Brennan refuses to say whether targeted assassination power extends to US soil

[SomeIdiot]

Brennan has been asked the question several times as part of his confirmation process. Each time, he simply pretends that the question has not been asked, opting instead to address a completely different issue. Here's the latest example from the written exchange he had with Senators after his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee; after referencing the DOJ "white paper", the Committee raised the question with Brennan in the most straightforward way possible:

'Could the Administration carry out drone strikes in the United States.'

'This administration has not carried out drone strikes in the United States and has no intention of doing so'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...ons-filibuster

That sounds to me like dodging the question in the most disturbing way possible and it's why I'm actually quite thankful that the Republicans are willing filibuster Obama nominees, even if I often disagree with their reasons for doing so. It illustrates the lie that this stuff is somehow going to stay in Pakistan or Yemen or Somalia. The worst legacy of the Obama administration is going to be his bizarre ability to convert supposedly skeptical people into supporters of the right of the executive to inflict violence completely unchecked.

Obama supporters will only have themselves to blame in a few years when some Republican president designates a citizen on US soil to be a terrorist and blows him up without judicial review, though somehow I don't think they'll see it that way. I don't know what kind of country we'll be then but I don't think it'll be a republic.

[zenwalk]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...ons-filibuster

That sounds to me like dodging the question in the most disturbing way possible and it's why I'm actually quite thankful that the Republicans are willing filibuster Obama nominees, even if I often disagree with their reasons for doing so. It illustrates the lie that this stuff is somehow going to stay in Pakistan or Yemen or Somalia. The worst legacy of the Obama administration is going to be his bizarre ability to convert supposedly skeptical people into supporters of the right of the executive to inflict violence completely unchecked.

Obama supporters will only have themselves to blame in a few years when some Republican president designates a citizen on US soil to be a terrorist and blows him up without judicial review, though somehow I don't think they'll see it that way. I don't know what kind of country we'll be then but I don't think it'll be a republic.

They'll form another star chamber to determine whether the targets are legitimate according to the criteria du jour and the law be damned. Power is never voluntarily given up. It only grows more belligerent.