A ‘Kill List’ By Any Other Name... The Disposition Matrix

From Ian Cobain at The Guardian:

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In truth, the [disposition] matrix is more than a mere euphemism for a kill list, or even a capture-or-kill list. It is a sophisticated grid, mounted upon a database that is said to have been more than two years in the development, containing biographies of individuals believed to pose a threat to US interests, and their known or suspected locations, as well as a range of options for their disposal.

It is a grid, however, that both blurs and expands the boundaries that human rights law and the law of war place upon acts of abduction or targeted killing. There have been claims that people's names have been entered into it with little or no evidence. And it appears that it will be with us for many years to come.

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In other words, this is the menu from which Obama and company in their "Terror Tuesday" meetings can choose the target(s) of their next extrajudicial execution(s)... put bluntly, the secret but official "hit list." How very like a mob. How little resemblance to any of America's stated founding principles. How low we have fallen...

(H/T l'Enfant de la Haute Mer, in comments, for the link.)

Obama Targets Another American Citizen For Assassination By Drone

From Dennis Trainor Jr. at FDL, we learn that he's doing it again:

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Two recent stories that shed new light on how the Obama administration utilizes drones in the war on terror came to light yesterday. First, Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill, via their new venture First Look revealed that:

... [please read the quotations for particulars — SB]

In a related story, the Associated Press reported on the “case of an American citizen and suspected member of al-Qaida who is allegedly planning attacks on U.S. targets overseas underscores the complexities of President Barack Obama’s new stricter targeting guidelines for the use of deadly drones.”

The AP was complying with a White House Request not to release the country where this American Citizen was located because this country, which the Los Angeles Times later revealed to be Pakistan, was not friendly to US Military intervention...

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I'm sorry, but this is not the procedure our nation's founders envisioned for dealing with even the most vicious American criminal.

Obama's action is, on its face, unconstitutional: he is playing the roles of judge, jury and (virtual) executioner for an American citizen who has had no trial for the crime of which he is accused. That practice should be unacceptable to every American who ever (in any context) took an oath to that Constitution, and it is certainly unacceptable to me.

I am relieved that my late father did not live to see the day that a president... indeed, a Democratic president... took it upon himself to play all those roles in any case whatsoever. Lots of controversial terms for such a president come to mind, but I don't want to feed the right-wing noise machine...