Eric Holder: Obama Doesn’t Need Permission To Kill US Born Terrorists

President Obama and other members of the U.S political system do not require congressional permission before they order strikes that will kill American citizens involved in terrorist activities. That’s the message Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. delivered on Monday.

In a speech at Northwestern University’s law school in Chicago the Attorney General revealed:

“Any decision to use lethal force against a United States citizen — even one intent on murdering Americans and who has become an operational leader of al-Qaeda in a foreign land — is among the gravest that government leaders can face. The American people can be — and deserve to be — assured that actions taken in their defense are consistent with their values and their laws.”

Holder’s discussion comes after U.S. troops bombed and killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a New Mexico born US citizen who had become a senior figure in al-Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliation. A US drone killed Yemeni in September 2011 but Holder did not mention the American born terrorist by name during his speech.

Because the US Drone program is top-secret classified Holder only talked in abstracts and said he would not “discuss or confirm any particular program or operation.”Also because of the classified status of many internal documents it’s hard to tell if any current U.S. citizens are on CIA and other military hit lists.

While members of the ACLU are afraid that President Obama has too much control when “waging war against Americans” Holder says thorough executive branch review of a case is enough “due process.” Holder argues that the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment protection that preserves a persons life under due process does not mandate “judicial process.”

Do you think that in cases of verifiable terrorist activities a U.S. citizen should be targeted like a common enemy of the state?