Holder Pummeled from the Left on Targeted Killings

He just got finished with a drubbing from the right over Operation Fast and Furious and now it's the left's turn to attack U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Following his speech yesterday in which he explained the Obama administration's authority to secretly assassinate U.S. citizens without judicial oversight, Holder is taking a licking from left-leaning pundits and civil libertarians.

Holder's address was the first time a U.S. official justified the killing of American-born YouTube preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, who was taken out by Hellfire missiles fired from a drone in September. Until then, the government had concealed the legal rationale for killing Americans overseas without judicial oversight, so by and large, everyone was grateful that the rationale was at least out in the open. But that only got Holder so far.

A major point of contention was Holder's broad definition of "due process" with regards to weighing whether suspected terrorists can be assassinated. “Due process and judicial process are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security,” Holder said. “The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.” That had some scratching their heads.

"If the standards for when the government can send a deadly flying robot to vaporize you sound a bit subjective, that's because they are," writes Adam Serwer at Mother Jones. "Holder made clear that decisions about which citizens the government can kill are the exclusive province of the executive branch." He cited Holder's remarks that only the executive branch has the "expertise and immediate access to information" to make these important calls.

Read more: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/03/holder-pummeled-left-targeted-killings/49564/