'You're Nitpicking It!': O'Reilly, Judge Nap Do Battle Over Drone Strikes

[Suzanimal]

Judge Andrew Napolitano weighed in on "The O'Reilly Factor" last night on the legality of killing traitors to America.

The discussion focused on the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an al Qaeda operative and U.S. citizen who was killed in a CIA drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

The terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week are said to have past ties to al-Awlaki.

The strike on a U.S. citizen has raised constitutional questions, with the judge arguing in the past that no president can claim the power to kill an American citizen.

O'Reilly began the discussion by pointing out that in previous wars, enemy collaborators were killed by American forces on the battlefield.

"Why are you complaining about this?" he asked.

Napolitano said those previous examples literally involve deserters on the battlefield, but American citizens - even those accused of joining al Qaeda - are afforded protections by the Constitution.

"It's not my beef, Bill O'Reilly. It's the Constitution's beef," the judge said, arguing "if they can do it to al-Awlaki, they can do it to anybody."

O'Reilly accused Napolitano of "hiding behind" that argument, saying Congress approved these actions after 9/11 and only one American has been killed in this manner.

Napolitano pushed back, saying Congress "never authorized the president to kill people who haven't been charged with a crime."

O'Reilly argued that Napolitano was "misusing" the Constitution to make his argument, while the judge countered that O'Reilly was "totally misreading" the powers granted to the president by Congress.

O'Reilly called the judge's beliefs on the issue "dangerous" and said they would "tie up" the people trying to protect the country from jihadists.

http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/01/...ge-nap-do-battle-over-drone-strikes-americans

 

[CPUd]

LOL this is awesome

 

[kcchiefs6465]

Andrew Napolitano mentioned the teenagers being killed but that was a separate occasion. Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki was murdered two weeks after Anwar Al-Awlaki was murdered in a completely different province. In Napolitano's book, Theodore and Woodrow he incorrectly states that the two were killed by the same drone strike. I actually meant to send him something about that error and ask that he makes a correction.

Abdulrahman was looking for his father after it became official US policy to assassinate Anwar. There were several errant strikes and Anwar Al-Awlaki's parents had even petitioned the government to bring forth charges if they had any evidence. Anwar had left Shabwah Province a little while before his son came looking for him.

It wasn't an Al Qaeda training camp in either case. Not where Anwar was murdered (a residential home), and not where his son was murdered (a cafe, or what have you).

They tried to state that Addulrahman was not a minor and implied that he was meeting with a known terrorist. That fell apart after the family produced his birth certificate. Then it was 'Well, look who his father was.' It's been quite a while since I've read about this but if you look into it, it's ridiculous beyond what my memory can even pull forth.

At best it was an errant signature strike that coincidentally blew up the son of a man they just two weeks earlier assassinated. At worst they targeted and assassinated a sixteen year old child because of who his father was.

The only reason they knew it was Abdulrahman was because they found half of his skull with his afro still intact. It was hard to tell who was who or what was what.

Here's an artist's rendition:

 

[kcchiefs6465]

There were two Americans that were never charged with a crime that were killed in the Anwar Al-Awlaki drone strike. It just wasn't his son.

Samir Khan was the American killed alongside Anwar Al-Awlaki.

 

[kcchiefs6465]

Days later, Zafar Khan received a phone call from the US State Department. The official on the line expressed the US government’s “condolences” for Samir’s death. “They said that they were sorry and that Samir wasn’t the target,” Sarah Khan told me. “They said Sammy did not do anything wrong. They said he was not the target.” That only raised more questions for her. “If they knew that Samir was there, in that vehicle, then how could they do something like that?” she asked. Obama administration officials later told reporters that Khan was “collateral damage” in a strike aimed at Awlaki, but Representative Michael McCaul from Texas had another word for it. “Samir Khan was a bonus. It was a twofer,” McCaul said. “It’s a pretty good hit.”

Jeremy Scahill. Dirty Wars (Kindle Locations 9980-9985). Nation Books.

“I’m glad they did it,” said Republican senator John McCain.

Former vice president Dick Cheney praised Obama for killing Awlaki, saying, “I do think this was a good strike. I think the president ought to have that kind of authority to order that kind of strike, even when it involves an American citizen.”

CIA director Leon Panetta echoed those sentiments, declaring, “This individual was clearly a terrorist and yes, he was a citizen, but if you’re a terrorist, you’re a terrorist.”

Jeremy Scahill. Dirty Wars (Kindle Locations 9994-9997). Nation Books.

