The fitness equivalent to Al Qaeda, except
rather than fly planes into buildings, devotees fly
steaming piles of dogmatic horse**** into your ears
and down your throat.
Every thing works..........for about 6 weeks.
Hard gainer = under eater
_____________________________________________
Of course he does you're not even American. Zionist.
said the delusional fool
Gouverner, c'est prévoir
"When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe." … Frederic Bastiat
It would be truly ironic if Obama was impeached over this, of all things.
(1) My son is in the class of 2013 at US Naval Academy. Go Navy, beat Army!
(2) “It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.” - George Washington
(3) The real struggle in human history is reason versus unreason, or rationalism versus irrationalism—those who support the mind and those who oppose it. —Andrew Bernstein
Aren't you the noted constitutional scholar who claimed that Obama had the authority to pardon Troy Davis?
Aren't you the idiot who doesn't know that he did? President can pardon federal crimes. Cop killing a fed rap in every state, sh!t-for brains. Now say you're sorry like a nice little girl.
James Bernard Banks United States District Court for the District of Utah 1972 2 years probation Illegal possession of government property.
Russell James Dixon United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia 1960 2 years probation Liquor law violation.
Laurens Dorsey United States District Court for the District of New Jersey 1998 5 years probation; $71,000 restitution Conspiracy to defraud by making false statements to the Food and Drug Administration.
Ronald Lee Foster United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina 1963 Probation; $20 fine Mutilation of coins.
Timothy James Gallagher United States District Court for the District of Arizona 1982 3 years probation Cocaine possession and conspiracy to distribute.
Roxane Kay Hettinger United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa 1986 30 days in jail; 3 years probation Conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
Edgar Leopold Kranz Jr. General court-martial convened at Hickam Air Force Base 1994 24 months confinement; reduction in pay Cocaine use, adultery and bouncing checks
Floretta Leavy United States District Court for the District of Kansas 1984 366 days in prison; 3 years probation Drug offenses.
Scoey Lathaniel Morris United States District Court for the Western District of Texas 1991 3 years probation; $1,200 fine Counterfeiting offenses.
It would be truly ironic if Obama was impeached over this, of all things.
Well what with Obummer being a Harvard law professor and all it really doesn't speak very highly for Harvard law.
in absentia (in ab-sensh-ee-ah) adj. or adv. phrase. Latin for "in absence," or more fully, in one's absence. Occasionally a criminal trial is conducted without the defendant being present when he/she walks out or escapes after the trial has begun, since the accused has thus waived the Constitutional right to face one's accusers. During the War Crimes trials following World War II, it was employed against Nazis who had committed atrocities and then disappeared, the most famous being Martin Bormann, Hitler's closest aide.
problem solved. Kill him.
Bodybuilder, n. A weight lifter too weak to be a powerlifter.
Powerlifter, n. A weight lifter too fat to be a bodybuilder.
HIT Jedi, n. The fitness equivalent to Al Qaeda, except
rather than fly planes into buildings, devotees fly
steaming piles of dogmatic horse**** into your ears
and down your throat.
Every thing works..........for about 6 weeks.
Hard gainer = under eater
_____________________________________________
Location: Huntersville, North Carolina, United States
Age: 31
Stats: 5'10", 173 lbs
Posts: 436
Rep Power: 48
Originally Posted by voodoo101
Aren't you the idiot who doesn't know that he did? President can pardon federal crimes. Cop killing a fed rap in every state, sh!t-for brains. Now say you're sorry like a nice little girl.
James Bernard Banks United States District Court for the District of Utah 1972 2 years probation Illegal possession of government property.
Russell James Dixon United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia 1960 2 years probation Liquor law violation.
Laurens Dorsey United States District Court for the District of New Jersey 1998 5 years probation; $71,000 restitution Conspiracy to defraud by making false statements to the Food and Drug Administration.
Ronald Lee Foster United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina 1963 Probation; $20 fine Mutilation of coins.
Timothy James Gallagher United States District Court for the District of Arizona 1982 3 years probation Cocaine possession and conspiracy to distribute.
Roxane Kay Hettinger United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa 1986 30 days in jail; 3 years probation Conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
Edgar Leopold Kranz Jr. General court-martial convened at Hickam Air Force Base 1994 24 months confinement; reduction in pay Cocaine use, adultery and bouncing checks
Floretta Leavy United States District Court for the District of Kansas 1984 366 days in prison; 3 years probation Drug offenses.
