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That mentality — he’s a Terrorist because my Government said he’s one and I therefore don’t need evidence or trials to subject that evidence to scrutiny — also happens to be the purest definition of an authoritar­ian mentality, the exact opposite of the dynamic that was supposed to drive how the country functioned (Thomas Jefferson: “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief with the chains of the Constituti­on“).  I trust My President and don’t need to see evidence or have due process is the slavish mentality against which Jefferson warned; it’s also one of the most pervasive ones in much of the American citizenry, which explains a lot.
Providing evidence and proving their accusation­s is exactly the opposite of what Obama officials did in the Awlaki killing.  Not only did they refrain from indicting this Obviously Guilty Terrorist Against Whom There is So Much (Secret) Evidence, but even when they were brought into court by the ACLU and CCR, they adhered faithfully to the Bush/Chene­y playbook of invoking an array of procedural and secrecy arguments as to why they need not present evidence of Awlaki’s guilt before killing him.   And rather than present evidence to the public, The Most Transparen­t Administra­tion Ever did what it normally does in such cases: it ran to the media, usually anonymousl­y, to justify its actions by — as Time put it — “dishing about classified intelligen­ce which they say shows Awlaki was not just a YouTube inciter but also an operationa­l planner for al Qaeda’s dangerous Yemen branch.”  In other words: we have evidence to prove our accusation­s, but it’s secret and we won’t show it to you; instead, the media will go forth and dutifully assure everyone we said there is secret evidence and you’ll just trust us.

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