“…nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;…”
--Excerpt from the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
Anwar al-Awlaki was accused of harming the United States. However, rather than present the evidence of such crimes, Barack Obama ordered his killing without any process required by our Constitution. Anwar al-Awlaki should have been tried and, if found guilty of any crimes, imprisoned. The length of his term should have been determined by the number of people whom he killed or injured. Unfortunately, we have no evidence that he is responsible for anyone's deaths or injuries. Any evidence that al-Awlaki committed any actual crimes, if there is any, is being withheld from us.
What is disappointing to me is that so many people think that Anwar al-Awlaki is the issue. He is not. If we allow our president to summarily execute people whom he deems to be enemies, he will expand that list indefinitely and unchecked. We fought our revolution to throw off exactly that kind of tyranny. The Fourth Amendment was not merely an afterthought. It was central to maintaining our personal liberties. Unfortunately, especially over the last decade, we have allowed it to become almost irrelevant. We now have a president who believes that he has the power to kill anyone without restraint. All he has to do is to create some classification into which to put people and declare that they must be killed.
We must not kill people because of what they say. We must not allow secret trials. We must not allow summary executions.
I am convinced that Barack Obama has committed a high crime. He has subverted the rule of law and murdered someone. Without the rule of law, we can have no security whatsoever. We abandoned the rule of men when we threw off the king. We must not allow ourselves to be ruled by that tyranny again.
