Rand Paul, senator from Kentucky and namesake of Libertarian
founder Ayn Rand, had a 6-hour hissy fit yesterday in the Senate. He decided to
hold his own old fashioned filibuster of CIA director nominee Brenner’s
confirmation hearing, and the subject was drones over America.
See, Rand Paul sent a letter of inquiry to Attorney General
Holder asking him whether President Obama was empowered to launch a drone
strike against an American citizen on American soil. A fairly open-ended
question to say the least. Holder responded with a solid “yes.”
To which Paul took great umbrage and started sputtering over
killing Jane Fonda or noncombatants in Houston.
Really.
But Holder’s point, given the latitude of Paul’s question,
which was as big as Texas, is that the President, as Commander-in-Chief of all
US military forces, does have the power to go after an enemy combatant anywhere
in the world, including in America. Even if the enemy combatant is an American.
Not to say so would be to give an enemy combatant bent on killing Americans a
free pass just because they are on American soil. Given a situation where there
is no scenario given at all, yes, the President has that power.
Now we still have Miranda, and we still have a right to a
trial by a jury of peers, so this is obviously a very remote possibility. To
think otherwise, that drones with hellfire missiles are the new thing in
domestic law enforcement, is silliness. Paul knows better, he just likes to
shoot off his mouth.
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