HuffPo: On the Killing of an American and America by Robin Koerner

[deadfish]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robin-koerner/on-the-killing-of-an-amer_b_996074.html

hXXp://www.huffingtonpost.com/robin-koerner/on-the-killing-of-an-amer_b_996074.html


No person who accepts the killing of an American citizen without due process, based on the assessment of the executive branch alone, can call themselves a Liberal. A vote for Obama would be a vote knowingly against the Bill of Rights, and therefore against the very existence of basic human rights in America. It would be the act of a person complicit in putting power in the hands of a man who believes not simply in the value of government intervention,

[freejack]

This article is so full of awesome that I almost passed out.

[bluesc]

That article was.. Awesome.

Turns out having Kucinich on our side on these few important issues is great - it gives people on the left an excuse to vote for Ron. Many activists on the left love Kucinich. The left/right paradigm is done.

[dusman]

Excellent read.


We should be more sickened now, when there is nothing left that a "terrorist" could take from Americans that our own government has not already taken.

Oh, how right he is.

[freejack]

Just shared this with all my friends on FB, many of whom are liberals. This ought to wake them up.

[bluesc]

Just shared this with all my friends on FB, many of who are liberals. This ought to wake them up.

Definitely. Everyone should spread to liberal friends. He calls them out at the end.

[Bruno]

Blue Republican ftw!!

[bluesc]

Blue Republican ftw!!

I didn't even realize it was him! Awesome.

[sailingaway]

This guy came out with an earlier article saying why, as a liberal, he is changing his registration to vote for Ron in the primary. Poor guy doesn't know that once it gets in the blood stream, you're a goner....

tweeted

[Cap'n Crunk]

Hehe. Guy won't know what hit him. :)

[libertygrl]

Did anyone know that another American was killed in the drone stike as well? He was a blogger.


The Charlotte family of Samir Khan, the al-Qaida propagandist killed in a U.S. airstrike Friday, ended its silence Wednesday night.

In a statement, the family cast the 25-year-old Khan as a "law-abiding" U.S. citizen who was assassinated by an American government that has not "contacted us with any news about the recovery of our son's remains (or) offered us any condolences."


"As a result," the family added, "we feel appalled by the indifference shown to us by our government."
Khan's family moved to Charlotte from New York in 2004. A year later, while a student at Central Piedmont Community College, the young Khan started a radical blog, which he wrote in the basement of his family's home in northeast Charlotte.

A few years ago, after media reports exposed his controversial blog, Khan moved to Yemen to produce "Inspire," an English-language magazine for al-Qaida. The magazine, which appeared online, ran articles such as "How to Build a Bomb in Your Mom's Kitchen." In one early edition, Khan wrote that "I am proud to be a traitor to America."

On Friday, he was killed along with radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

Friday's drone attack is thought to be the first instance in which a U.S. citizen was tracked and killed based on secret intelligence and the president's say-so. Al-Awlaki was placed on the CIA "kill or capture" list by the Obama administration in April 2010 - the first American to be so targeted.

Al-Awlaki's death was the biggest success in the Obama administration's intensified campaign to take out al-Qaida's leadership since the May killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The pursuit of al-Awlaki and Friday's strike were directed by the same U.S. special unit that directed the Navy SEALs raid on bin Laden's hideout.

Al-Awlaki and his comrades were moving through a desert region east of Yemen's capital near the village of Khasaf when the drone struck, U.S. and Yemeni officials said.

In Wednesday's statement, Khan's family asserted that Samir Khan "never broke any law and was never implicated in any crime." Echoing some civil libertarians, who have questioned the decision to kill Khan and al-Awlaki - both U.S. citizens - the Khan family also raised these issues:

"Was this style of execution the only solution? Why couldn't there have been a capture and trial? Where is the justice? As we mourn our son, we must ask these questions."

The family's statement was released through Jibril Hough, a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Charlotte. It was Hough who arranged two attempted "interventions" in his Charlotte home, where he and Khan's father, Zafar Khan, gathered with local Muslim leaders in an attempt to persuade the young Khan - prior to this exodus to Yemen - to abandon his radical rhetoric.

Here is the full Khan family statement:
"We, the family of Samir Khan, in our time of grief and mourning, request that the media let us have our peace and privacy during this difficult time. It has been stated in the media that Samir was not the target of the attack; however no U.S. official has contacted us with any news about the recovery of our son's remains, nor offered us any condolences. As a result, we feel appalled by the indifference shown to us by our government.

"Being a law abiding citizen of the United States our late son Samir Khan never broke any law and was never implicated of any crime. The Fifth Amendment states that no citizen shall be 'deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law' yet our government assassinated two of its citizens. Was this style of execution the only solution? Why couldn't there have been a capture and trial? Where is the justice? As we mourn our son, we must ask these questions."


Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2011/10/06/2940258/family-of-al-qaida-blogger-samir.html#ixzz1a8Nz0YYr

[anewvoice]

Not that I expect much but I remembered to contact my representatives (all three democrats) with the following.



I am appauled that I need send this message as I had truly expected an outcry from Washington which would ensure to me that our government was still interested in protecting my liberty and at least paying lip service to the Constitution, the law of our land.

But what did I hear? Silence. Silence on perhaps the most significant issue in my lifetime, and for the most part the silence was across aisles.

An American citizen was assassinated at the SOLE discretion of the President. A CIA kill list which has American citizens, a secret panel, zero transparency, no due process, and silence.

http://www.reuters.com/article​/2011/10/05/us-cia-killlist-id​USTRE79475C20111005

I believed for years the issue was Bush and his cronies, that America had somehow fallen from grace because they led us there. But now, Obama commits an act even more tyrannical and not a peep, implicit support from bort parties.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robin-koerner/on-the-killing-of-an-amer_b_996074.html

I fear for our country that this is not the biggest issue of the day. I fear for our country that nobody seems to care. I fear that one day this issue will not be overseas and by that time it will be too late for anyone to voice their concern.

Please, in whatever capacity you can, bring this issue to the fore, push for transparency from the executive branch and help ensure life and liberty is protected now and in the future.

[enjerth]

This is it, guys. Ron Paul has set himself apart as the only one to vote for if you're against this abuse of power. If we can change the public sentiment to very strongly oppose extra-judicial killing, we'll almost have it in the bag.

[bluesc]

This is it, guys. Ron Paul has set himself apart as the only one to vote for if you're against this abuse of power. If we can change the public sentiment to very strongly oppose extra-judicial killing, we'll almost have it in the bag.

That's what I've been saying since the "campaign ending" quote came out :)

He is alone on this. If he can come out with an absolutely amazing speech about it and educate the voters during a debate, I think it will be the biggest moment of this election cycle.

[D.A.S.]

That's what I've been saying since the "campaign ending" quote came out :)

He is alone on this. If he can come out with an absolutely amazing speech about it and educate the voters during a debate, I think it will be the biggest moment of this election cycle.

So true! I do wish he does come out with a major speech on this, but who will carry it, that's the question. He just spoke about it in the National Press Club in very strong words, but I think it went mostly ignored.

[sailingaway]

So true! I do wish he does come out with a major speech on this, but who will carry it, that's the question. He just spoke about it in the National Press Club in very strong words, but I think it went mostly ignored.

Then I guess we have to get BTO as big as we can so he can run more ads.

[Jeremy Tyler]

Amazing article!

[Agorism]

Can Paul get the Samir Khan family to star in a commercial about how Obama shouldn't kill people?

[presence]

#standwithrand