Anwar al-Awlaki (Photo from The Long War Journal)U.S. Builds Case For Targeting U.S.-Born Imam In Yemen -- Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. spy agencies believe an American-born Muslim cleric based in Yemen played a bigger role than first thought in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's decision to start launching attacks against U.S. targets, counterterrorism officials said.
The revised assessment by intelligence analysts could help build a case for adding Anwar al-Awlaki to the U.S. target list to kill or capture top militants, though current and former officials said careful review was needed given his status as a U.S. citizen.
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My Comment: I come from a time when the idea of sanctioning (so openly) the assassination of an American citizen abroad was never brought up .... never.
Today, I read it in the main stream media and everyone accepts it as normal behavior. Sighhh .... we live in different times.
Comment #2: What is my own opinion .... I think this is a very special case. But if I should read in the next few weeks that Anwar al-Awlaki had been killed .... it will not bother me one bit.
1) What is an assassination? Nothing but a -very precise- killing of your opponent. So unlike a full blown war, or major conflict, it classically limits collaterals
ReplyDelete2) Have assassinations on your own people (countrymen) been performed before? Yes, since the recording of man kind -- one of the most famous successful assassinations was on Julius Caesar, one of the unsuccessful famous ones was on Hitler's life
3) Are assassinations legitble? Why not? If they minimize the collateral and costs they should be
4) How come we don't like assassinations? Because they usually leave the target a very low chance to escape and we intrinsically are for a fair "battle" in which disputes are being settled. However, I believe when you deal with terrorists who target civilians, all gloves should come off. Former citizen or not. Every terrorist - being a domestic terrorist, like Oklahoma bomber, or former citizen who has other ideological or religious reasons, knows that he could pay with his own blood and is willing to accept this price.
So... I can't wait for these assassinations to take on a different level - I think it's the way to go and limit civilian collateral