FILIBUSTER! Topic: Drone Strikes on American Soil. Is it Constitutional?

[psychomom]

'Ere we see a rare but beautiful 1Still_waters, with an unheard-of quadruple post!!! Good going, mate.

Jim!

just wanted to say it's good to see you,
and i hope you're keeping your trusted lieutenant's spear (sword? both?)
nice and pointy.
-el

 

[Elizabeth619]

If it's on Facebook, it must be true. I know you're just being informative Elizabeth. Forgive me for my poor attempts at humor.

I fall down the middle politically. So I don't care too much for what each side has to say when it isn't productive, which is most of the time. My older brother is a Tea Party type and my younger sister is what most would describe as a bleeding-heart liberal. I think they are both more than a bit nutty.

I cast my first presidential vote in 1980 for Reagan. I didn't think he was the better man (gasps from the Republicans), but I felt he was better for the country at the time. And that's the same reason I voted for Clinton. (more gasps)

God Bless!

I was more in the middle about 6 months ago. Now I am more far right that then tea party. That even surprised me.

As far as facebook is concerned I don't even get on it much anymore. Too much politics from people who know nothing about politics. According to many Alex Jones knows the troof! and he thinks Obama is part of the lizard people....thatsssssssss just a bit much.

 

[jimmydiggs]

I think it's a bit overdramatic. Anyone who really thinks there will be a drone strike against an American in this country is a bit off their rocker, me thinks.

Wouldn't be the first time Governments attacked their own people.

 

[Nautilus]

I was more in the middle about 6 months ago. Now I am more far right that then tea party. That even surprised me.

As far as facebook is concerned I don't even get on it much anymore. Too much politics from people who know nothing about politics. According to many Alex Jones knows the troof! and he thinks Obama is part of the lizard people....thatsssssssss just a bit much.

You apparently just have bad facebook friends...

 

[Elizabeth619]

You apparently just have bad facebook friends...

And you my dear are one of them

 

[zone]

Actually, I don't perceive an actual drone strike until the government sets up another "terrorist strike" on US soil, just like they did last time. Perhaps they'll blame Iran this time.

and that's exactly what they have just said they needed...another 'event" like Pearl Harbour OR 9-11.

But "it is possible, I suppose to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States," Holder said. "For example, the President could conceivably have no choice but to authorize the military to use such force if necessary to protect the homeland in the circumstances of a catastrophic attack” like Pearl Harbor or 9/11.

Holder

DHS built domestic surveillance tech into Predator drones | Politics and Law - CNET News < click

that's what they said BEFORE 9-11....we need a new Pearl Harbour. (PNAC)
PRESTO.

"New Pearl Harbor"
Section V of Rebuilding America's Defenses, entitled "Creating Tomorrow's Dominant Force", includes the sentence: "Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor" (51).[14]

Though not arguing that Bush administration PNAC members were complicit in those attacks, other social critics such as commentator Manuel Valenzuela and journalist Mark Danner,[39][40][41] investigative journalist John Pilger, in New Statesman,[42] and former editor of The San Francisco Chronicle Bernard Weiner, in CounterPunch,[43] all argue that PNAC members used the events of 9/11 as the "Pearl Harbor" that they needed––that is, as an "opportunity" to "capitalize on" (in Pilger's words), in order to enact long-desired plans.

Project for the New American Century - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia < click

 

[RickyZ]

You'll probably see them first at something like Waco or the Christopher Dorner thing, but make no mistake. A government that arms itself while disarming us is not to be trusted.

 

[zone]

Rand Paul ends epic filibuster over Brennan

WASHINGTON — After nearly 13 hours on the Senate floor, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., ended hi
s filibuster blocking Senate confirmation of John Brennan, President Obama's pick for director of the CIA.
"I'm going to speak as long as I can to draw attention to something I find very disturbing," Paul said when he started speaking around 11:45 a.m. Wednesday morning. He finally ceded the floor at about 12:40 a.m. local time on Thursday.
What started in the morning as a solo effort turned into a multi-senator debate that included one Democrat, Ron Wyden of Oregon, and at least seven Republicans questioning the constitutionality of drone strikes on U.S. citizens at home and abroad.
"No American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found guilty of a crime by a court," Paul said. "How can you kill someone without going to a judge, or a jury?"
Paul, a critic of Obama's unmanned drone policy, started his self-described filibuster by demanding the president or Attorney General Eric Holder issue a statement assuring that unmanned aircraft would not be used in the United States to kill terrorism suspects who are U.S. citizens.
Paul said that his opposition was not about Brennan himself, but the constitutional issues involved. "We really just want [Obama] to say he won't" attack noncombatants on U.S. soil.
The federal government has not conducted such operations and doesn't plan to, Attorney General Eric Holder told Paul in a March 4 letter. But, Holder added, it was possible President Obama could be forced by an "extraordinary circumstance" to kill citizens inside the United States, and he cited the Pearl Harbor and 9/11 attacks as examples.
During his filibuster, Paul said the fuzziness of such language created a slippery slope that could lead to the targeting of citizens who merely have different opinions about policies than the president.
"You can't be judge, jury and executioner all in one," Paul said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., took the floor around 4:30 p.m. to say any vote to end debate on Brennan's nomination or to approve him as CIA director would happen Thursday.
Democrats who lead the Senate could move Brennan's nomination to a vote, Paul said during the filibuster, if they would introduce a resolution saying they would not advocate the killing of noncombatants with drone strikes.
Wyden, a longtime critic of excessive government intelligence and surveillance programs, said "the senator from Kentucky has made a number of important points."
There are times, Wyden said, when a U.S. citizen who takes up arms against the United States while overseas can be attacked by a drone. But the executive branch of government, he said, should not be allowed to "conduct such a far-reaching policy without scrutiny."
It's not a partisan issue, Paul said, noting that he voted to support the nominations of John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, the secretaries of State and Defense.
Paul and other senators had delayed a full Senate vote on Brennan's nomination until they received more information about the drone program. The White House provided Justice Department documents on the drone program to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.
The committee then voted 12-3 to approve Brennan's nomination.
Brennan, the White House's top counterterrorism adviser, was closely linked to the drone program. The administration has used the unmanned aircraft to regularly target suspected terrorists in the Middle East and Africa.
In 2011, U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was killed by a drone strike in Yemen, raising questions about the use of the armed drones on American citizens.
Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had used Brennan's nomination to air concerns about the administration's handling of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador.
McCain and Graham said they would oppose Brennan unless they got classified documents detailing the administration's actions immediately following the attack, the Associated Press reported.
The White House has said it provided more documents to lawmakers about that attack.
Before coming to the White House, Brennan served 25 years in the CIA.

Beth look at the Wall Street Journal sneering over it.

Wall Street Journal Slams Paul’s ‘Drone Rant’: ‘Calm Down, Senator’

Wall Street Journal Slams Paul's 'Drone Rant': 'Calm Down, Senator' | TPM LiveWire < click

 

[jimmydiggs]

Beth look at the Wall Street Journal sneering over it.

Wall Street Journal Slams Paul’s ‘Drone Rant’: ‘Calm Down, Senator’

Wall Street Journal Slams Paul's 'Drone Rant': 'Calm Down, Senator' | TPM LiveWire < click

 

[djness]

In a letter to Paul Thursday afternoon, Attorney General Eric Holder said that the president does not have the authority to use a drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on U.S. soil.
"It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: 'Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?' The answer to that question is no," the three-sentence letter stated.