ACLU Sues to Fight “Targeted Killings” of American Citizen Terrorists Overseas
That which George W. Bush built in order to wage the Global War on Terrorism, the ACLU seeks to destroy.
Two civil liberties groups filed suit in a federal court Tuesday, asking a judge to strike down an unusual George W. Bush-era regulation that they say has stymied their attempts to challenge the military’s use of “targeted killings” far from a battlefield.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights have wanted to challenge the targeted killing policy but have been stopped by a requirement that they first get permission from the Treasury Department before they sue the government on behalf of a “designated global terrorist.”
The specific case involves Anwar Awlaki, an American citizen in Yemen who is said to be working with Al Qaeda. On July 16, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed the designation on Awlaki, which froze his assets and blocked legal services.
Anwar al-Awlaki, of course, is the American expatriot cleric who has been linked convincingly with the domestic terrorist attack at Fort Hood and the Christmas Panty Bomber of Northwest Flight 253. Al-Awlaki’s father insists his son is not a terrorist and sought assistance from the ACLU and CCR.
The ACLU and CCR asked the U.S. Treasury Department earlier this summer for permission to represent al-Awalki but have been stonwalled.
The suit filed in Washington contends that the two groups should be granted a license or the requirement should be struck down as unconstitutional.
“The government is targeting an American citizen for death without any legal process whatsoever, while at the same time impeding lawyers from challenging that death sentence and the government’s sweeping claim of authority to issue it,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “We don’t think lawyers should have to obtain permission to bring a lawsuit against the government.”
The broader goals of the ACLU and CCR are to challenge the U.S. government’s policy of targeted killings outside what is considered the “theater of war”:
The Obama administration has increasingly used drones to attack and kill Al Qaeda leaders, not just in the war zones of Afghanistan and its border with Pakistan, but in Yemen and elsewhere.
“We don’t think it is wise or legal to regard the entire planet as the battlefield,” said Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU lawyer.
The ACLU’s position, of course, completely ignores the fact that the entire planet IS the battlefield, when it comes to islamofascist terrorism.
This may be a tricky one. American citizens should certainly qualify for due process and have constitutional rights even when overseas. However, at what point does one stop considering a self-professed America-hating international terrorist as a United States citizen? Should there not be some level of treasonous act that a citizen could commit against our nation, especially while abroad, that should forfeit one’s citizenship? Convicted felons in many states lose their right to vote and to live and travel freely after they have served their sentence.
The epic fail that is U.S. government and military political correctness has led to security breeches and devastating attacks in the U.S. perpetrated by Americans, both private and military. Our government’s most important role is to protect its territory and citizens from enemies foreign and domestic. Should “terrorist citizens” such as al-Awlaki be accorded native-born rights of which they seem no longer deserving?
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Posted by The MaryHunter on August 8, 2010 12:36 pm
» Filed Under 5th Amendment, ACLU, Afghanistan, Anti-Americanism, Communist Front groups, Constitution, Domestic Enemies, Government, Islam, Islamicfascism, National Security, News, Pakistan, Political Correctness, Treason, U.S. Treasury, terrorism, terrorist appeasement
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