The only voices of dissent that emanated from Washington in the immediate aftermath of Awlaki’s killing came from the fringes of the Democratic and Republican parties. “If the American people accept this blindly and casually, that we now have an accepted practice of the president assassinating people who he thinks are bad guys, I think it’s sad,” Texas Republican Ron Paul said on the campaign trail as he waged an unsuccessful insurgent campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. “Awlaki was born here, he’s an American citizen. He was never tried or charged for any crimes. To start assassinating American citizens without charges—we should think very seriously about this.” Democrat Dennis Kucinich, who tried to challenge the government’s assertion that it could kill US citizens without trial nearly two years before Awlaki’s death, said, “The Administration has a crossed a dangerous divide and set a dangerous precedent for how the United States handles terrorism cases. This dangerous legal precedent allows the government to target U.S. citizens abroad for being suspected of involvement in terrorism, in subversion of their most basic constitutional rights and due process of law. Their right to a trial is summarily and anonymously stripped from them.”

Jeremy Scahill. Dirty Wars (Kindle Locations 10002-10011). Nation Books.

 

[muh_roads]

O'Reilly is not stupid when it comes to Government overreach & abuse of power. I'm sure he is well aware of the earliest days of Nazi Germany before it was referred to as Nazi Germany and the Government use of the media for propaganda. O'Reilly is just a dishonest piece of shit traitor spewing filth for ratings and a handsome paycheck doing the exact same tyrannical BS lies for personal and federal gain.

People that watch Fox News that want to give up all their liberties whenever Government uses the word "terrorism" are a bunch of scared little pussies.

 

[jmdrake]

Even in a banana republic you at least get a trial in abstentia.

 

[kcchiefs6465]

Paying for the Sins of the Father

WASHINGTON, DC, AND YEMEN, 2011—Abdulrahman Awlaki was mourning his father in Shabwah. The boy’s family members there tried to comfort him and encouraged him to get out with his cousins—to go for walks or go outside for meals in the fresh air. That was what Abdulrahman was doing on the evening of October 14. He and his cousins had joined a group of friends outdoors to barbecue. The boy and his cousins had laid a blanket on the ground and were about to begin their meal. There were a few other people nearby doing the same. It was about 9:00 p.m. when the drones pierced the night sky. Moments later, Abdulrahman was dead. So, too, were several other teenage members of his family, including Abdulrahman’s seventeen-year-old cousin, Ahmed.

Early the next morning, Nasser Awlaki received a phone call from his family in Shabwah. “Some of our relatives went to the place where [Abdulrahman] was killed, and they saw the area where he was killed. And they told us he was buried with the others in one grave because they were blown up to pieces by the drone. So they could not put them in separate graves,” Nasser told me. “They put three or four of them in one grave because they were cut into pieces. The people who were there could recognize only the back of Abdulrahman’s hair. But they could not recognize his face or anything else.” As the horror was setting in that their eldest grandson had been killed just two weeks after the death of their eldest child, Nasser and Saleha watched in disbelief as numerous news reports identified Abdulrahman as being twenty-one years old, with anonymous US military officials referring to him as a “military-aged” male. Somereports intimated that he was an al Qaeda supporter and that he had been killed while meeting with Ibrahim al Banna, an Egyptian citizen described as the “media coordinator” for AQAP.

“To kill a teenager is just unbelievable, really, and they claim that he is an al Qaeda militant. It’s nonsense,” said Nasser shortly after the strike. “They want to justify his killing, that’s all.” When I visited Nasser after Abdulrahman was killed, he showed me the boy’s Colorado birth certificate, showing that he was born in 1995 in Denver. “When he was killed by the US government, he was a teenager, he wasn't twenty-one. He wouldn't have been able to enlist in the military in the US. He was sixteen,” he told me.

Days after the killing of Abdulrahman, the United States released a statement, as usual feigning ignorance about who was responsible for the strike, even though “unnamed officials” in the United States and Yemen had confirmed the strike to almost all media outlets that inquired. “We have seen press reports that AQAP senior official Ibrahim al Banna was killed last Friday in Yemen and that several others, including the son of Anwar al-Awlaki, were with al Banna at the time,” National Security Council spokesman Thomas Vietor told the press, in a statement that strangely cast Abdulrahman as something between an al Qaeda associate and a hapless tourist. “For over the past year, the Department of State has publicly urged US citizens not to travel to Yemen and has encouraged those already in Yemen to leave because of the continuing threat of violence and the presence of terrorist organizations, including AQAP, throughout the country.”

