{"id":126943,"date":"2014-06-30T16:40:01","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T16:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=126943"},"modified":"2014-06-30T16:40:01","modified_gmt":"2014-06-30T16:40:01","slug":"drone-assassinations-limited-u-s-citizens-living-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/war-terrorism\/drone-assassinations-limited-u-s-citizens-living-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone Assassinations Not Limited to U.S. Citizens \u201cLiving Abroad\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted<\/a> with permission\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

U.S. Relies On Law of Non-Constitutional Countries<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says:<\/p>\n

No person shall \u2026 be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law \u2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So how did the legal memorandum \u201cjustifying\u201d assassination of U.S. citizens by drone try to sidestep the Fifth Amendment?<\/p>\n

It relied on reasoning from two countries that don\u2019t\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0any constitution.<\/p>\n

The New York Times\u00a0reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

One might have expected a thoughtful memo that carefully weighed the pros and cons and discussed how such a strike accords with international and Constitutional law.<\/p>\n

Instead, the memo turns out to be a slapdash pastiche of legal theories \u2013 some based on\u00a0obscure interpretations of British and Israeli law<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 that was clearly tailored to the desired result. Perhaps the administration held out so long to avoid exposing the thin foundation on which it based such a momentous decision.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Neither\u00a0England<\/a>\u00a0nor\u00a0Israel<\/a>\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0a constitution.<\/p>\n

Indeed, as the BBC\u00a0notes<\/a>, they are in a very small group of\u00a0three:<\/p>\n

In all but a handful of democracies in the world, the nation\u2019s constitution can be found in a single document. The exceptions are Israel, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nothing in the memo says that it only applies to U.S. citizens living\u00a0abroad<\/em>. Indeed, the government has claimed the right to\u00a0assassinate or indefinitely detain any American citizen on U.S. citizen without any due process<\/a>. And\u00a0see this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And \u2014 contrary to misleading statements to the contrary \u2014 the U.S. has\u00a0never<\/em>\u00a0said\u00a0<\/a>that it won\u2019t assassinate Americans living on U.S. soil.<\/p>\n

Sadly, even though Americans have a constitution, we have\u00a0lost virtually all of the rights contained in that document<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Postscript: While this article focuses on U.S. citizens, assassinating non-citizens by drone has problems as well:<\/p>\n