Our country just carried out the first extra judicial death sentence of a United States citizen, that I am aware of - under the circumstance where the person was executed for providing material support to a terrorist organization, but was not in possession of any weapon that posed an immediate threat to anybody.
No trial, no appeal, just death.
I am certainly not crying over the fact that Anwar Al-Alwaki is dead...by all accounts, he cheered, goaded and probably colluded in attacks that killed innocent people. But, that should never ever trump the rule of law our country has been founded upon - a rule that requires American Citizens be afforded due process before sentence, which has time and time again been interpreted to mean a jury trial.
In this case, the closest anybody can tell is that some secret committee, based upon secret evidence, issued a death warrant. The administration opposed this man's family's attempts to challenge the publicly known death warrant, and was successful - no hearing or trial on the merits.
As a life-long democrat and unabashed liberal, I hope this stain upon American history haunts Obama throughout the rest of his life and his legacy beyond - as our commanders in chief are fond of saying - the buck stops with Obama on this one.
1 comment:
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