However, as President, Obama has merely expanded those policies which he strongly opposed during his time in the Senate and on the campaign trail. Indeed, Obama authorized the assassinations of Anwar Al-awlaki and Abdulrahman Al-awlaki, both U.S. citizens, without presenting any evidence before or after their lives were taken by U.S. drone strikes in 2011.

Obama’s new precedent of assassinating U.S. citizens without trial, submission of evidence, or any court procedure whatsoever is a far cry from what Obama himself espoused in 2007:

“The detention of American citizens, without access to counsel, fair procedure, or pursuant to judicial authorization, as enemy combatants is unconstitutional.” — Barack Obama; December 2007

Learn more: The Hypocrisy of Barack Obama

How was Abdulrahman’s targeted assassination initially reported in the media? Some quotes that sound very familiar with the usual semantics of all media coverage on drones and suspects:

“Yemeni officials told reporters that nine members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula were killed in the strike near the town of Azzan in southeastern Yemen, including Awlaki’s 21-year-old son…” – LA Times, October 15, 2011

“Report: Al-Awlaki’s son among dead in U.S. airstrike on Yemen al-Qaida militants” – headline from Haaretz, October 15, 2011

“Official: Drone attack kills Al-Awlaki’s son in Yemen… The attacks, carried out in the Shabwa district, killed seven suspected militants, the defense ministry said.” – CNN, October 15, 2011

“Awlaki’s son is also among the 24 militants killed in air strikes targeting al-Qaeda in Yemen, local officials said.” – Al Arabiya News, October 15, 2011

“Three drone attacks in Yemen Friday night killed seven suspected militants including Anwar Al-Awlaki’s son, a security official said. Carried out in the Shabwa district, where the younger Awlaki had been holed up for more than eight months” – Business Insider, October 15, 2011

“U.S. drone strike in Yemen kills nine jihadis, including Awlaki’s son” – Hot Air, October 15, 2011

Lie #1: Abdulrahman is a 16 year old American teenager, not a 21 year old militant.

Lie #2: U.S. claimed al-Banna was the actual target. The problem with that excuse is that al-Banna is alive and well, and was never at that site. Since that revelation, the Obama Admin. simply states there is no official record of the death of Abdulrahman, and sweeps the story under the carpet so it doesn’t even have to take accountability that the crime even happened.

Lie #3: The media says Abdulrahman was hiding in the mountains for months. Actually, he left his home a couple weeks before to find out about his father, and even during that time he was living and moving around in the open, far from hiding.

It seems that being a suspected militant is enough to make you a viable target. And the criteria for determining what makes you a suspect is easily adjustable to their convenience it seems.

Barack Obama: the first U.S. president to use targeted assassination against a child.

Taken from: Abdulrahman Anwar Alawlaki – A crime we’ll never forget

Why no one can (or should) ignore the assassinations of Abdulrahman and his father, Anwar Al-awlaki:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XCKyNkV8Mw[/youtube]

Adam Kokesh and Joe Rogan discuss what Anwar Al-awlaki was really saying (at least at one point) and what it means in terms of the government’s ability to label and attack people without presenting any evidence. Heartfelt appreciation to Adam for helping bring this issue into the spotlight.

The assassinations of Abdulrahman Al-awlaki and Anwar Al-awlaki, two U.S. citizens killed by U.S. drone strikes in Yemen, carry extremely dangerous implications for individual liberty, due process, and severe abuse of government power. We cannot let these incidents slip through the cracks.

Footage of Anwar Al-awlaki in October 2001 discussing the deaths of innocent civilians in the U.S. and Middle East.

Awlaki, a U.S. citizen born in New Mexico, was assassinated by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen on September 30, 2011. Al-awlaki was on the CIA’s hit list, signed off by the Obama Administration, for 17 months prior to his assassination. No evidence was ever presented against him in court, his citizenship was never revoked, and he was given no opportunity to exercise his constitutionally-guaranteed rights to due process and a fair trial.

If no evidence is presented against Al-awlaki in court, even nearly a year after his assassination, does this suggest the government indeed has no solid evidence against him justifying his assassination?

Read more about Anwar Al-awlaki’s case here.

