Assassinations Of U.S. Citizens is LEGAL: Dennis Blair

Bipartisan unity on assassination policy (4.00 / 2)

Good to see the two parties aren't bickering and getting all 'political' about this stuff.

Links, for those who think this really can't be happening:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

http://www.commondreams.org/he...

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness, For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people, For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. -- A-Hep

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by: fairleft @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 09:24:22 AM CST

Well, 1 Repub upset CIA helped assassinate some Christian missionaries (5.00 / 1)

Can't be making that kind of mistake:

Some House members raised concerns about these latest developments. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), who criticized the intelligence community this week for misconduct surrounding the 2001 attack on a plane piloted by American missionaries in Peru, questioned the policy.

"The targeting of Americans -- it's a very sensitive issue, but again there's been more information in the public domain than what has been shared with this committee," Hoekstra said. "There is no clarity...what is the legal framework?"

Glenn Greenwald penned an op-ed on Thursday criticizing the intelligence community's newly revealed authority to kill Americans abroad. Greenwald argues that "special permissions" for assassinations should not serve as sufficient credentials for murder. Without any judicial approval or oversight, Greenwald says, this process is "basically giving the President the power to impose death sentences on his own citizens without any charges or trial."

http://www.commondreams.org/he...

The Repub wasn't fantasizing either. The 2001 attack has been covered up for seven years:

CIA Video Of U.S. Missionaries' Plane Being Shot Down In Peru (VIDEO)
Huffington Post
Nicholas Sabloff
First Posted: 02- 4-10 09:26 AM

ABC News has obtained some incredibly dramatic footage [scroll down for video] of an incident from nine years ago in which the CIA watched as a Peruvian air force fighter jets shot down a plane carrying American missionaries even as the pilot screamed for help.

The tape was shot from a CIA plane which was on assignment in Peru as part of anti-smuggling operations undertaken in coordination with the Peruvian air force. As ABC's Brian Ross notes, it has taken this long for the CIA to acknowledge its responsibility in the matter.

Traveling in the plane, which was mistakenly believed to be carrying drug smugglers, was a family of Christian missionaries from Michigan, the Bowers. The mother, Veronica Bowers, and her infant daughter were killed by bullets fired at the plane. . . .

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness, For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people, For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. -- A-Hep

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by: fairleft @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 09:38:11 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Greenwald asks, naively?: (0.00 / 0)

That's basically giving the President the power to impose death sentences on his own citizens without any charges or trial.  Who could possibly support that?

http://www.salon.com/news/opin...

Well, both major political parties, it's bipartisan firmly locked in policy now. If Obama hadn't been elected, it wouldn't be and much of the Dem party leadership and pundits would be howling about the Presidential right to kill at will. Howling insincerely, of course, but that's the best you can get from the Dems.

Greenwald has a facing reality problem.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness, For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people, For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. -- A-Hep

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by: fairleft @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 09:49:22 AM CST

America is crazy and doesn't know it (4.00 / 2)

So first it was foreign  terrorists, then it was foreign people suspected of being terrorists who were kidnapped, tortured and some executed, now it's Americans who are suspected of being terrorists, but it's ok because they have to be overseas.

What's next?

What's next is what is probably already happening, Americans are being executed in America...I'll be anything...it's the next shoe to drop...and the shoes  keep dropping and the heavily sedated American public listlessly looks on having becomed inured to the idea that this is all "normal behavior".

Whats really interesting about all this is it's presentation. Where blair doesn't start by DEFENDING the idea of assassination, but rather takes a postion that this is normal and then reassures people that it won't happen to them because they are not "enemies" of America. And that this has nothing to do with Free Speech. The people suspected of being enemies to the United States are not granted the privilege of saying...like the missionaries...."excuse me, but I think you might have the wrong person".

And Blair reassures people who might be missionaries....or ordinary citizens...that this won't happen again...because he's not going to let it. He's in complete control of all things.

The Afghans and Pakistani's who are being killed relentlessly and who are not even targets, just causualties of whatever is imagined to be a target are of course only people who bear a remarkable resemblance to human beings and if Blair makes mistakes by killing them,  that's not of any significance.

