Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
May 25, 2013
President Obama spoke at the National Defense University this week. In his speech, Obama suggested that Congress establish a special court to authorize targeted assassinations as outlined in his new counterterrorism guidelines.
As the “boundless war on terror” continues, the implementation of drone strikes would come under the control of the Department of Defense (DoD).
Obama said: “A perpetual war – through drones or special forces or troop deployments – will prove self-defeating and alter our country in troubling ways.”
Drone strikes are justified, according to Obama, because they prevent terroristic activity.
Obama asserted: “The establishment of a special court to evaluate and authorize lethal action has the benefit of bringing a third branch of government into the process, but raises serious constitutional issues about presidential and judicial authority.”
Neal Katyal, acting solicitor general, maintains that there should be a panel of national security staffers that make up the “national security court” (NSC). The NSC is expected to be an arm of the executive branch and under ultimate control of the president.
To keep the Congress abreast of their decisions, reports could be given to Congressional review boards after the fact.
As a model for this secret kill court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) could serve as a model because by its nature the new kill court would do the sole bidding of the president with regard to whom it approves for drone strikes.
Under Obama, the further expansion of a “kill list” of persons identified by the current administration as deserving of execution without due process has grown exponentially.
Zeke Johnson, director of Amnesty International USA Security with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), explained : “What’s needed on drones is not a ‘kill court’ but rejection of the radical redefinition of ‘imminence’ used to expand who can be killed as well as independent investigations of alleged extrajudicial executions and remedy for victims.”
Johnson continued: “The president was right to call for repeal of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, but he doesn’t need to wait for Congress to act on this. He can unequivocally reject the ‘global war’ legal theory today, once and for all, and put an end to the indefinite detention, military commissions and unlawful killings it has been used to justify.”
Anthony Romero, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) mirrored Johnson’s reaction to Obama’s new drone policy: “To the extent the speech signals an end to signature strikes, recognizes the need for congressional oversight, and restricts the use of drones to threats against the American people, the developments on targeted killings are promising. Yet the president still claims broad authority to carry out target killings far from any battlefield, and there is still insufficient transparency. We continue to disagree fundamentally with the idea that due process requirements can be satisfied without any form of judicial oversight by regular federal courts.”
Judge Andrew Napolitano pointed out that Obama “willingly admits he dispatched CIA agents to kill” Americans and that their deaths were no more than “collateral damage”.
Napolitano explains: “The reasons for the constitutional requirement of a congressional declaration of war are to provide a check on the president’s lust for war by forcing him to obtain formal congressional approval, to isolate and identify the object of war so the president cannot kill whomever he pleases, to confine the warfare to the places where the object’s military forces are located so the president cannot invade wherever he wishes, and to assure termination of the hostilities when the object of the war surrenders so the president cannot wage war without end.”
This disrespect for life in the name of national security was furthered by Obama’s statement that American citizenship “should no more serve as a shield” than a sniper who would use a small child for protection against a SWAT team.
Obama claimed that the US is safer because of the efforts of his administration.
Obama asserted: “From our use of drones to the detention of terrorist suspects, the decisions we are making will define the type of nation and world that we leave to our children. So America is at a crossroads. We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us.”
Potential targets for Obama’s new drone program could be “those who want to kill us” or “terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat” to “all potential terrorist tactics.
