Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Will You End Up on the Government's Kill List?


Paul Craig Roberts explains what's going down:

Prosecutors always expand laws far beyond their intent. Attorneys in civil cases do the same. For example, the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was passed in order to make it easier for the government to convict members of the Mafia. However, the law, despite its intent, was quickly expanded by prosecutors and attorneys and used in cases against pro-life activists, Catholic bishops, corporations accused of hiring illegal immigrants, and in divorce cases. “Junk bond king” Michael Milken, a person with no ties to organized crime, was threatened with indictment under the RICO Act. Prosecutors have found that the asset freeze provision in the Act is a convenient way to prevent a defendant from being able to pay attorneys and, therefore, makes it easier for prosecutors to coerce innocent defendants into a guilty plea.

We are now witnessing the expansion of Obama’s Kill List. The list began under the Bush regime as a rationale for murdering suspect citizens of countries with which the US was not at war. The Obama regime expanded the scope of the list to include the execution, without due process of law, of US citizens accused, without evidence presented in court, of association with terrorism. The list quickly expanded to include the American teen-age son of a cleric accused of preaching jihad against the West. The son’s “association” with terrorism apparently was his blood relationship to his father.

As Glenn Greenwald recently wrote, the power of government to imprison and to murder its citizens without due process of law is the certain mark of dictatorship. Dictatorship is government unconstrained by law. On February 10 the Wall Street Journal revealed that the Obama dictatorship now intends to expand the Kill List to include those accused of acting against foreign governments. Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an “Algerian militant” accused of planning the January attack on an Algerian natural gas facility, has been chosen as the threat that is being used to expand Obama’s Kill List to include participants in the internal disputes and civil wars of every country.

If the Obama regime is on the side of the government, as in Algeria, it will kill the rebels opposing the government. If the Obama regime is on the side of the rebels, as in Libya, it will kill the government’s leaders. Whether Washington sends a drone to murder Putin and the president of China remains to be seen. But don’t be surprised if Washington has targeted the president of Iran.

The elasticity of the Kill List and its easy expansion makes it certain that Washington will be involved in extra-judicial executions of those “associated with terrorism” over much of the world. Americans themselves should be alarmed, because the term “association with terrorism” is very elastic. Federal prosecutors have interpreted the term to include charitable contributions to Palestinians.

The next time former US Representative Cynthia McKinney gets on an aid ship to Palestine, will Washington give the green light to Israel to kill her as a terrorist agent for her association with aid to Gaza, ruled by the “terrorist organization,” Hamas?

Already a year or two ago, the director of Homeland Security said that the federal police agency’s focus had shifted from terrorists to “domestic extremists,” another elastic and undefined term. A domestic extremist will be all who disagree with Washington. They also are headed for the Kill List.

Where is the government going with this? The most likely outcome is that everyone disliked or distrusted by those who have the power to add to the Kill List will find themselves on the list. The government can expand the Kill List beyond the original intent as easily as the RICO Act was expanded beyond its original intent.

7 comments:

  1. Roberts nails it, you got all these apologists both on the right and left making excuses for this. To them due process is coddling a criminal and its fucking pathetic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We can add up abortion, euthanasia, the war on terror, unwarranted searches, seizures, etc. The value of human life is being challenged.

    Offbeat people who don't act like the surrounding public-schooled robots will not necessarily have sympathy if they're unjustly targeted by government.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Speaking of "they deserve a vote" as Obama said, I wrote this on the politico comment section mostly just to infuriate all of the fascist cheerleaders for obama.

    The thousands of civilians in Pakistan and all over the world who Obama has killed with drone strikes deserve a vote.

    The thousands of people in Mexico killed by drug cartels armed in an operation that Obama hides behind with executive privilege deserve a vote.

    The 16 year old US citizen that Obama killed with a drone strike deserves a vote.

    The innocent people killed by Al Queda linked terrorist groups in Libya and Syria deserve a vote.

    The sick and elderly among us who use medical marijuana and face armed raids with people who have actual assault rifles to stop them deserve a vote.

    The people who have their houses searched without a warrant, or their phone convos and email convos monitored without a warrant deserve a vote.

    The people who have been indefinitely detained or assassinated by Obama and his secret kill list thanks to his NDAA deserve a vote.

    The whistleblowers being prosecuted by the obama admin at a record level deserve a vote.

    The reporters being prosecuted under a WWI Espionage Act at levels higher than all other Presidents combined deserve a vote.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brilliant analysis 3:17PM. How can these politicos stand up and say things like this when they are guilty of the same terrible acts. Has to be narcissism.

      Delete
    2. Because they are sociopaths!

      Delete
  4. Put me on the list - I could use a little more excitement in my life...

    ReplyDelete