Scoey Lathaniel Morris United States District Court for the Western District of Texas 1991 3 years probation; $1,200 fine Counterfeiting offenses.
Notice anything about that list. Everyone was convicted in federal court ("United District Court for the..." or in court-martial). Davis was convicted in state court. So no, Obama could not pardon him.
Then why do all of the Obummer nut hugging blogs claim that he was?
Bodybuilder, n. A weight lifter too weak to be a powerlifter.
Powerlifter, n. A weight lifter too fat to be a bodybuilder.
HIT Jedi, n. The fitness equivalent to Al Qaeda, except
rather than fly planes into buildings, devotees fly
steaming piles of dogmatic horse**** into your ears
and down your throat.
Every thing works..........for about 6 weeks.
Hard gainer = under eater
_____________________________________________
Location: Huntersville, North Carolina, United States
Age: 31
Stats: 5'10", 173 lbs
Posts: 436
Rep Power: 48
Originally Posted by all pro
Then why do all of the Obummer nut hugging blogs claim that he was?
Not sure, and I haven't heard anyone say that.
He graduated from Harvard Law, but he didn't teach there. He taught at UChicago. (Unless he visited at HLS for a semester or something, but I don't think he did.)
Next to get labeled and zapped: that punk accountant at ENRON who's going to blow the whistle and take down a few congressmen with him (the next ENRON, that is...) HEY THIS IS EASY!
As much as I hate Obummer, we're at war. Anwar al-Awlaki was wearing an enemy uniform. Tough $h!t.
Pretty much this^
RTR
"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." - Vince Lombardi
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened...I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform." - Norman Thomas
As much as I hate Obummer, we're at war. Anwar al-Awlaki was wearing an enemy uniform. Tough $h!t.
You mean a head-dress? So all Muslims are the target now? And the "battlefield" is now everywhere, including your front yard and the Motel 6 you are sleeping in. Sound a little too convenient for abuse of power?
Location: Huntersville, North Carolina, United States
Age: 31
Stats: 5'10", 173 lbs
Posts: 436
Rep Power: 48
Originally Posted by voodoo101
Next to get labeled and zapped: that punk accountant at ENRON who's going to blow the whistle and take down a few congressmen with him (the next ENRON, that is...) HEY THIS IS EASY!
Now who else?
So I'm going to assume that you think the President can pardon people for their state court convictions.
So I'm going to assume that you think the President can pardon people for their state court convictions.
Can't you get convicted on a federal charge (US Code) in a state court? In addition to what is on the state books? Most convictions consist of numerous counts.
What if they had killed Brandon Mayfield? The guy whose fingerprints the FBI said were a "100% verified" match to the Madrid train bombings? Then the FBI turned out to be lying, and knew it, and didn't care. The only reason Mayfield is not rotting incommunicado in a military prison (or now could have been killed) is because the Spanish government went public screaming that they had the wrong guy.
"On May 6, 2004, Brandon Mayfield, an Oregon attorney, was arrested by the FBI in connection with the Madrid train bombings. A bag containing detonating devices, found by Spanish authorities, had fingerprints that were initially identified by the FBI as "100% verified" as Mayfield's. But in a subsequent lawsuit Judge Ann Aiken found that this information was largely "fabricated and concocted by the FBI and DOJ". Mayfield was cleared only when the Spanish authorities protested that the fingerprints were not a match... Further, the Spanish authorities informed the FBI they had other suspects in the case, Moroccan immigrants not linked to anyone in the USA. The FBI completely disregarded all of the information from the Spanish authorities."
calm down, the FBI investigated themselves and found they hadn't broken any laws.
calm down, the FBI investigated themselves and found they hadn't broken any laws.
They only investigated themselves after the Spanish government went public with Mayfield's innocence. That is the one and only reason he wasn't framed. Before that they were telling the FBI the same thing, but the FBI couldn't care less. Mayfield got lucky that someone in Spain gave a ****. Very lucky.
Also, i don't know how you have this Saintly patience about you, I have a hard time getting through all your threads due to an absurd amount of nay sayers who know nothing but what fox/the government tells them
What if they had killed Brandon Mayfield? The guy whose fingerprints the FBI said were a "100% verified" match to the Madrid train bombings? Then the FBI turned out to be lying, and knew it, and didn't care. The only reason Mayfield is not rotting incommunicado in a military prison (or now could have been killed) is because the Spanish government went public screaming that they had the wrong guy.
