Americans' constitutional rights at risk of violation
In April 2010, President Barack Obama put Anwar al-Awlaki on a list of people the CIA is authorized to kill due to participation in terrorist activities. On Sept. 30, 2011 CIA drones in Yemen located al-Awlaki, a strike was ordered against him and al-Awlaki met the same fate hundreds of other terrorists have, thanks to this drone program.
But the difference between al-Awlaki and the hundreds of other successful drone strike targets is that al-Awlaki was a U.S. citizen, entitled to the same rights and protections under the U.S. Constitution as all other Americans. The Fifth Amendment to that Constitution guarantees “no person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger ... nor be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.”
There are two major exemptions to the right to trial by jury. The first is specifically mentioned in the above amendment: Members of our military during times of war or conflict may be punished for crimes they commit in that conflict. This allows generals to keep order by punishing individuals who disobey orders and the like without always having to take them to full trial. (Even then, major offenses are often punished by a military tribunal, a jury of sorts.) The second exemption is when a citizen is a direct, immediate threat to the safety of others; police are authorized to use lethal force against criminals who are also threatening immediate force, by taking hostages, for example. Al-Awlaki was hiding in the mountains of Yemen, neither serving as part of the U.S. military nor threatening immediate force, so neither of these exemptions applied to his rights.
Fifth Amendment rights are essential to maintaining a free society. Otherwise, our government could punish just about anyone it wished for anything it wished at any time. Yes, al-Awlaki would have almost certainly been guilty of treason had he been brought to trial. But he wasn’t. No evidence was presented to prove al-Awlaki was a terrorist. Obama played judge and jury for al-Awlaki, and his drones played executioner.
As American citizens we are all subject to the same constitutional rights. If al-Awlaki’s rights didn’t include a right to a trial before his execution and our rights are the same as his, does anything protect us from meeting the same fate? Sure, Obama is a moral man who would never use this power to kill someone without good reason. But then again, I’m sure the Romans thought the same about Caesar, the Russians thought the same about Lenin and the Egyptians thought the same about Gaddafi. Look how those turned out.
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