First let me say Iagree with the political theatre part and i know the price of failure in capturing American-born persons of interest is high. if they escape, they become harder to find, and can continue to plot attacks against America. I’m for the drone program. I’m for killing high-level al-Qaeda targets, but if they’re American citizens, and they’re not posing an imminent threat at the time, it should be incumbent upon us to capture, detain, and place them on trial...
Why? It might be they have been under the radar for years, and we get lucky. Why would we throw away that chance?
Our Constitution was meant to constrain government, and to ensure that certain rights can never be suspended by a usurpatory government. A president assuming the power of judge, jury, and executioner is an awesome power, and one that doesn’t have any congressional oversight as of late...
The President did not just unilaterally assume that power. Congress gave it to him -- and rightfully so in my opinion. Its a tough issue, but I think such a power is needed.
Sen. Rand Paul asked on the Senate floor, what are the limits of presidential power?
Congress can take away this authority if they so choose.
Furthermore, Sen. Paul said that we know little about some of the people on these kill lists. Concerning the president’s authority to use drone strikes on American citizens within the United States, the answer should be definitely no...
This is the issue of transparency in what criteria are used to identify someone as a threat...and this is a much harder issue. There does need to be some guidelines in place, but the public realistically doesn't need to know about them. I'd be more than happy with a simple briefing to the Gang of 8 -- something which might already be taking place.
What’s more disturbing is the fact that liberal Democrats seem content with this campaign. After all, we had a conservative Republican lead this filibuster effort. If this was George Bush, articles of impeachment would’ve been brought up. However, while some in the media don’t seem to be willingly to admit their failure in reporting Obama’s hypocrisy, I’m more than prepared to say that I now believe I was wrong in my support of killing American citizens abroad without due process...
The War on Terror has pushed us into new areas of warfare and legal theory, but we cannot forget the principles we’re fighting for in our conflict with al-qaeda. What good is our Bill of Rights if we decide to shred it for a quick kill on one of our fellow citizens? Even the most despicable American deserves the right of due process under the law. Our Bill of Rights was never meant to be applied to citizens on a case by case basis.
We just come down on different sides of this issue -- your position is a credible, valid position.