The Awlaki family members, who had declined to discuss the killing of Anwar, believed that they needed to speak out publicly about the killing of Abdulrahman. “We watched with surprise and condemnation how several prominent American newspapers and news channels twist the truth, calling Abdulrahman an Al Qaeda operative and falsely and misleadingly stating his age as 21 years old,” read a statement from the family. “Abdulrahman Anwar Awlaki was born on August 26, 1995 in Denver Colorado. He was an American citizen raised in the U.S. until 2002 when his father was forced to leave the U.S. and go back to Yemen.” They invited people to look up Abdulrahman’s Facebook page—which revealed a teenager interested in music, video games and his friends—“to see the ‘lethal terrorist’, ‘the 21 year old Qaeda operative’ the U.S. government is claiming they killed. Look at his pictures, his friends and his hobbies. His Facebook page shows a typical kid, a teenager who paid a hefty price for something he never did and never was.”

For the Awlaki family, their private pain was overwhelming. After Anwar was killed, “People flocked to our house to pay condolences and show sympathy and I was in state of complete disbelief and denial,” recalled Anwar’s sister, Abir. “They kept on coming for the next two weeks, when we were yet struck again by the murder of Anwar’s oldest son, Abdulrahman. The skinny, smiling, curly-haired boy was murdered; and for what? What was he found guilty of?” she asked. “The shock of losing Abdulrahman only fourteen days after his father was unbearable. I can’t wipe the picture of my father’s reaction upon receiving the news. It is hard—hard for a father to lose his oldest son and then his first and favorite grandchild. The entire house was traumatized and hurt by every sense of the word.”

Abdulrahman’s grandmother, Saleha, went into a severe depression after her son and grandson were killed. She had been extremely close to Abdulrahman. After he died, when guests would come to the house to pay respects, she would serve them tea or sweets. She later told me from her home in Sana’a, “I look around the house and see if anybody will take the dishes and take them and bring them back to the kitchen.” She would look for her grandson, remembering how he used to help her clean up, but he wasn't there. “I miss him a lot,” Saleha said, beginning to cry. “Abdulrahman was a different boy. I have never known anybody like Abdulrahman. He was a very, very gentle boy.” I asked her what her message would be to people in the United States. “Abdulrahman was not the only one killed that day. There were other children whose parents loved them very much. Just like the American people love their children,” she said. “I wonder if Obama lost one of his daughters, or Mrs. Clinton, would they be happy? Are they going to be happy if they lost one of their children like that? I was wondering if this will make the American people happier?” While they opposed Anwar's killing and believed that the United States had exaggerated its claims about his involvement with al Qaeda, Nasser told me that his family understood why he was killed. “My son believed in what he did,” Nasser said, “but I am really distressed and disappointed by the killing, the brutal killing, of his son. He did nothing against the US. He was an American citizen. Maybe one day he would have gone to America to study and live there, and they killed him in cold blood.”

The CIA claimed that it had not carried out the strike, asserting that the supposed target, Ibrahim Banna, was not on the Agency’s hit list. That led to speculation that the strike that killed Abdulrahman and his relatives was a JSOC strike. Senior US officials told the Washington Post that “the two kill lists don’t match, but offered conflicting explanations as to why.” The officials added that Abdulrahman was an “unintended casualty.” A JSOC official told me that the intended target was not killed in the strike, though he would not say who the target was. On October 20, 2011, military officials presented a closed briefing on the JSOC strike to the Senate Armed Services Committee. With the exception of the statements from anonymous US officials, the United States offered no public explanation for the strike. The mystery deepened when AQAP released a statement claiming that Banna was, in fact, still alive. “These lies and allegations announced by the government...are not unusual...the government has falsely declared the death of mujahedeens many times,” the statement declared. The Awlakis began to wonder if perhaps Abdulrahman was, in fact, the target of the strike.

Jeremy Scahill. Dirty Wars (Kindle Locations 10053-10112). Nation Books.

 

[kcchiefs6465]

I would encourage everyone read the above post and if there is interest, I will format the rest of the chapter. And of course, buy the book. The guy goes to warzones and covers actual stories. Him destroying MSM pundits routinely is well worth the 25 dollars or so that the book costs. The thing is an encyclopedia of knowledge on so many topics... I really couldn't rate it highly enough.

He also has a documentary out on Netflix under the same name, Dirty Wars.

 

[HOLLYWOOD]

Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki in search of his father Anwar Al-Awlaki, was murdered two weeks after his father was assassinated, to what Washington DC publicity calls, neutralized.

