The killing of Awlaki\u2019s 16-year-old son
\nExtreme secrecy, as usual, shrouds this act, but it underscores how often the U.S. uses violence around the world
\nBy Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com – 20 October, 2011<\/p>\n
Two weeks after the U.S. killed American citizen Anwar Awlaki with a drone strike in Yemen \u2014 far from any battlefield and with no due process \u2014 it did the same to his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, ending the teenager\u2019s life on Friday along with his 17-year-old cousin and seven other people. News reports, based on government sources, originally claimed that Awlaki\u2019s son was 21 years old and an Al Qaeda fighter (needless to say, as Terrorist often means: \u201canyone killed by the U.S.\u201d), but a birth certificate published by The Washington Post proved that he was born only 16 years ago in Denver. As The New Yorker\u2018s Amy Davidson wrote: \u201cLooking at his birth certificate, one wonders what those assertions say either about the the quality of the government\u2019s evidence \u2014 or the honesty of its claims \u2014 and about our own capacity for self-deception.\u201d The boy\u2019s grandfather said that he and his cousin were at a barbecue and preparing to eat when the U.S. attacked them by air and ended their lives. There are two points worth making about this:<\/p>\n
(1) It is unknown whether the U.S. targeted the teenager or whether he was merely \u201ccollateral damage.\u201d The reason that\u2019s unknown is because the Obama administration refuses to tell us. Said the Post: \u201cThe officials would not discuss the attack in any detail, including who the target was.\u201d So here we have yet again one of the most consequential acts a government can take \u2014 killing one of its own citizens, in this case a teenage boy \u2014 and the government refuses even to talk about what it did, why it did it, what its justification is, what evidence it possesses, or what principles it has embraced in general for such actions. Indeed, it refuses even to admit it did this, since it refuses even to admit that it has a drone program at all and that it is engaged in military action in Yemen. It\u2019s just all shrouded in total secrecy.<\/p>\n
Of course, the same thing happened with the killing of Awlaki himself. The Executive Branch decided it has the authority to target U.S. citizens for death without due process, but told nobody (until it was leaked) and refuses to identify the principles that guide these decisions. It then concluded in a secret legal memo that Awlaki specifically could be killed, but refuses to disclose what it ruled or in which principles this ruling was grounded. And although the Obama administration repeatedly accused Awlaki of having an \u201coperational role\u201d in Terrorist plots, it has \u2014 as Davidson put it \u2014 \u201cso far kept the evidence for that to itself.\u201d …more<\/a><\/p>\n