Political Assassination of U.S. Citizens An Announced Policy of the Obama Administration

The Democratic Administration of Barack Obama has been following the policies of the Republican Administration of George W. Bush, not only in making war upon defenceless small countries which are no threat to the United States, but also by openly engaging in political assassination.  During the election campaign it was the Democrat, Obama, who promised to bomb suspected terrorists in Pakistan by means of drone missiles; it was the Republican, McCain, who suggested he had problems with sweeping aside the sovereignty of a foreign country.

International law and U.S. law explicitly prohibit the practice, of course.

Now (hat-tip Glen Greenwald) we are made aware by unnamed government sources that the Obama Administration claims the right to assassinate American citizens whom it suspects of terrorist activities.

As part of the operations, Obama approved a Dec. 24 strike against a compound where a U.S. citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, was thought to be meeting with other regional al-Qaeda leaders. Although he was not the focus of the strike and was not killed, he has since been added to a shortlist of U.S. citizens specifically targeted for killing or capture by the JSOC, military officials said.

[The JSOC are the assassins working for the United States armed forces.]  Please notice how the citizens of the United States learn that their President claims the right to assassinate them: an anonymously-sourced statement appears in Izvestia-by-the-Potomac and -- poof! -- the first of the Unalienable Rights proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, the Right to Life, has disappeared.

Apparently it is no longer self-evident that the citizens of a country ostensibly ruled by the consent of the governed have such a right.