Is an illegal assassination Murder?

bwalker42 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-05-2011

http://

Washington Square News

http://www.nyunews.com/opinion/2011/10/05/05dinardo/

Alibaba · #2 (**permalink**) 10-05-2011

A legal Assassination is Murder..

Thou Shalt not Kill.. Unless you are above the Law. International Law..

Some poeple just dont trust the wisdom of the constitution, a fair trial or due process..

SloopJonB · #3 (**permalink**) 10-05-2011

Yes it is but as Dirty Harry once said, "Nothing wrong with shooting, as long as the right people get shot".

That pretty much sums up my attitude towards Government "wet work". They seem to be pretty careful with it. When they start getting clumsy or careless I'll start worrying about it.

dillybar · #4 (**permalink**) 10-05-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by SloopJonB

Yes it is but as Dirty Harry once said, "Nothing wrong with shooting, as long as the right people get shot".

That pretty much sums up my attitude towards Government "wet work". They seem to be pretty careful with it. When they start getting clumsy or careless I'll start worrying about it.

What you have when a politician acts outside the law is, for all intents and purposes a King.

Al-awlaki may have been a bad guy, hell, he probably was exactly who they thought he was but is that what the test is now??

Do we really want a politician (who's primary focus is getting re-elected) deciding who lives and dies based on probably?? Have we forgotten WMD's all ready?

Sometimes the rule of law is inconvenient, but it exists (or should), in this case to take emotion and political motives out of the equation in issues as grave as the state taking citizens life.

BTW Paul's line about Adolf Eichmann puts it in perspective beautifully.

SloopJonB · #5 (**permalink**) 10-06-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by dillybar

BTW Paul's line about Adolf Eichmann puts it in perspective beautifully.

Not really, Eichmann did not pose a clear and present danger to Israel. He was living an impoverished, fearful life, abandoned by his Nazi "friends" because he was too low rent even for them.

Israel does not observe the same niceties towards people who threaten their existence, witness Gerald Bull, a Canadian, who was building Saddam's Super Gun - it is pretty well certain that Mossad executed him at the door of his Brussels apartment. Or consider the case of the Munich terrorists - no show trials for them either, just a bullet.

Would you prefer that the government wait, while Al-Awlaki arranged the killing of untold more innocents, until they could capture him, just to observe the legal niceties?

bubb2 · #6 (**permalink**) 10-06-2011

Al-awlaki was an active Al-Qaeda operative, and therefore a legal military target, regardless of his nationally. He is now just a dead trader nothing more, nothing less.

PCP · #7 (**permalink**) 10-06-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by SloopJonB

.. "Nothing wrong with shooting, as long as the right people get shot".

That pretty much sums up my attitude towards Government "wet work". ....

That's terrifying: Who decides who is the right people to be murdered?

I guess that's the way Israelis think when they bomb Palestinian houses or the Palestinians when they send suicide bombers to Israel, or Muslim Radicals when they destroyed the Twin Towers or US when bombing Afghanistan villages were Muslim Radicals are hiding: They are all killing the right people to get killed.... at least by each one's point of view

Regards

Paulo

dillybar · #8 (**permalink**) 10-06-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by bubb2

Al-awlaki was an active Al-Qaeda operative, and therefore a legal military target, regardless of his nationally. He is now just a dead trader nothing more, nothing less.

That's all well and good if it could be proven in an open court of law. But of course now you and I will never know for sure,
But my point was a simple one: Absent a open process where the accused can defend himself there is no transparency, accountability or checks and balances.
Call me cynical, but I'm just not as comfortable as you guys with bureaucrats and politicians deciding who gets wacked.
Even if motives are honest and pure, military intelligence as we all know is far from infallible. WMD ring a bell?

Alibaba · #9 (**permalink**) 10-06-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by PCP

That's terrifying: Who decides who is the right people to be murdered?
Paulo

An Eye for an Eye.. soon we will all be blind..

US27inKS · #10 (**permalink**) 10-06-2011

It looks like Palin was right, Obama does have a death panel.

Secret panel can put Americans on kill list' | Reuters