Next to get labeled and zapped: that punk accountant at ENRON who's going to blow the whistle and take down a few congressmen with him (the next ENRON, that is...) HEY THIS IS EASY! If Troy Davis can be possibly wrongly executed with the full apparatus of the courts, what could a vindictive Executive Branch sociopath with the NSA behind him do? In the "War on Terror" the battlefield is everywhere including your front yard and the Motel 6. Very convenient.
Location: Huntersville, North Carolina, United States
Age: 31
Stats: 5'10", 173 lbs
Posts: 436
Rep Power: 48
Originally Posted by voodoo101
Can't you get convicted on a federal charge (US Code) in a state court? In addition to what is on the state books? Most convictions consist of numerous counts.
The federal homicide statutes. The case against Troy Davis was brought by the State of Georgia; the United States was not a party to the suit, so Obama could not have pardoned him. There is a generic homicide statute (Section 1111) but there's a separate protection for federal law enforcement and employees (Section 1114). The generic homicide section would overlap with Troy Davis' case, but if you go down that road, virtually every crime could be tried at the federal level because there's probably a federal statute that overlaps (murder, arson, theft, etc.).
To answer your question, a federal crime, as in being prosecuted by a federal prosecutor, cannot be tried in state court.
The federal homicide statutes. The case against Troy Davis was brought by the State of Georgia; the United States was not a party to the suit, so Obama could not have pardoned him. There is a generic homicide statute (Section 1111) but there's a separate protection for federal law enforcement and employees (Section 1114). The generic homicide section would overlap with Troy Davis' case, but if you go down that road, virtually every crime could be tried at the federal level because there's probably a federal statute that overlaps (murder, arson, theft, etc.).
To answer your question, a federal crime, as in being prosecuted by a federal prosecutor, cannot be tried in state court.
Thank you for the clarification you are right, i was sure there was a federal rap in the counts. However, on more research Obama was not powerless, BBC reported:
In Washington DC dozens gathered outside the White House, in the hope that President Barack Obama might intervene at the last-minute. Reports suggest around a dozen people have been arrested for refusing to co-operate with police...The president does not have the authority to pardon Davis, but he could order an investigation into the case and delay the execution.
So Obama gets impeached and then what? Biden becomes president? No thank you.
Obama and Biden are the same they are puppets of Wall Street, but demanding the impeachment of Obama would be taken as a dangerous sign that the munchkins have woken up and are demanding their rights, and understand Al-Awaki is only a trial balloon. The real targets are the punk accountant at the next ENRON who'll be assassinated before he blows the whistle that billions of your money is getting stolen and you will never hear about it.
In the meantime Fox News is egging us on with Orwell's "two minutes of hate" as our liberties are destroyed. Wake the F up.
Most of the domestic coverage in the US centered around praise for the killings and reiterating the half-formed allegations against Awlaki,while glossing over the fact that the administration’s primary objection to Awlaki, and the one which actually put him in US sights in the first place, was his collection of religious sermons critical of America’s imperial ambitions. This of course explains why there was no trial, because religious sermons critical of a president’s foreign policy are not against the law. Interestingly the closest thing to an allegation of direct AQAP ties was his putative influence on the December 2009 Christmas underbomber. This of course came just days after another failed assassination attempt by US cruise missiles killed a large number of Yemeni civilians.
Anyone who doesn't what's going on is a sorry-a$$ slave. BECAUSE IN THE MEANTIME the bankers are laughing at the Wall Street protests spreading like wildfire, maybe the organizers of these are next on the "hit list." They are literally drinking champagne and laughing at your sorry a$$es. They have the power and they just got more power.
That champagne is paid for with YOUR bail-out money and YOUR money going toward the 9/11 Wars which keeps making the bankers rich, while now you can't afford college sh!t you can't even afford trade school now. You'll be sleeping in the streets in 20 years after the old man dies and they take everything he has for medical care for the last years of his life, because there will be NO Medicare. Sh!t, they even have you cheering for that too! As if Medicare is the reason we are broke.
And THEY don't give a fuk. Now the disinfos here who also happen to be the same people who are on the same side of a lot of other issues will try to tell you that bail-out money got paid back, but that is a lie.
A series of bailouts, bank rescues and other economic lifelines could end up costing the federal government as much as $23 trillion, the U.S. government's watchdog over the effort says -- a staggering amount that is nearly double the nation's entire economic output for a year.
Discounts & Deals - Sign Up!
Bookmarks