Glenn Greenwald on Killing of al-Awlaki: "The Due-Process-Free Assassination of U.S. Citizens Is Now Reality"

The big news this morning was that American-born al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in Yemen. It soon came out that the killing had been ordered by President Obama, raising concerns among many that an American citizen had been the target of a government assassination. Salon's Glenn Greenwald wrote a column on the subject this morning:

The Due-Process-Free Assassination of U.S. Citizens Is Now Reality

It was first reported in January of last year that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens whom the President had ordered assassinated without any due process, and one of those Americans was Anwar al-Awlaki.  No effort was made to indict him for any crimes (despite a report last October that the Obama administration was "considering" indicting him).  Despite substantial doubt among Yemen experts about whether he even has any operational role in Al Qaeda, no evidence (as opposed to unverified government accusations) was presented of his guilt.  When Awlaki's father sought a court order barring Obama from killing his son, the DOJ argued, among other things, that such decisions were "state secrets" and thus beyond the scrutiny of the courts.  He was simply ordered killed by the President: his judge, jury and executioner.  When Awlaki's inclusion on President Obama's hit list was confirmed, The New York Times noted that "it is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing."

After several unsuccessful efforts to assassinate its own citizen, the U.S. succeeded today (and it was the U.S.).  It almost certainly was able to find and kill Awlaki with the help of its long-time close friend President Saleh, who took a little time off from murdering his own citizens to help the U.S. murder its.  The U.S. thus transformed someone who was, at best, a marginal figure into a martyr, and again showed its true face to the world. 

There have been a lot of cheers ringing out about another al Queda leader being taken down. And indeed, Greenwald writes that the most striking thing about the killing "is that [U.S.] citizens will not merely refrain from objecting, but will stand and cheer the U.S. Government's new power to assassinate their fellow citizens, far from any battlefield, literally without a shred of due process from the U.S. Government."

Read the full column at Salon.