{"id":16187,"date":"2013-02-10T12:07:45","date_gmt":"2013-02-10T19:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=16187"},"modified":"2013-02-10T12:07:45","modified_gmt":"2013-02-10T19:07:45","slug":"us-drone-assassination-program-poses-real-threat-of-dictatorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=16187","title":{"rendered":"US drone assassination program poses real threat of dictatorship"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US drone assassination program and the threat of dictatorship<\/strong>
\n9 February, 2013 – WSWS<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s confirmation hearing for John Brennan, President Barack Obama\u2019s nominee for director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, provided a revealing and grim spectacle of the disintegration of what remains of democratic rights in the United States.<\/p>\n

Some press accounts of the hearing have referred to Brennan being \u201cgrilled\u201d on the US drone assassination program. On the contrary, the proceedings resembled nothing so much as a well-fed cat being questioned by a panel of skittish mice.<\/p>\n

Brennan came as the representative of those within the US military-intelligence apparatus entrusted with defending the ruling class by means of killings, detentions and torture. As Obama\u2019s counterterrorism adviser and the architect and director of an assassination program run out of the White House, he has presided over an unprecedented expansion of executive power and assault on core constitutional rights.<\/p>\n

One senator after another, Democrats no less than Republicans, fawned over Brennan, declaring their admiration and gratitude for the bloody work of the CIA and their eager anticipation of confirming him as CIA director and working closely with him in the near future. None of them directly challenged the assertion of the most sweeping of the extra-constitutional powers with which he is identified\u2014the power of the president of the United States to unilaterally and secretly order the assassination of American citizens.<\/p>\n

Among those who expressed certain qualms about this system of extra-judicial executions was Senator Angus King of Maine, who helpfully suggested that a star chamber-style secret court be set up to rubber stamp and sanctify the White House\u2019s \u201ckill lists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon\u2014in the context of present day US politics the most \u201cliberal\u201d member of the Senate intelligence panel\u2014merely pleaded with Brennan for more public information on the drone assassination program. \u201cAmericans have a right to know when their government thinks it\u2019s allowed to kill them,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n

Contained in this statement is the tacit recognition that the rights enumerated in the US Constitution, including the 5th Amendment\u2019s guarantee that no one \u201cshall be deprived of life \u2026 without due process,\u201d have been turned into a dead letter. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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The US drone assassination program and the threat of dictatorship 9 February, 2013 – WSWS Thursday\u2019s confirmation hearing for John Brennan, President Barack Obama\u2019s nominee for director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, provided a revealing and grim spectacle of the disintegration of what remains of democratic rights in the United States. Some press accounts more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16189,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16187\/revisions\/16189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}