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Sure...that's the image the media wants you to see. This is a more recent pic from his Facebook account.
.
lol @ "suspected terrorists"
"If the government is going to be firing Predator missiles at American citizens, surely the American public has a right to know who's being targeted, and why."
-- Jameel Jaffer, American Civil Liberties Union
Largely thanks to a complicit corporate-state news media, the story of a U.S. teenager executed without trial by the government has largely gone under the radar.
The teen -- who we will temporarily refer to as "Adam" -- was born on August 26, 1995 at approximately 1:16 pm in Denver, Colorado. Like many Americans, Adam came to enjoy watching movies, playing football, computer games, and swimming.
Following the attacks of 9/11, the father of Adam -- also a U.S. citizen -- was invited to a luncheon at the Pentagon designed to encourage religious tolerance.
In late 2002, Adam and his father moved to Britain, and then Yemen in 2004.
In 2008, U.S. intelligence agencies made the claim that the father of Adam had been a "spiritual counselor" for some of the 9/11 hijackers and had also assisted in various terror plots. The following year, Adam's father went into hiding, but this wouldn't deter his son from eventually setting off to try and find him.
Around 6:30 am on September 4th, 2011, Adam quietly slipped away from his family home in Sana, Yemen, leaving behind a note for his mother. "I am sorry for leaving in this kind of way," he wrote. "Forgive me. I miss my father and want to see if I can go and talk to him."
Yet as it turned out, Adam would never get a chance to talk to his father. That's because on the 30th of September, Peace Prize recipient Barack Obama authorized two U.S. predator drones to kill the man. For this U.S. citizen, there would be no trial, no jury - just a mere accusation of guilt by faceless officials and a subsequent execution.
Shortly after news of his father's death surfaced, Adam, his 17-year-old cousin with whom he had been staying, and a few other friends set up a barbeque and celebrated their last night together. Adam called his mother and planned to return home the next day, a promise to be broken against his best intentions. He would never see her again.
As the teens chatted and ate dinner, brave aerial drones quietly sailed through Yemen's clear October skies, watching intently from above with powerful robotic eyes and patiently awaiting further orders. Eventually, such orders came and, with the press of a button, missiles shattered the night's calm like a stone to glass and screamed through the air before plowing into the teens without warning and engulfing them in a suffocating inferno which neither escaped from alive.
Desperate to justify their actions, the U.S. government initially claimed Adam had been in the "wrong place at the wrong time" and that the intended target of the drones was a "senior al-Qaeda operative" named Ibrahim al-Banna, a man who later turned up alive and well.
Moreover, news media reports at the time went so far as to suggest that Adam was not a teenager, but a grown man with ties to al-Qaeda, an utterly baseless claim, but not one without a purpose. Referring to Adam as "military-age" at the time of death meant that by international protocols he would therefore be considered a legitimate target.
Still, even supposing one looks beyond the blatant violation of international protocols, what is to be said of those in a domestic sense? What kind of precedent is being established when U.S. citizens can be targeted for assassination by their government without trial? If it can happen to Adam and his father, who might be next? Why aren't these questions being asked?
Perhaps these questions aren't being asked because Adam's name is actually Abdulrahman, and when a foreign-sounding name like his is thrown across American news media outlets, nobody really seems all too concerned by it. Yet, if the headlines had in fact read "Adam" instead of "Abdulrahman", how differently would this have played out?
The establishment of such a dangerous precedent remains entirely dependent on continued complacency by the public. If the government can get away with killing U.S. citizens without trial overseas, how long will it be until the killings come home?
In May 2012, the Federal Aviation Administration began streamlining the licensing process for public agencies to "safely" fly drones, with law enforcement a prime target.
During that same month, The Huffington Post reported on the case of Rodney Brossart, the first U.S. citizen to be arrested using an unmanned drone.
Where was Rodney arrested? Pakistan? Yemen? Try North Dakota.
Make no mistake: the drones are coming, and the death of "Adam" and his father may only be the beginning.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
"I really feel disappointed that this crime is going to be forgotten. I think the American people ought to know what really happened and how the power of their government is being abused by this Administration. Americans should start asking why a boy was targeted for killing. In addition to my grandson's killing, the missile killed my brother's grandson, who was a 17-year-old kid, who was not an American citizen but is a human being, killed in cold blood. I cannot comprehend how my teenage grandson was killed by a fire missile, how nothing was left of him except small pieces of flesh. Why? Is America safer now that a boy was killed? ... I urge the American people to bring the killers to justice. I urge them to expose the hypocrisy of the 2009 Nobel Prize laureate. To some, he may be that. To me and my family, he is nothing more than a child killer."-- Nasser al-Awlaki, Abdulrahman's grandfather
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Robert Gibbs, former White House Press Secretary and a senior adviser to the Obama campaign, was asked in October 2012 about the death of Abdulrahman, to which he smugly replied that the teen should have had a "far more responsible father".
Where is the outrage?
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
See also:
Murder Made Easy - Two different studies offer new insight into the psychology behind killing, but what does it mean for the future of aerial drone warfare?
The United States of Predator Drones - From Afghanistan to Yemen, from Yemen to Mexico, from Mexico to your back yard, drone use has drastically expanded and shows no signs of slowing down
A brief history of George W. Obama - Has the same U.S. President been in office for the last 11 years? The following timeline covers key events between 2001-2012
http://screechingkettle.blogspot.com...amed-adam.html
Sure...that's the image the media wants you to see. This is a more recent pic from his Facebook account.
