
the Constitution says that the punishment for treason i.e. waging active war against the US is capital punishment. (since sufficient evidence was gathered and Awlaki incriminated himself there was no need for the two witnesses)
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There are
steps the Government is required to take before punishing a citizen for “treason” (“
No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court“). A president secretly declaring someone guilty backed up by leaked, anonymous accusation
s to the press doesn't satisfy that Constituti
onal requiremen
t.
During the NSA eavesdropping controversy, Bush defenders insisted there was no harm from bypassing the FISA court because they were only eavesdropping on BadTerrorists, which prompted this obvious, unanswerable question: if you really have so much evidence proving that the targets of your eavesdropping are terrorists, then why not show it to the court and get a warrant? After all, the more incriminating evidence you claim exists, the more (not less) reason there is to show it to a court. Similarly, during the controversy over Bush’s detentions without due process, administration defenders insisted there was no need to charge the detainees or try them in court because they were only imprisoning the-worst-of-the-worst, too-dangerous-to-release terrorists, which prompted the same question: if there’s so much evidence proving they’re terrorists, isn’t that even more of a reason to prove that in court?
Now Obama defenders are justifying the Obama’s due-process-free assassination of US citizen AnwarAwlaki based on exactly the same claim and mindset, the same question obviously arises: if there’s so much evidence showing that Awlaki was involved in plotting terrorist attacks on the US (as opposed merely to delivering anti-US sermons protected by the FirstAmendment), isn’t that even more of a reason to have indicted him and charged him with crimes before killing him?
Watch this video of ABCs‘ JakeTapper persistently questioning a stonewalling, imperious WhiteHouse spokesman JayCarney about this issue; remember: he’s asking the WhiteHouse what evidence justified the US Government’s targeting of its own citizen for assassination with no due process, and the WhiteHouse is telling him: we have it in secret but don’t need to show anyone.
[...]
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