Obama Orders Assassination of US Citizen

This may be old news to some of you, but I'm betting some of you have never heard anything about this. You can find a lot more about it in articles here, here, here, and here. Please notice that those sources aren't the type to find fault with the current president.

The situation involves a Muslim cleric named Anwar al-Awlaki, 38, who was born in New Mexico and currently resides in Yemen. It isn't quite clear what al-Awlaki has actually done, but he's been under surveillance by the intelligence community for a long time. He is said to have ties to both the Ft. Hood shooter and the Christmas "panty bomber.". He is suspected of being an al-Qaida recruiter in both the US and Yemen.

Al-Awlaki says he isn't any such thing, and his parents are trying to convince him to turn himself in--something that's hard to do now that there's an assassination order out for him.

Here's the thing. From everything I've read, this guy probably is a real threat. But he's an American citizen--probably a really bad one, but he's a citizen. An American citizen has rights to due process. If the CIA and other members of the intelligence community have the evidence they claim they have, al-Awlaki should be arrested and tried for treason, and then executed as a traitor.

But right now he's just suspected of being dangerous--however likely that is. And the president has decreed that he can be killed, no questions asked, no evidence required. I don't like this guy; I'm not on his side. But the last thing I want to see is the United States becoming a place where the ruling administration can target someone for death based on their religion or their politics, without giving that person a chance to defend himself.

Because what's next? Look, I'm pretty religious, and my religious beliefs cause me to be extremely critical of the current administration and its policies. Here I am doing so in a published format, in fact. Am I next? Or will it be Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, or Mark Levin? What about Sarah Palin...you might not like her, but her religious convictions and politics cause her to be vocally and publicly opposed to the current administration. Rather like al-Awlaki. Should she die for it? Should anyone?

Not in the US, we shouldn't. In other countries, those kinds of executions are standard--but we're not supposed to be like that. We're supposed to be living a better way. In our country, a citizen has a right to his own faith and worship, he has a right to oppose the government, he has a right to hang out with people who may be complete lunatics or criminals. If he commits a crime, he is innocent until proven guilty, when evidence is brought against him, and he has the right to defend himself.

And when the evidence shows that he is guilty, then, and ONLY THEN, do we execute his treasonous ass.