ACLU Says..

[KoKo]

Last edited Mon Apr 30, 2012, 08:18 PM - Edit history (2)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 2012
3:14 PM


CONTACT: ACLU

Steven Gosset, ACLU National, [phone]; [e-mail]
White House Admission of Drone Strikes Does Nothing to Justify Program’s Legality, ACLU Says


(As a Member of ACLU...I'm posting this Press Release in Full Copy)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 30, 2012
3:14 PM

-----------------------------------
CONTACT: ACLU

Steven Gosset, ACLU National, [phone]; [e-mail]
White House Admission of Drone Strikes Does Nothing to Justify Program’s Legality, ACLU Says
ACLU National Security Experts Warn Program is Unlawful and Dangerous

NEW YORK - April 30 - President Obama’s top counter-terrorism adviser today publicly confirmed that the United States conducts targeted killings of suspected terrorists using drones.

In a speech this afternoon at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, John Brennan insisted the targeted strikes are a “wise choice” and “legal” and within the boundaries of international law. However, ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said Brennan’s statement did not go far in explaining how the program passed constitutional muster.

“This is an important statement – first because it includes an unambiguous acknowledgement of the targeted killing program and second because it includes the administration’s clearest explanation thus far of the program’s purported legal basis.” Jaffer said.

“But Mr. Brennan supplies legal conclusions, not legal analysis. We continue to believe that the administration should release the Justice Department memos underlying the program – particularly the memo that authorizes the extrajudicial killing of American terrorism suspects. And the administration should release the evidence it relied on to conclude that an American citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, could be killed without charge, trial, or judicial process of any kind.”

Brennan maintained the Obama administration was committed to transparency when it came to deciding who would be subject to lethal drone strikes. But Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project, said the program is both unconstitutional and overly broad.

“We continue to believe, based on the information available, that the program itself is not just unlawful but dangerous. This statement makes clear that the administration is treating legal restrictions on the use of force as questions of preference. Moreover, it is dangerous to characterize the entire planet as a battlefield,” Shamsi said.

“It is dangerous to give the President the authority to order the extrajudicial killing of any person – including any American – he believes to be a terrorist.The administration insists that the program is closely supervised, but to propose that a secret deliberation that takes place entirely within the executive branch constitutes ‘due process’ is to strip the Fifth Amendment of its essential meaning.”
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) conserves America's original civic values working in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in the United States by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
ACLU National Security Experts Warn Program is Unlawful and Dangerous

[KoKo]

1. well...I remember a time...many years ago..when DU'ers supported the ACLU..but..

that was when Bush stole the election from Al Gore.

That was sooooo long ago. I hardly remember it, myself.... Except in Nightmares.

But...each generation has it's own heroes and it's own detractors. ..And it is, what it is.

Maybe somewhere we meet on a bridge ..in the ether and call a truce...and the LEADERS go off to a Tap Room and have a few beers and sort it all out for the rest of us.....the 99%...the 99%.

Until then...whatever...

[Fumesucker]

2. Funny that the Republicans don't remember that time either..

It's like eight years of unmitigated disaster just fell down the memory hole for both parties..