Um, no
The key word is "suspected," tbh.... I don't think anyone should be comfortable with the idea of taking out people on su ion alone, imho....
Isn't Brennan in favor of returning the drone program to the pentagon which would likely mean more oversight/transparency? Seems that would be a good thing, no?
Thats not even part of the discussion. I'm sure close to 50% or more of regular americans might be for killing "suspected" terrorists. That's not the argument.
the argument is that there is a law of the land that explicitly states what is and what is not allowed and killing citizens without trial most definitely is NOT ALLOWED AND IS ILLEGAL. It's pretty black and white, all these discussions of he/she/I think is just smoke and mirrors. There is nothing confusing or obscure about the cons utional law.
Now if most americans are so scared of terrorist that they feel these actions of killing suspects should be allowed, then go ahead and ammend the cons ution. and good luck with that.
Do you really believe him?
Fillibuster in the 7th hour now,
Ouch..
Not that I'm against Paul on this but the whole concept of fillibuster just seems silly.
There are things I disagree with him on, but I respect and applaud him speaking out on this, something Democrats should be doing. One cannot simply stay quiet on such policies. Whether it goes anywhere or not, he had the guts to speak up, even when most of his own party, along with Democrats remain silent. He has a right to Filibuster raising questions on an issue of murdering Americans without due process. If any issue, this issue is one that definitely needs urgent attention.
Kick and scream.
that's pretty much all a lone politician can do about this issue since both warmonger Reps and Dems agree on violating the cons ution on this matter.
the US media is the one who should be screaming to protect public rights, but once again they prove they are just a tool for the rich coorporations. this is the biggest shame IMO
And Damn, Rand is going all out right now on CSPAN bringing out all the facts about the drone war policies (and the war policy overall) in the Middle East.
http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN2/
Last edited by SA210; 03-06-2013 at 06:27 PM.
Why not? He's been saying it for a while and Robert Gibbs indicated that his nomination to head the CIA can be taken as an indication he Obama agrees with him.
lol Balls
Rand telling everyone about the illegal Signature strikes where we don't even know who we are killing.
Because he lies and has helped Obama on these decisions to murder innocents with drones. And Robert Gibbs is the guy that said that we murdered a 16 year old innocent American boy because he should have had a more responsible father.
These aren't exactly men with integrity, or that can be trusted with such powers.
EXCLUSIVE: ACLU Backs Paul's Filibuster
LINK: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...CLU-backs-Rand
by Ben Shapiro 6 Mar 2013, 3:21 PM PDT 16 post a comment
On Wednesday afternoon, Christopher Anders, Senior Legislative Council at the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington D.C., spoke with Breitbart News exclusively about Senator Rand Paul’s filibuster of the John Brennan nomination to CIA director over the administration’s failures to answer questions about domestic use of drones. Anders backed Paul to the hilt, and was highly critical of the Obama administration.
“It’s certainly a courageous and historic effort by Senator Rand Paul and his colleagues, who are now increasing in numbers and coming to the fore in support of his filibuster,” said Anders.
“The information Senator Paul is looking for goes to the very core of what the US is and who Americans are as a people.” Anders pointed out that the information Paul seeks is easy for the administration to hand over – it “ought to be a no-brainer,” he said. “It ought to be upsetting for everyone, all Americans of both parties, to not be able to get a straight answer to what is a very straightforward question from Senator Paul.”
Anders went on to explain that the Department of Justice could post the legal memos in question on the internet within an hour, or Xerox them and send them to the floor of the Senate. “The American people have a right to know,” said Anders. “Senator Paul is right to push for that information and I think he’s doing a very good job of exercising his cons utional duty as a member of Congress in our system of checks and balances to help serve as a check on the executive branch, on the president.”
Anders called the administration’s stonewalling “inexcusable.” The standards apparently applied by the administration, he continued, “are not standards recognized by any court in the land, any court anywhere in the world.”
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
pretty much every news organization has Rand in their frontpage.
Meanwhile in CNN.com's frontpage:
Costa Concordia reveals dark secrets
CNN the toilet of US media
Damn...you're right. Not even mentioned on the front page of their mobile site. Pathetic.pretty much every news organization has Rand in their frontpage.
Meanwhile in CNN.com's frontpage:
Costa Concordia reveals dark secrets
pretty much every news organization has Rand in their frontpage.
Meanwhile in CNN.com's frontpage:
Costa Concordia reveals dark secrets
Well even on MSNBC, Chris Mattews tries changing the subject and only plays a clip of Rand Paul talking about Hitler as a lame attempt to spin, discredit Rand. Of course ignoring the actual issue being discussed..the President murdering Americans without due process lol
at least nbc has a link to it.
When Huffpost and Fox news have practically the same headline, you know some big is going on.
of course CNN is clueless as usual
lol
Ted Cruz reading the tweets and talking about the explosion on the Twitterverse around the country in support of Rand Paul having the backbone to stand up for Americans and due process.
This is gold
#StandWithRand currently trending #1 on Twitter
lol Rand now talking about Obama's lies on NDAA, torture, and droning Americans.
Candidate Obama vs President Obama
And the reality is Brennan is going to be confirmed. The grandstanding is cute though and goes a long way to build Rand's brand which is really the ultimate goal here isn't it?
I lol'ed when he said that
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