Thursday, October 13, 2011

David Barron Signed Anwar al-Awlaki’s Death Warrant. Who Is David Barron?

Who Signed Anwar al-Awlaki’s Death Warrant? -- Richard Cohen, Washington Post

Who the hell is David Barron?

Wikipedia says that name may refer to a British film producer, a soccer player, an actor or a sportswriter. Google says he could be a hairstylist in Atlanta. None of these, though, is the David Barron I have in mind. The one I want is the one who signed off on the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a very bad guy but, still, an American citizen. Barron was a U.S. government lawyer.

Never heard of him? Me neither. But according to published reports, he was one of two lawyers in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel — the other was Martin Lederman — who in 2010 composed an approximately 50-page memo saying it was legally permissible to kill Awlaki even though he was a U.S. citizen and had not been convicted of so much as a traffic violation.

Read more ....

My Comment: I admit .... when I first heard about the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki .... I was happy to know that he was now dead. But now .... a week later .... some small doubts are starting to come in. He was after-all an American citizen, and his assassination by the US government now opens a Pandora's box of how far will the US government now go against it's own citizens without due legal process. In the case of Anwar al-Awlaki .... it is clear that they will go all the way.

1 comment:

"Sebastian" said...

But killing non-americans in the hundreds (inc civilians) is ok? Get real...