Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

October 3 2011

Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, was murdered in Yemen by a presidentially ordered CIA drone strike, on September 30.

A radical Muslim cleric, Awlaki was accused of expressing support for armed attacks against U.S. military personnel and government interests. Those opinions can be considered abhorrent, but it is not a crime to express them.

The administration has likewise asserted ? without providing evidence ? that Awlaki had an ?operational? role in planning terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens. If the evidence supporting that charge existed, the administration had the unconditional constitutional duty to indict Awlaki and put him on trial. Intelligence officials knew Awlaki?s location. The government of Yemen was certainly willing to cooperate in an effort to extradite Awlaki, even if that meant dispatching a military task force to do so.

There is nothing in the Constitution or laws of the United States of America  that permits a president to order the summary execution of any human being. Only Congress can declare war. Only a jury can find someone guilty of a crime. Only a judge can impose a death sentence. Or such would be the case, were we still living in a constitutional republic, rather than a degenerate militarist empire.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.