“Our position needs to be reiterated, and needs to be very clear. The fact that the U.S. has administered the death and homicide of over 1 million civilians in Iraq; the fact that the U.S. is supporting the deaths and killing of thousands of Palestinians, does not justify the killing of 1 U.S. civilian in New York City or Washington D.C. And the deaths of 6,000 civilians in New York and Washington D.C. does not justify the death of 1 civilian in Afghanistan.” ~ Anwar Al-awlaki; October 2001

Please learn more about this issue if you haven’t already. This needs to be in the national spotlight and most certainly a campaign issue. It will be an issue if we spread the word and hold Obama and Congress’s feet to the fire.

• An Open Letter to Rand Paul
• The Assassination of an American Teenager
• Yemeni Civilians Protest U.S. Drone Attacks
• Petition to Investigate the death of Abdulrahman Anwar Alawlaki
  

We cannot let this incident be buried under the rug. It is up to us as free individuals to stand up and say, “No! This is wrong, and I will not let you get away with this.”

For Liberty and Justice,

David Kretzmann

Abdulrahman Al-awlaki (Assassinated October 14, 2011)

 

My name is David Kretzmann. I am a 19 year old student at Berea College in Kentucky; I’ve lived in Kentucky since August of 2010. Today I urgently write you to investigate the death of Abdulrahman Al-awlaki.

Within the past 45 days, three U.S. citizens have been killed at the hand of U.S. drone attacks in Yemen. The most well known of these incidents was the case of Anwar Alawlaki, the U.S. citizen born in New Mexico suspected (but never officially charged) of working with Al-Qaeda. Alawlaki was on the CIA’s public hit list, signed off by President Barack Obama, for 17 months prior to his assassination on September 30, 2011. Alawlaki’s constitutional rights as a U.S. citizen were ignored by the Obama administration, despite attempts from Alawlaki’s father and the ACLU to protect Alawlaki.

What’s even more disturbing than Alawlaki’s assassination is the death of his 16 year old son, Abdulrahman Al-awlaki, just two weeks later on October 14, 2011. Abdulrahman Al-awlaki was having a Friday night barbecue with his cousin and fellow teenage friends. A U.S. drone strike took their lives that night.

Abdulrahman Al-awlaki was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1995. He was an American citizen and just 16 years old. He was no less a U.S. citizen than you and I. He had no ties whatsoever to Al-Qaeda or any other militant group.

The Obama administration has been eerily silent on this matter, not so much as acknowledging that a U.S. drone strike killed a 16 year old American citizen. This is the primary reason I am writing you this letter. We need to know why Abdulrahman Al-alwaki was killed; whether it was an intentional killing (i.e. assassination), casualty of war, or a tragic misfire incident.

On November 2, 2011, hundreds of Yemeni individuals peacefully came together to protest U.S. drone attacks in Yemen. I highly encourage you to observe some of the pictures and footage that came out of this event; it is remarkable seeing these people come together to bring about a change in their country. Innocent civilians, including children and teenagers, are losing their lives in Yemen because of U.S. drone strikes. This is the heartbreaking reality for a growing number of families in Yemen, and demonstrates the urgency of the plea I bring to you today.

I know that you can, above anyone else in the Senate, bring about an investigation of Abdulrahman Al-awlaki’s death. You have proven yourself to be a principled voice of liberty, reason, and the rule of law in the U.S. Senate, and there is no one I would trust more to spearhead an investigation. At the very least, people deserve to know why their tax dollars are going to war efforts that have now taken the life of an innocent American teenager.

Please consider sharing this information with your colleagues in the Senate as well as your constituents in Kentucky. If nothing else, you can raise awareness of this incident. This should be a nationwide discussion of what Americans are willing to allow their government to do in these ongoing wars.

I write you today not for my own well being. I am doing fine here in Kentucky. But it hit me hard when I learned of Abdulrahman’s needless death. We are talking about an innocent American teenage citizen whose death has been callously ignored by our President. I am writing this for the people in Yemen who have nowhere else to turn.

Al-awlaki’s family is currently promoting a petition calling for an investigation of Abdulrahman’s death. As of this writing, 334 letters and petitions have been sent to Congress.

Let us not forget the words of President Obama:

“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.”

Please work to hold the President to his word. The American people deserve to know the truth about these matters, especially when one of their own is taken in the line of war. I believe an investigation would mean much to Abdulrahman’s family, the people of Yemen, and your constituents who are paying for these war endeavors.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do personally to help you with this process.

Thank you for your commitment to life, liberty, and the rule of law. I am proud to call you my representative, and I look forward to the progress we can reach on this vital issue.

