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Federal Government: Americans Can Be Killed, Detained If They Threaten Us

December 1, 2011 by  

Federal Government: Americans Can Be Killed, Detained If They Threaten Us

Citizens of the United States are legitimate military targets when they take up arms with al-Qaida, top national security lawyers in the Administration of Barack Obama said Thursday.

Asked about the CIA murder of anti-American alleged terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki in September, Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson said only the executive branch, not the courts, is equipped to make military battlefield targeting decisions about who qualifies as an enemy. Administration lawyers also say that U.S. citizens do not have immunity when they are at war with the United States.

The Obama Administration lawyers’ remarks come as many Americans are already in panic over what is seen as an assault on personal liberty that Congress is attempting to add to the National Defense Authorization Act S.1867. The new provisions would allow the military to detain American citizens without due process of law and hold them indefinitely if they are perceived to be a threat.

Two new amendments that would attempt to halt the indefinite detention of American citizens on United States soil under a section of the National Defense Authorization Act have been introduced and could be voted on by the end of the day.

Filed Under: Conservative Politics, Government, Liberty News, Staff Reports
Sam Rolley

Staff writer Sam Rolley began a career in journalism working for a small town newspaper while seeking a B.A. in English. After learning about many of the biases present in most modern newsrooms, Rolley became determined to find a position in journalism that would allow him to combat the unsavory image that the news industry has gained. He is dedicated to seeking the truth and exposing the lies disseminated by the mainstream media at the behest of their corporate masters, special interest groups and information gatekeepers.

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  • Cawmun Cents

    Of course the gubment reserves the right to pipe a smartbomb down anyones chimney they consider a threat.

    More importantly,you can and will be an experiment in the annals of history as to how much rule and regulation you will tolerate before you discover that your freedom is an illusion.

    When they smear you with nanotechnology,you will do as you are told or be evaporated.

    Oh,the joys of todays technologies are lost on may of their proponents.

    I must have a global tracking device within range of me or I would be lost.
    I must have the means by which I can be made a demographic in the search for what toys can be used to placate me.
    I will submit to being digitalized,compartmentalized,departmentalized,subpartmentalized.regular old mentalizied,and made to see my importance to the world as nothing short of useless,so that the progress of the world can be complete.
    Through DNA regulation,my progeny will be made to assimilate into the greater world order,or be subject to annihilation.

    Welcome to the new freedoms that your hard work brings to your nation.
    Welcome to the United World Socialist Republics.
    Big Brother is watching you…..and you dont even care.

    -CC.

  • http://liberyalearts john p.

    THIS LAW GO’S A BET MORE. THE PRESIDENT CAN HAVE YOU PUT IN JAIL FOR
    A LONG TIME. THIS LAW WILL GIVE THE PRESIDENT TO MUCH POWER .THIS
    PRESIDENT IS OUT OF CONTROL. HE THINKS HE IS A GOD.WHAT HAS HE DONE.
    HE BLAMES EVERYONE FOR HIS DUMB MISTAKES . CONGRESS BETTER DO THE
    RIGHT THING. EITHER IMPEACH HIM OR BOOT HIM OUT OFF OFFICE BE FOR
    THE ELECTIONS .THIS MAN IS A DANGEROUS DICTATOR.

  • Thinking About

    Before we had air traffic we did not need the FAA and this could go on and on. Our forefathers did not have the incite to establish a rule for what is the norm today. I also do not remember this poor American citizen giving himself up in order to be tried in American courts. Too many bleeding hearts on the wrong side of smart.

  • s c

    Readers, don’t take the easy way out and assume this is a one dimensional topic. If you remember how the Patriot Act was bastardized and was morphed into something straight out of Orwell’s 1984, then do yourself a huge favor. THINK!
    Once Uncle Scam has enough power, that SOB will interpret ANY laws ANY way the old fart chooses. It would be VERY easy to do it, and a certain prez in the W H is already doing EXACTLY THAT.
    He has IGNORED Congress, and he will ignore the Supreme Court when and if it’s ‘convenient.’ Don’t you remember how CERTAIN people reacted to RMN’s behavior? Nixon is a SAINT compared to BHO. Obs is a wannabe dictator who is counting on his silent robots to do anything he pre-approves.
    Power is a DRUG. Once you’re addicted, there is NO CURE. You do NOT protect yourself AFTER the fact, people. You protect yourself BEFORE the fact. In case you’re not certain, if Uncle Scam does to this what he did to the Patriot Act, your kids’ chains are already being made. Do you want to put them on your kids, or do you want Uncle Scam to do it? WAKE UP!

    • Vigilant

      s c, you properly and astutely picked up on the fact that this is a multidimensional issue.

      Two different things are being discussed in the article as if they were one issue. They are not.

      The provisions that would allow the military to detain American citizens without due process of law and hold them indefinitely is undoubtedly the latest thing in a government run amok. The gradual but unrelenting erosion of individual freedoms is symptomatic of a Big Brother mentality in the highest circles.

      The attempt of the author to equate the two issues is either disingenuous or an example of paranoia run amok. What the Pentagon lawyer said is correct, and is nothing new. Viet Nam held a lesson that battlefield decisions should be made by the commander on site, not by politicians at home in their cozy offices.

      • Raggs

        Vigilant.
        I think that you should get off of your stupid ass and read what the DHS considers to be a domestic terrorist… Or if you prefer, I can post it but prehaps it MIGHT open your eyes to the fact that this is no less than a declaration of WAR on the US citizens that do not agrree with a dictatorship administration.

      • Vigilant

        Raggs,

        I think that you should get off of your stupid ass and read my third paragraph.

  • Vigilant

    “Citizens of the United States are legitimate military targets when they take up arms with al-Qaida…”

    A no-brainer if I ever heard one.

    Anyone who takes up arms against the US is a traitor, period. The only rights they have on the battlefield are Geneva Convention rights, and even that is questionable unless they are part of a uniformed military action in a state of war.

    Or would you prefer that we ask every combatant pointing a gun at us to identify their citizenship first?

    “Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson said only the executive branch, not the courts, is equipped to make military battlefield targeting decisions about who qualifies as an enemy.” You’re damned right! Or do we send circuit judges to Iraq/Afghanistan, etc., to hold court?

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