WASHINGTON (AP) — An internal Justice Department memo says it is legal for the government to kill U.S. citizens abroad if it believes they are senior al-Qaida leaders continually engaged in operations aimed at killing Americans.

The document provides a legal rationale behind the Obama administration's use of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects.

The 16-page document says it is lawful to target al-Qaida linked U.S. citizens if they pose an "imminent" threat of violent attack against Americans, and that delaying action against such people would create an unacceptably high risk. Such circumstances may necessitate expanding the concept of imminent threat, the memo says.

"The threat posed by al-Qaida and its associated forces demands a broader concept of imminence in judging when a person continually planning terror attacks presents an imminent threat," the document added.

A September 2011 drone strike in Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both U.S. citizens.

The memo does not require the U.S. to have information about a specific imminent attack against the U.S. But it does require that capture of a terrorist suspect not be feasible and that any such lethal operation by the United States targeting a person comply with fundamental law-of-war principles.

"A decision maker determining whether an al-Qaida operational leader presents an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States must take into account that certain members of Al-Qaida ... are continually plotting attacks against the United States" and that "al-Qaida would engage in such attacks regularly to the extent it were able to do so," says the document, which was reported by NBC.

The document also says that a decision maker must take into account that "the U.S. government may not be aware of all al-Qaida plots as they are developing and thus cannot be confident that none is about to occur; and that ... the nation may have a limited window of opportunity within which to strike in a manner that both has a high likelihood of success and reduces the probability of American casualties."

With this understanding, the document added, a high-level official could conclude, for example, that an individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States where he is an operational leader of al-Qaida or an associated force and is personally and continually involved in planning terrorist attacks against the United States.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the document is "profoundly disturbing."

"It's hard to believe that it was produced in a democracy built on a system of checks and balances," the ACLU said.

The document says that the use of lethal force would not violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution when a targeted person is an operational leader of an enemy force and an informed, high-level government official has determined that he poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the U.S.

The document said the courts have no role to play in the matter.

"Under the circumstances described in this paper, there exists no appropriate judicial forum to evaluate these constitutional considerations. It is well established that 'matters intimately related to foreign policy, and national security are rarely proper subjects for judicial intervention,'" the white paper said.

if it WERE that specific!

http://www.capitalisminstitute.org/killing-americans/


LEAKED: Obama Wants Power to Kill American Citizens

Several weeks ago Rand Paul rightfully criticized Obama for acting like a king with regard to his proposals on gun control. Without even realizing it, Sen. Paul was far more correct than he even realized.

A memo from the U.S. Justice Department was leaked today, outlining the Obama administration’s justification for murdering U.S. citizens. And it’s downright chilling.

In short, the president claims that he has the power to decide whether an American lives or dies if he deems that they are a threat to the national security of the United States. In other words, without giving them a chance at any sort of trial or hearing, the president assumes that he has the power to blow up U.S. citizens so long as he feels its justified.

But it gets worse than this. According to the memo, the president doesn’t even have to have actual intelligence that the U.S. citizen who is a target is a threat. In other words, he can just pop off anyone. Don’t believe me? Read this excerpt from the document:

“The condition that an operational leader present an ‘imminent’ threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future,”

An article from NBC News goes on to point out that:

Instead, it says, an “informed, high-level” official of the U.S. government may determine that the targeted American has been “recently” involved in “activities” posing a threat of a violent attack and “there is no evidence suggesting that he has renounced or abandoned such activities.” The memo does not define “recently” or “activities.”

In other words, the language in this document is vague. There is no objective standard for measuring a threat and nothing that the president can be held accountable to in his decision-making.

It harkens back to the power of a king…and in some ways is even worse than the powers that King George III assumed to himself before the colonists declared independence from his rule.

President Bush shares blame for this since he established dangerous and sweeping precedent for a president to wage a personal and unilateral war against terror in highly unconstitutional ways. But the problem is that Obama specifically ran against aggressive Bush polices that expanded the War on Terror. Now, Obama is going far beyond anything that Bush ever did, essentially assuming unto himself the power of judge, jury, and executionary without any clear guidelines or any congressional check.

This is by far, the most concrete piece of evidence we have to demonstrate that Obama is a power hungry tyrant. He’s willing to give himself the power to eviscerate American citizens according to his whim.
This is sheer evil.

I don't know if it's pure evil, (though he could probably give Satan a run for his money)...He does enjoy sport shooting after all.

I will pretend the liberal advocate for droning americans and Muslim babies.

If Barry suspects they are terrorists or buds with friends of friends of terrorists. Or, they talked with a 5th cousin of a friend of the friends' friend, he should kill them any way he can.

As for those acceptable losses, dead Muslim kids, they will just grow up to be terrorist so, Hussein is doing the world a favor.

FYI
A 5 year old at a school aimed an imaginary bubble gun at another kid.

Ban all guns and throw the kid that assaulted the other one into GITMO.


Just a little liberal common sense there fer al-a-ya'll.

Now, back to reality.

Notice how the terms alleged, suspected and believed to be keep coming up?

Looks like Hussein is putting himself above the law.