This country has gone mad. And sometimes really crazy people don't think they are crazy. Crazy people who know they are crazy are in better shape.

This is a nation of crazy people who don't think they are crazy. America needs to get to the point where it knows it's crazy and then has to move from there.

Being crazy and thinking your not crazy will lead to an expansion of madness.

And this is fascism and other things, mass delusion all mixed together.

I mean this is really nutty, isn't it.

Almost no press coverage on this....

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by: Stu Piddy @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 13:34:37 PM CST

[ Parent ]

mmm, no what's next is (5.00 / 1)

arresting the American citizen on US territory and then sending them abroad to be killed "legally".

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it", Helen Keller, communist.

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by: DavidByron @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 22:37:45 PM CST

[ Parent ]

And fairleft has (0.00 / 0)

an "understanding what a rhetorical question is" problem.  

How many stereotypical leftwingers does it take to fix the dim bulb in your attic?

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by: conventional wisdum @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 14:57:15 PM CST

[ Parent ]

If it were a rhetorical, he would've followed it up with (0.00 / 0)

"Not the leadership of either major party" or some such. Instead he just moves forward as if 'everyone' will come to his side once he explains the justice and constitutional law problems with the new policy.

IOW, the context sez you're wrong and I'm right.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness, For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people, For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. -- A-Hep

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by: fairleft @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 15:40:40 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Maybe you should look up (0.00 / 0)

what Greenwald actually said immediately following his rhetorical question in the link you provided.

But even if you're someone who does want the President to have the power to order American citizens killed without a trial by decreeing that they are Terrorists...

That would indicate the Greenwald is well aware that there are those who do support such a thing, and he goes on to explain why they should not.  I don't believe he is so naive to think that politicians will suddenly change course simply because he typed some words pointing out why this is wrong and a bad idea even if you were to believe it is right.

You are not right, you are a cherry-picking moron.

I can hardly wait for your next post explaining why Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky fail the fairleft purity test for liberals.

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by: conventional wisdum @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 16:18:57 PM CST

[ Parent ]

The point is that assassination is supported not just by some little someone, (0.00 / 0)

it's supported by the entire commanding heights of the political system. Greenwald doesn't recognize that -- "no one is listening and your arguments don't fucking matter" -- and the death of our supposedly democratic and political system is a very important thing to recognize. Greenwald is unwillling to go there, but this case in particular should be the time when he does. How bad does it have to get before he stops his by rote legal argumentation and looks at the big completely unresponsive picture?

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness, For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people, For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. -- A-Hep

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by: fairleft @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 17:05:22 PM CST

[ Parent ]

well that's just great. nt (4.00 / 2)

The defectors have started an underground railroad to smuggle other rebels out of hostile territory

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by: doberman pinche @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 16:54:35 PM CST

Sounds like every moderator that ever banned anyone (4.00 / 3)

under no circumstances would Americans be assassinated overseas for criticizing the government, adding "we don't target people for free speech." Rather they are subject to assassination when the government decides they are a threat

It's bullshit as much as everything else he said.  They do target people over free speech.

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it", Helen Keller, communist.

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by: DavidByron @ Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 22:33:47 PM CST

[ Parent ]

People are "targeted"...we don't kill or assassinate... (4.00 / 2)

I like the word "target" it's something you do before you pull the trigger...you get someone in your sights...it's softer than KILL, or ASSASSINATE.

Language is interesting.

Free...anytime you hear the word ....or Freedom used you ought to note that is a word used by right wing organizations. It's a code world for corporate lawlessness.

"The Freedom Foundation" an Ultra Conservative organization whose members support left wing organizations like "Narco News".  

Narco News Targets nations who need the intervention of "journalists" who want to promote "freedom" through Non-violent conflict. How do you have conflict without violence? More word confusion to cover up funny business of "intelligence agencies"

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by: Stu Piddy @ Sat Feb 06, 2010 at 01:41:47 AM CST

[ Parent ]