For Life, Liberty, and Justice,

David Kretzmann

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9JShHvPdFw[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdfQahuQ1Es[/youtube]

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These photos are courtesy of the Abdulrahman Anwar Alawlaki – A crime we’ll never forget Facebook page.

On October 14, 2011, Abdulrahman Al-awlaki was killed by U.S. airstrikes in Yemen. Al-awlaki was a 16 year old American citizen who was eating dinner with a group of his teenage friends when U.S. airstrikes took their lives. Al-awlaki, born in Denver, Colorado, was the son of Anwar al-Awlaki. Anwar al-Awlaki, of course, was the U.S. citizen suspected (but never prosecuted) of working with Al Qaeda; Awlaki was assassinated by the U.S. on September 30, 2011.

In the days before a CIA drone strike killed al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki last month, his 16-year-old son ran away from the family home in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa to try to find him, relatives say. When he, too, was killed in a U.S. airstrike Friday, the Awlaki family decided to speak out for the first time since the attacks.

“To kill a teenager is just unbelievable, really, and they claim that he is an al-Qaeda militant. It’s nonsense,” said Nasser al-Awlaki, a former Yemeni agriculture minister who was Anwar al-Awlaki’s father and the boy’s grandfather, speaking in a phone interview from Sanaa on Monday. “They want to justify his killing, that’s all.”

Abdulrahman Al-awlaki ran away from home to try to find his dad. That’s it. This is a human tragedy, regardless of whether you think the U.S.’s military efforts in the Middle East are justified or not. A society that disregards human life cannot possibly expect to uphold individual liberty.

Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize is drenched in blood. Has Obama so much as issued an apology for killing an innocent American teenager and his friends? Nope. Nada.

This is an American teenage kid that we’re talking about, just three years younger than me. He had a Facebook profile. He listened to Akon, Eminem, 50 Cent, and Snoop Dogg. His favorite books were Harry Potter and Twilight. He loved Spongebob Squarepants, Prison Break, Lost, The Simpsons, and the BBC “Planet Earth” series. His favorite movies were Harry Potter, Braveheart, Troy, and Gladiator. In other words, he was a human being.

Have our minds been so numbed by war that we casually brush off the deaths of innocent lives, even an American teenager, taken by the U.S.? Will people continue to defend these political psychopaths who ignore the destruction of innocent life the U.S. has caused around the world? I pray not.

Abdulrahman Al-awlaki (Assassinated October 14, 2011)

Abdulrahman Al-awlaki's U.S. Birth Certificate

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0kkteupFng[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE30TH6Y7cI[/youtube]

Anwar al-Awlaki

I have been called unrealistic and “a little nuts” for suggesting that Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, should have been charged and convicted before he was assassinated on September 30, 2011, in a U.S. drone attack in Yemen. It’s hardly an unrealistic position, considering that Awlaki has been on the CIA’s hit list since April 2010. That’s 17 months the Obama Administration had to assemble and present evidence to a court in order to charge and convict Awlaki.

In any case, I would like to hear from people. Which of these four points do you disagree with, and why?

1. The Administration, in the months leading up to Awlaki’s assassination, in light of the visible evidence against Awlaki, should have received a warrant or similar order from a federal court after submitting evidence against Awlaki.

2. This new precedent of it being legally acceptable for U.S. Presidents to assassinate U.S. citizens is a danger to the general American citizenry and the Constitution itself.

3. The Obama Administration, in light of the concerns provided by some of the American public, civil liberties organizations, and members of Congress, should submit its compiled evidence against Awlaki to a federal court/judge.

4. Although contrary to the individual protection of due process guaranteed under the Constitution, assassinations of U.S. citizens carried out by the President are, at the absolute minimum, to be illegal without evidence first being submitted and approved by a federal judge/court.

I am amazed how quickly people defend the assassination of an unconvicted human being, provided a President calls him a bad guy. It is truly sickening. Don’t get me wrong, Awlaki likely deserved his fate; I am not disputing this.

The majority of Americans are happy Awlaki’s dead and don’t think for a second that maybe there’s something wrong with how this justice was served. The death of Awlaki was no doubt a popular event appreciated by most Americans. However, the Constitution and the individual rights it protects is not subject to a popularity contest.

What do you say? Is this just an annoying and uneducated attempt to uphold the Constitution? Should the President have the legal authority to assassinate U.S. citizens when deemed necessary for “national security,” even without any legal charge or conviction?

“What would Constitutional Law professor Barack Obama think of this?”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6bgwZGZiIo[/youtube]