Report: US to offer legal backing for 'targeted killing' of Americans overseas

Attorney General Eric Holder will be outlining legal framework for how the government will be killing Americans on foreign soil !!!

I guess he has the best experience.

He will be talking at Northwestern University Monday (March 5th).


Published March 04, 2012 -- Associated Press (Fox News Article)

WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to outline the legal framework for the use of lethal force in targeted killings of Americans overseas in a major speech at Northwestern University law school, an Obama administration official said Sunday night.

Holder's speech Monday comes five months after the killing of U.S.-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in a drone attack.

[color=cyan]The official said the attorney general plans to say that lethal force is legal under a Sept. 18, 2001, joint congressional resolution. The Authorization for Use of Military Force enacted a week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks authorizes the use of all necessary force in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the contents of the speech haven't been released

Report

*We rarely hear about that "9/18/2001 joint congressional resolution"*

The official said Holder also will address how the Obama administration reformed military commissions and how both the Obama and the George W. Bush administrations have successfully used civilian courts to convict and sentence terrorists. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the contents of the speech haven't been released.

[color=cyan]In recent months, the Obama administration has engaged in an internal debate about how much to reveal about the legal justification for the al-Awlaki killing.

What else are they "debating" about ????

Very odd too, how they are suddenly relating themselves with the Bush Administration !!

Hmmm.....

I find it sadly ironic that Obama has crossed lines now that even Bush didn't. With this, he truly goes where his predecessor dared not tread. Bush did it, oh sure...but he didn't have the disrespect for us all to be outright public and in our face about it.

This is targeted murder when we're talking about American citizens. If they think someone has gone so far as to forfeit the protections that status should give...fine. Pass the law which defines in a Constitutional way how that citizenship is stripped. Then...we at least have a chance for public debate of what may have our own Government targeting other Americans for assassination.

Geeze.... I liked it so much better when leaders lied and just said attempts to arrest went badly...or the guy went down fighting. It just gets ugly beyond all reason when the pure act of targeted murder is not simply suggested, but forced as new U.S. Policy. This is NOT the kind of change *ANYONE* voted for. He took the WORST of the last Presidency and RAN with it.