re: #69 JeffM70

re: #52 NJDhockeyfan

Please. Quit with the strawmen. If the word of the government is enough to convict somebody, then why do we have a judicial system at all? This is about whether we as a country want to give the U.S. president the power to kill a U.S. citizen without due process.

In Awlaki’s case, his own words declare things clearly enough. If we ever got a situation in which a U.S. president announced that a drone strike had taken out, oh, say, an accused polygamous sect leader in Arizona, or a leader of Greenpeace, or what have you, we’d be having a very different conversation. For starters, we wouldn’t be having it on the internet, all open and above board.

Go ahead. Say that’s ridiculous. Indeed it is. That’s my point. Nobody’s seriously worried that this, or future, U.S. presidents will take this as a precedent for summary execution by drone strike of domestic criminals or activists-who-push-the-edge and draw the interest of homeland security.