{"id":52553,"date":"2013-07-23T14:24:44","date_gmt":"2013-07-23T13:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/us-assassination-of-citizens-uncounted-collateral-damage-and-a-law-suit\/52553\/"},"modified":"2013-07-23T15:06:15","modified_gmt":"2013-07-23T14:06:15","slug":"us-assassination-of-citizens-uncounted-collateral-damage-and-a-law-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/us-assassination-of-citizens-uncounted-collateral-damage-and-a-law-suit\/","title":{"rendered":"US: Assassination of Citizens, Uncounted \u201cCollateral Damage\u201d and a Law Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c<\/strong>One man\u2019s collateral damage is another man\u2019s son<\/em>.\u201d (Political cartoonist, Jeff Danziger, August 2nd<\/sup>\u00a02006.)<\/p>\n

The words of Nasser al-Aulaqi, have a measured, dignified determination, shadowed by bewilderment and the betrayal by a country for which he had had respect, happy memories and which had provided aspects of the basis for his considerable achievements.<\/p>\n

Nasser al-Aulaqi is the father of\u00a0\u00a0Anwar al-Aulaqi and the grandfather of sixteen year old Abdulrahman al-Aulaqi, both killed in American drone strikes in the Yemen, within two weeks of each other, in September and October 2011, respectively. Both were American citizens.<\/p>\n

He writes: \u201cA country that believes it does not even need to answer for killing its own is not the America I once knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom 1966 to 1977, I fulfilled a childhood dream and studied in the United States as a Fulbright scholar, earning my Doctorate and then working as a researcher and assistant Professor at universities in New Mexico, Nebraska and Minnesota.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have fond memories of those years. When I first came to the United States as a student, my host family took me camping by the ocean, on road trips to places like Yosemite National Park, Disneyland and New York \u2014 it was wonderful.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter returning to Yemen, I used my American education and skills to help my country \u2026\u201d (i) He ultimately became Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries between 1988 and 1990, President of the capitol city\u2019s Sana\u2019a University, and in 1996, founded what has become a leading institute of learning, Ibb University.<\/p>\n

Ironically, in 2011, the year of the assassination of his son and grandson, targeted killings, which, it is alleged, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate President of America personally makes the decisions on a weekly basis (ii) Tawakel Karman, a graduate in Political Science from Sana\u2019a University was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first Yemeni and Arab woman so honoured.<\/p>\n

Abdelrahman was born in Denver, Colorado, returning to Yemen when he was seven: \u201cMy grandson was killed by his own government.\u201d<\/p>\n

His grandfather describes a: \u201c \u2026 typical teenager\u201d, who watched \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d, listened to rapper Snoop Dogg, had a multi-friended Facebook page and: \u201cA mop of curly hair and glasses, like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September 2011, the sixteen year old had left the home in Sana\u2019a, where he lived with his mother and grandfather, in the early morning. He left a note for his mother saying he was going to look for his father, who he had not seen for some years, who he missed. He asked her forgiveness for leaving without permission, says Nasser al-Aulaqi. A journey mirrored by countless young people across the globe, where family break ups and separations have left often long hidden scars on the young.<\/p>\n

Two days after Abdelrahman left, his mother and grandfather heard from relatives in southern Yemen, from where the family originated, that he was safely there with them and his cousins.<\/p>\n

On September 30th<\/sup>, his father was executed by drone,\u00a0\u00a0far away in the north of the country, killed with twenty eight year old Samir Khan, also an American citizen, and three other people.<\/p>\n

Samir Khan edited Inspire magazine, cited as aiming to radicalize young Muslims against the West and in which Anwar al-Aulaqi has been said to have been deeply involved.<\/p>\n

When Samir\u00a0\u00a0was growing up in Queen\u2019s, then Westbury, New York and later in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he attended Central Piedmont Community College, he is said by classmates to have refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and to have blamed the 11th<\/sup>\u00a0September attacks on America.<\/p>\n

He is hardly alone in the latter looking at the ever expanding experts, academics, legal brains in the 9\/11 Truth Movement (iii) \u2014 and given the\u00a0murderous contempt with which his family\u2019s country, Pakistan, is treated by the US, he could hardly be blamed for not wanting to pledge allegiance to his family\u2019s homeland\u2019s tormentors.<\/p>\n

According to Nasser al-Aulaqi, in 2010, the Obama Administration put Anwar : \u201c \u2026 on CIA and Pentagon \u2018kill lists\u2019 of suspected terrorists, targeted for death (but) never charged him with a crime. No Court ever reviewed the government\u2019s claims, nor was any evidence of criminal wrongdoing ever presented to a Court.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was simply: \u201cdeprived of his constitutional rights as an American citizen\u201d as was Samir Khan. The three others assassinated were, presumably, \u201ccollateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his father\u2019s death Abdulrahman called saying he was making plans to return home: \u201cThat was the last time I heard his voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exactly two weeks later he was killed whilst eating dinner in an open air restaurant, with his teenage cousin, on a tropical Yemen evening. Five others were also killed.<\/p>\n

