A NON-RHETORICAL QUESTION

[Robert Sheridan]

Shouldn't we be asking whether this question has arisen before?  That is, have we ever taken it for granted that it was legal to kill anyone on American soil, apart from battle, out of uniform, w/o a trial, as an alleged enemy?

Didn't we arrest and try spies during the Revolution?  Major Andre?

Did we execute Clement Vallandigham, the Southern sympathizer, during the Civil War when he urged draft resistance in the North?

During the First World War, didn't we feel the need to enact, in 1917, an Espionage Act, upon which to try alleged traitors?

Didn't Nazi infiltrators, during WWII, on Long Island, receive trials that went to the Supreme Court?  But weren't taken out and shot summarily, whether or not their names were placed on a list by a branch of government?

Don't ask me about the internment of the AJAs on the W. Coast after Pearl Harbor.

How does it change things that the alleged enemy is an American citizen or not; or that the killing occurs on or off U.S. soil?

This whole question seems like a mess, probably because those justifying summary killing on one ground or another seem to be appealing more to knee-jerk patriotism during a period of heightened emotion than anything recognizable as the dispassionate rule of law.

I could be wrong.

rs


On Mar 6, 2012, at 6:21 PM, Lou Fisher wrote:

> My response was like Daniel's.  Attorney General Holder says the administration would be subject to regular checks and balances, including "robust" oversight by Congress.  That brought no comfort to me.  He promises, essentially, one-branch government. 
>  
>  
> On 03/06/12, Daniel Hoffman<guayiya at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>  
> Holder's statement that due process is not necessarily judicial process produced a bit of a crisis in my mind.  The bottom line seems to be that your rights are whatever the president, in his wisdom, chooses to give us.  Good news though, it's only if you're on a secret enemies list.
> 
> ---
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