A Country Killing its Own Citizens

On September 30^th 2011 Anwar al-Awlaki was killed by a drone launched missile strike by the C.I.A in Yemen. Al-Awlaki was an American citizen, which provoke issues on the idea of the United States killing one of their own citizens. Many people ask is this alright for a country to kill its own people, some people say yes because he was a traitor who has devoted his life to spreading as message with intentions of harming United States Citizens, and due to this his rights as a citizen were forfeited. Yet there are others arguing that he still would have those rights as a United States Citizen. Yet when do those have a limit?

The killing of al-Awlaki has brought up an extremely volatile issue on the idea of targeted killings, and especially with the fact that al-Awlaki was an American citizen. One of the main things is a “Secret” U.S. legal memorandum, approved by the Obama Administration to kill an American citizen without a trial. This document provide the justification for the killing of al-awlaki, despite an executive order banning assassinations order (executive order 12333), the federal law against murder, protection in the bill of rights and various structures of the International Laws of War. The same memo was drawn narrowly to Mr. Awlaki’s case, and did not establish a broad case on the killing of any American citizen deemed to be a viable terrorist threat.

There are many people who defend this action saying that Mr. Awlaki gave up his rights as an American Citizen when he preached obvious intentions of harming U.S Citizens. There have been connections with him to several terrorist attacks/attempts on U.S soil, including the Fort Hood shooting. Many people alone consider this enough of a reason to launch an attack against Mr. Awlaki, looking at the fact that this man’s loyalty were definitely not with the U.S country, and was instead closer with Al Qaeda a terrorist organization which has aggressive intentions towards the United States. So could a question arises, when does a citizens rights end?

Many Citizen Right Groups have answered this question saying that this violates not only some international laws of war but also many American Laws of War. People have argued about the executive order bans executions, the Justice Department argued against it, finding out that it bans assassinations during times of peace, but not during a armed conflict. The groups also talked about the federal statute that prohibits Americans from murdering other Americans abroad, The Justice department made the same claim saying that this is war and it doesn’t apply , they on the other hand have made the argument how the CIA operative wasn’t a solider therefore no uniform and then forth a war crime and violating Yemen’s domestic laws against murder.

The main thing that got people worried was the violation of the fourth amendment, that a person cannot be seized unreasonably, and the fifth amendment that the government may not deprive a person of life without due process of law. The Government response was that Mr. Alwaki was no ordinary criminal he had joined an enemy of war, and there fore would be tried in a military court as a non-citizen would be. This has made people think about how far can the government go, when will human rights and the rights of a citizen take affect. Are these rights just temporary and can be taken away in any case, or do they have a more definite case and be guaranteed under stressful condition?

Sources

New York Times – New York Times.com

Cambridge Journals- journals.cambridge.org

CATO Institute- cato.org

pennumbra.com