Greenwald says al-Awlaki deserves a trial

Gautham Nagesh Contributor
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From Gautham Nagesh:

Liberal pundit Glenn Greenwald reacts furiously to reports today that the CIA is authorized to kill American-born Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki on sight:

Instead, in Barack Obama’s America, the way guilt is determined for American citizens — and a death penalty imposed — is that the President, like the King he thinks he is, secretly decrees someone’s guilt as a Terrorist. He then dispatches his aides to run to America’s newspapers — cowardly hiding behind the shield of anonymity which they’re granted — to proclaim that the Guilty One shall be killed on sight because the Leader has decreed him to be a Terrorist. It is simply asserted that Awlaki has converted from a cleric who expresses anti-American views and advocates attacks on American military targets (advocacy which happens to be Constitutionally protected) to Actual Terrorist “involved in plots.” These newspapers then print this Executive Verdict with no questioning, no opposition, no investigation, no refutation as to its truth. And the punishment is thus decreed: this American citizen will now be murdered by the CIA because Barack Obama has ordered that it be done. What kind of person could possibly justify this or think that this is a legitimate government power?via

Confirmed: Obama authorizes assassination of U.S. citizen – Glenn Greenwald.

Greenwald also notes that “not even George Bush targeted American citizens for this type of extra-judicial killing” and goes on to discuss how despite all his Hope-y campaign promises, President Obama is even more ruthless than his predecessor when it comes to disregarding federal law to pursue bad guys:

“So back then, Obama said the President lacks the power merely to detain U.S. citizens without charges. Now, as President, he claims the power to assassinate them without charges. Could even his hardest-core loyalists try to reconcile that with a straight face?”