Cue the deathsquads

Holy shit.

I get outraged a lot, but I'm rarely shocked.

This news item literally made me gasp:

Feb. 13, 2006 issue - In the latest twist in the debate over presidential powers, a Justice Department official suggested that in certain circumstances, the president might have the power to order the killing of terrorist suspects inside the United States. Steven Bradbury, acting head of the department's Office of Legal Counsel, went to a closed-door Senate intelligence committee meeting last week to defend President George W. Bush's surveillance program. During the briefing, said administration and Capitol Hill officials (who declined to be identified because the session was private), California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Bradbury questions about the extent of presidential powers to fight Al Qaeda; could Bush, for instance, order the killing of a Qaeda suspect known to be on U.S. soil? Bradbury replied that he believed Bush could indeed do this, at least in certain circumstances. [MSNBC]

Hat tip to Kosack Jonathan4Dean.

Comments

[Cervantes]

Well, this is not really an escalation of their claims. They already say that they have the right to make people disappear, and torture them to death, in total secrecy, with no accountability to anyone. If they want to kill us quickly and cleanly, that actually seems preferable.

[Joel]

I don't think they'll need to use federal officials. They've been building up the NRA for years to this very end.

[Flint]

You’re post sort puts this in a new light don’t you think?

Dragnet nabs 10,000 fugitives
Friday, April 15, 2005 Posted: 2:55 AM EDT (0655 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 10,000 fugitives from justice have been captured in a nationwide, weeklong dragnet involving federal, state and local authorities, said the U.S. Marshals Service, which led the effort.

Operation FALCON lasted from April 4 - 10 and marks the largest number of arrests ever recorded during a single operation.

Of priority: suspects wanted in homicides, sexual assaults, gang-related crimes, kidnappings, major drug offenses, and crimes against children and the elderly.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/14/fugitive.arrests/index.html

Most people didn’t give this a second thought and in fact it sounds like a good thing, but to people who come from a law enforcement background it sounded damn peculiar. The reason is that in law enforcement, when you find out the location of a dangerous fugitive… you don’t wait until you have 10,000 warrants piled up and do a mass round-up.

You get a squad together and get the suspect before he/she has a chance to move! Fugitives don’t wait around when they know that there is a warrant out for them, they keep moving.

I asked friends of mine from the FBI and other agencies if this made any sense and they all agreed that it didn’t. It looked like a practice run for a mass roundup.

[rob helpychalk]

I hope Fenstein replied: "So I'm really relying on the president's wisdom and good will to prevent him from ordering me killed right now? I mean, the president decides who is an enemy, and can have any enemy killed. So we are really all at his eternal mercy, right?"

[rob helpychalk]

Flint: Don't law enforcement officials sometimes just lump together a bunch of arrests that would have happened anyway and call them a "dragnet" for PR purposes?

At least, that's what I'm hoping.

[Flint]

"Flint: Don't law enforcement officials sometimes just lump together a bunch of arrests that would have happened anyway and call them a "dragnet" for PR purposes?"

-Rob

Not 10,000 of them and certainly not with murder suspects. They do it with drug rings, gang related warrants, and organized crime, but when it comes to murderers, pedophiles (who frequently kill their victims), and rapists... its unheard of.

That's what set off the red flags for me. I know far too many law enforcement officers and they are good guys fighting what seems like an uphill battle and this really set the ones I talked to scratching their heads.

[barstoolcadaver]

Martin Sheen in The Dead Zone movie adaptation comes to mind. "The missiles are away! Hallelujah!" Bit over the top, but not so much me thinks.

[greensmile]

What a goddamned nuisance this democracy idea is to Bush and stooges! Imagine the aggravation when uppity people like Feinstein have the opportunity to challenge the president's perogatives...all just because some stupid voters let her into the halls of Bush's government. Doesn't she know Bush has got a war on? Doesn't she know terrists is lurking? And "rule of law", another impediment national security! Don't people know "'cause the president says so!" is only way to justify taking names, numbers, wiretaps or lives when you got your war on?

[Eli]

This conclusion does follow logically from the theory they're adopting. I'm a little shocked they admitted it openly, though.

[John]

The scariest part is that this guy:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blbushsuckerpunch.htm

gets to decide who an enemy of the state is.

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

Eli, greensmile and Lindsay: be patient. The President will answer all of your concerns.

Probably by hiring a country singer, Colby O'Ornery or whoever it is this week, to pen a song: "Talkin' Back to the President is Like Sassin' Your Paw"