How three US citizens were killed by their own government in 2011

How three US citizens were killed by their own government in 2011

www.thenation.com

The consensus that has emerged from various anonymous officials commenting on Abdulrahman’s killing was that it was a mistake. I asked the former senior administration official why, if that was the case, the White House didn’t publicly acknowledge it. “We killed three US citizens in a very short period,” he told me. “Two of them weren’t even targets: Samir Khan and Abdulrahman Awlaki. That doesn’t look good. It’s embarrassing.”

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Related News Links:
Birth Certificate: www.washingtonpost.com
Did an Intelligence Asset Persuade Abdulrahman to Search for His Father: www.emptywheel.net
An American Teenager in Yemen: Time.com
How Team Obama Justifies the Killing of a 16-year-old American: The Atlantic.com

Link to Jeremy Scahill video

Jeremy Scahill, author of the international bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, writes a brilliant journalistic piece in this article in The Nation, excerpted from Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield, which was just published. This article provides new information about the killing of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a 16-year-old American boy and the son of al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki.

www.thenation.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

While I completely agree that killing a sixteen year old from ANY nation is deeply wrong, on so, so many levels, I think it is important to also realise that when a father elects to make a choice about his path in life, it is for his sons, daughters, wife and entire extended family to choose wether they walk it with him, or curse him for a fool and turn away.

In such serious circumstances as these, what with Anwar being an actual AQ member, it was suicidally stupid for his son to go looking for him. That said, if there were innocents around the target, in my opinion the shot should never have been taken. I have heard US officials call these drone attacks "surgical strikes" before now, which quite frankly is the most utterly crass description which could ever be applied.

Note to the US government, JSOC, the CIA, and all other parties fighting the war on terror. If you want to call something a surgical strike, then kill only the man you are aiming for.

reply to post by TrueBrit

I agree that the father's actions affect the whole family and, in that theme, U.S. anti-terrorist actions are affecting the whole nation. Our agencies create, support and influence terrorist groups here and abroad and seem astonished that it is engendering more terrorism.

reply to post by DiscreteParticle


Oh...

When I clicked this thread I thought it was going to be about Benghazi. Where our government told troops to stand down who wanted to go help out their fellow soldiers under attack.

Nvmd.

reply to post by NOTurTypical

I think you have actually made a brilliant connection. It is all related. We interfere in other countries to the detriment of US citizens. Next hearings on the Benghazi matter are May 8. I hope it's not a whitewash and we begin to understand the consequences of our international actions, and the inexplicable lack of action at the compound.