More on the presidential right to murder people


Scott Horton goes into more detail in analyzing attorney general Anthony Holder’s speech justifying the killing of US citizens abroad.

Meanwhile Jonathan Turley describes a congressional hearing in which FBI director Robert Muller, in response to direct questions, said that he did not know whether under the Obama policy that justifies killing Americans abroad, whether he could order such an assassination within the US too. You would think that the director of the FBI would be the one person who could get a clarification on such an important question from the attorney general.

As Turley writes:

Mueller was asked whether the same criteria used to kill Americans abroad also would apply in the United States and whether the President retained the “historical” right to order such assassination on U.S. land… He appeared unclear whether he had the power under the Obama Kill Doctrine or, in the very least, was unwilling to discuss that power. For civil libertarians, the answer should be easy: “Of course, I do not have that power under the Constitution.”

Stephen Colbert takes apart the rationalizations offered by the Obama administration for the murder of US citizens. Apparently just saying the word ‘war’ is all it takes to make murder legal.

(This clip appeared on March 6, 2012. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)

Comments

  1. Pierce R. Butler says

    Apparently just saying the word ‘war’ is all it takes to make murder legal.

    ‘Twas ever thus…

  2. Shawn Foster says

    What about his civil right’s? This goddam Obama think’s that
    he is above the Laws of our country It is just crazy that we the
    people give this kind of power to some politation we really know
    nothing about. And this man we don’t even know for sure if he was even born in the united states or Kenya or Iran who know’s whare. Sorry about the rant. Any way, They have to much power without any congreshonal oversite

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