In the interests of balance, whatever about Inspire magazine, to target the staff of Denmark\u2019s Jyllands-Posten which published the hate-inciting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed, leading to riots and attacks on Western embassies, or to drone to death those responsible for the appalling\u00a0\u00a0\u201cInnocence of Muslims\u201d which depicts the Prophet as womanizer and madman \u2014 and may have contributed to the death of US arms-running Ambassador Christopher Stevens and colleagues, in Benghazi, Libya on 11th<\/sup>\u00a0September 2012 \u2014 would be unthinkable. In the starkest of double standards, these shameful provocations have been justified as legitimate rights of freedom of speech and expression.<\/p>\n

Nasser al-Aulaqi learned that his grandson: \u201chas been killed by an American drone strike from news reports the morning after he had died.\u201d<\/p>\n

He: \u201cvisited the site later, once I was able to bear the pain of seeing where he sat in his final moments. Local residents told me his body was blown to pieces. They showed me the grave where they buried his remains. I stood over it, asking why my grandchild was dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly two years later, I still have no answers. The United States government has refused to explain why Abdulrahman was killed:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not until May of this year that the Obama administration, in a supposed effort to be more transparent, publicly acknowledged what the world already knew \u2014 that it was responsible for his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., said only that Abdulrahman was not \u2018specifically targeted\u2019 raising more questions than he answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandson was killed by his own government. The Obama administration must answer for its actions and be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a complex series of legal initiatives, stretching over a year, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of Mr al-Aulaqi and Sarah Khan, mother of Samir Khan, are challenging the Obama Administration\u2019s right to be Judge, jury and executioner, to: \u201cclaim it could kill anyone it deemed an enemy of the State.\u201d The latest hearing began in Washington, last Friday, 19th<\/sup>\u00a0July. (iv)<\/p>\n

The defendants are Defense Secretary and former CIA Director, Leon C. Panetta; Commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, William H. McRaven; Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command Joseph Votel; and former CIA Director David Petraeus.<\/p>\n

CCR\u2019s Senior Staff Attorney Pardiss Kebriaei, argues that: \u201cThe government\u2019s position is unprecedented and extraordinary.\u00a0It claims the most consequential power a government can exercise against its own citizens \u2014 the power to take life without due process \u2014 and asserts that the Courts should have no role at all in reviewing its actions, even after the fact, even when the killings are off any battlefield.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court should exercise its constitutionally mandated role and review our clients\u2019 fundamental claims.\u00a0It is for the court to determine the legality of the government\u2019s actions, not for the government simply to assert it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nasser al-Aulaqi had not just been a grandfather to Abdelrahmen, he had been a father. The teenager was: \u201cborn and lived in Denver until he was seven, then he came to live with me in Yemen. He used to tell me he wanted to follow in my footsteps and go back to America to study. I can\u2019t bear to think of those conversations now.\u201d<\/p>\n

CCR\u2019s Pardiss Kebriaei and Hina Shamsi, from the ACLU\u2019s constitutional challenge to the government\u2019s claim that it can take the life of its own citizens without due process and that the Courts should have no role in reviewing these actions, elicited an interesting response from the Judge to the U.S. Justice Department lawyer:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Executive is not an effective check on the Executive when it comes to a person\u2019s constitutional rights. You cannot ask the Court to say okay the Executive will check itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m not sure of is where does this stop? What is the limit? The limit is the courthouse door. But you are saying there is no courthouse door.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are saying they have constitutional rights but can\u2019t assert them anywhere.\u201d (v)<\/p>\n

The ruling is awaited.<\/p>\n

Writing this two thoughts came to mind. One was the endless rhetoric from the US and UK governments about ruthless despots who \u201ckill their own people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other, especially in the light of what is now known of tracking every move, of any citizen, anywhere on earth, it seems, by their mobile \u2018phone or computer was, did the distressed call of a sixteen year old \u2014 who had just lost the father for whom he was searching \u2014 to his grandfather and acting father, activate the ability to track him and murder him?<\/p>\n

You can add your name to the call for an end to unlawful targeted killings at:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/bit.ly\/ObamaEndUnlawfulKillings<\/a><\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

i. http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/18\/opinion\/the-drone-that-killed-my-grandson.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

ii.\u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/05\/29\/world\/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html?pagewanted=all<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

iii.\u00a0http:\/\/www.911truth.org<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

iv.\u00a0http:\/\/ccrjustice.org\/ourcases\/current-cases\/al-aulaqi-v.-panetta<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

v.\u00a0http:\/\/www.ccrjustice.org\/newsroom\/press-releases\/court-hearing-friday-lawsuit-challenging-u.s.-drone-killings-of-three-americans<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Republished with permission from: Global Research<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOne man\u2019s collateral damage is another man\u2019s son.\u201d (Political cartoonist, Jeff Danziger, August 2nd\u00a02006.) The words of Nasser al-Aulaqi, have a measured, dignified determination, shadowed by bewilderment and the betrayal by a country for which he had had respect, happy memories and which had provided aspects of the basis for his considerable achievements. Nasser al-Aulaqi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-52553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}