It is no secret, both the CIA & FBI have stated under oath during 9/11 Commission testimonies, that it was 'BLOWBACK' on the U.S. for invading, robbing, occupying, their lands and overthrowing their governments and installing brutal/oppressive dictatorial governments.

The US government murdered 16 year old Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki, because they feared BLOWBACK from him in the future against the U.S. for assassinating his father. Even the US government recognizes all facets of BLOWBACK and retaliations for their actions, yet Bill "CIA Media" O'Reilly continues his diatribe propaganda.

Ron Paul was the smartest person in the house not to ever recognize Bill O'Reilly nor his MSMedia propaganda show.

 

[Anti Federalist]

Ron Paul was the smartest person in the house not to ever recognize Bill O'Reilly nor his MSMedia propaganda show.

Ron Paul was the smartest person in the house not to ever recognize Bill O'Reilly nor his MSMedia propaganda show.

Ron Paul was the smartest person in the house not to ever recognize Bill O'Reilly nor his MSMedia propaganda show.

 

[AngryCanadian]

Bill O'Reilly is still on? i cant believe some still watch it.

 

[ZENemy]

Sophist scumbag.

 

[helmuth_hubener]

My parents like him. I don't get it.

He's just unrelentingly nasty. Ugly. Negative. Rude. Horrible.

 

[green73]

Bill O'Reilly is still on? i cant believe some still watch it.

Welcome to the Idiocracy.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

Bill O'Reilly is still on? i cant believe some still watch it.

It is amazing lifespans of douchebag run/funded programs in uncontrolled/free MSM.

 

[specsaregood]

Ron Paul was the smartest person in the house not to ever recognize Bill O'Reilly nor his MSMedia propaganda show.

Uhm, ron paul went on o'reilly's show.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki in search of his father Anwar Al-Awlaki, was murdered two weeks after his father was assassinated, to what Washington DC publicity calls, neutralized.

In old Testament based divine inspired bloodsheds, children/cattle/villages (power plants included?) are not spared and mercy is forbidden. There were rumors that disgraced dronegansta's top advisors and most of election funding came from jewish lobby and not just Goldman Sachs.



Al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son Abdulrahman was also killed by a U.S. drone, the letter admits. His death, less than a month after his father was killed, was also widely known and was seen by some critics of the administration as an Old Testament-style smiting. Holder said the teenager was not targeted, but did not provide more details.

http://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram...killed-americans-obama-administration-reveals

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1270038.stm

April 9, 2009 Obama will host the first White House Passover

Rabbi Creates Special Prayer to Be Recited by Those Who See ‘King in Our Time’ Obama

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Says Those Lucky Enough To See Obama Should Recite Prayer

A prominent Israeli rabbi says that a special prayer should be recited by those lucky enough to see the president in person. The Blaze (http://bit.ly/11kym43) is reporting that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef created the tribute to Obama out of respect, calling Obama “a modern day king” due to his vast range of powers.
Rabbi Yosef, who is the former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, told his students it is a ‘mitzvah’ to try to see Obama during his visit, and said that any of them lucky enough to see him should [recite the blessing thanking God] “Gives dignity to flesh and blood.”
http://www.vosizneias.com/126721/20...cky-enough-to-see-obama-should-recite-prayer/


‘JTA’ reports that as much as 2/3 of Democratic money comes from Jewish donors
June 8, 2011
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/06/jta-r...-of-democratic-money-comes-from-jewish-donors



To be fair, SWC team has denied that charge and stated it was an "accident".

 

[muh_roads]

Uhm, ron paul went on o'reilly's show.

Once. That is all it took for him to never return. It'll be interesting to see how Rand handles him.

Random comment...O'Reilly is a shitbag who has mastered the art of interruption. When the sheep see O'Reilly as calm and collected while the other guy is flustered, it's a psychological trick to make the retarded viewers think Bill is right and the other guy is wrong. Bill is a snake and so are his producers/directors. USA foam finger #1 'merica doesn't care about facts as long as the person looks good.

Jeremy Glick got thru the bullshit by tracking how O'Reilly acts and preparing for it. Good stuff.

 

[HOLLYWOOD]

Creme de la Creme of Bill O'Reilly's 'Color of Law' zombieTV: Bill'O to former Federal judge Andrew Napolitano, "You're miss using the United States Constitution"

Propaganda statement by a corporatist media mouth versus the staunchest defender of the Rule of Law and an expert on the Bill of Rights.

Here's Bill O'Reilly's mankind: