The Shooting of Ibragim Todashev- Is the Lawlessness of Obama's Drone Policy Coming Home Coming Home?

7/28/2019 The Shooting of Ibragim Todashev- Is the Lawlessness of Obama's Drone Policy Coming Home Coming Home?

1/4

The Shooting Of Ibragim

Todashev: Is The Lawlessness of

Obama's Drone Policy Coming

Home?

This from Information Clearing House--

Once a state gets used to abusing the rights of foreigners in

distant lands, it's almost inevitable it will import the habit

By George Monbiot

---------------------- Did the FBI execute Ibragim Todashev? He

appears to have been shot seven times while being interviewed

at home in Orlando, Florida, about his connection to one of the

Boston bombing suspects. Among the shots was the assassin'shallmark: a bullet to the back of the head. What kind of an

interview was it?

An irregular one. There was no lawyer present. It was not

recorded. By the time Todashev was shot, he had apparently

been interrogated by three agents for five hours. And then? Who

knows? First, we were told, he lunged at them with a knife. How

he acquired it, five hours into a police interview, was not

explained. How he posed such a threat while recovering from a

knee operation also remains perplexing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/30/father-chechen-man-killed-fbi-inquiryhttp://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-05-22/news/os-who-is-ibragim-todashev-20130522_1_boston-marathon-bombings-chechenhttp://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-05-22/news/os-who-is-ibragim-todashev-20130522_1_boston-marathon-bombings-chechenhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/us/man-tied-to-boston-suspect-said-to-have-attacked-fbi-agent.html?_r=0http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/us/man-tied-to-boston-suspect-said-to-have-attacked-fbi-agent.html?_r=0http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/us/man-tied-to-boston-suspect-said-to-have-attacked-fbi-agent.html?_r=0http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/us/man-tied-to-boston-suspect-said-to-have-attacked-fbi-agent.html?_r=0http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/30/father-chechen-man-killed-fbi-inquiryhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/30/father-chechen-man-killed-fbi-inquiry


2/4

At first he drew the knife while being interviewed. Then he

acquired it during a break from the interview. Then it ceased to

be a knife and became a sword, then a pipe, then a metal pole,

then a broomstick, then a table, then a chair. In one account allthe agents were in the room at the time of the attack; in another,

all but one had mysteriously departed, leaving the remaining

officer to face his assailant alone.

If and it remains a big if this was an extrajudicial execution,

it was one of hundreds commissioned by US agencies since

Barack Obama first took office. The difference in this case is

that it took place on American soil. Elsewhere, suspects arebumped off without even the right to the lawyerless interview

Ibragim Todashev was given.

In his speech two days after Todashev was killed, President

Obama maintained that "our commitment to constitutional

principles has weathered every war". But he failed to explain

which constitutional principles permit him to authorise thekilling of people in nations with which the US is not at war.

When his attorney general, Eric Holder, tried to do so last year,

he got himself into a terrible mess, ending with the extraordinary

claim that "'due process' and 'judicial process' are not one and

the same the constitution guarantees due process, not judicial

process". So what is due process if it doesn't involve the courts?

Whatever the president says it is?

Er, yes. In the same speech Obama admitted for the first time

that fourAmerican citizens have been killed by US drone strikes

in other countries. In the next sentence, he said: "I do not believe

it would be constitutional for the government to target and kill
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Due_process&action=edit&section=5http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2012/ag-speech-1203051.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/yet-another-explanation-for-the-killing-of-ibragim-todashev/276421/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/us/officer-involved-in-shooting-of-man-tied-to-tsarnaev.htmlhttp://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/yet-another-explanation-for-the-killing-of-ibragim-todashev/276421/http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/yet-another-explanation-for-the-killing-of-ibragim-todashev/276421/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/us/officer-involved-in-shooting-of-man-tied-to-tsarnaev.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Due_process&action=edit&section=5http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Due_process&action=edit&section=5http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2012/ag-speech-1203051.htmlhttp://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2012/ag-speech-1203051.htmlhttp://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2012/ag-speech-1203051.htmlhttp://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2012/ag-speech-1203051.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/yet-another-explanation-for-the-killing-of-ibragim-todashev/276421/http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/yet-another-explanation-for-the-killing-of-ibragim-todashev/276421/http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/yet-another-explanation-for-the-killing-of-ibragim-todashev/276421/http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/yet-another-explanation-for-the-killing-of-ibragim-todashev/276421/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/us/officer-involved-in-shooting-of-man-tied-to-tsarnaev.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/us/officer-involved-in-shooting-of-man-tied-to-tsarnaev.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/us/officer-involved-in-shooting-of-man-tied-to-tsarnaev.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/us/officer-involved-in-shooting-of-man-tied-to-tsarnaev.html


3/4

any US citizen with a drone, or a shotgun without due

process." This suggests he believes that the legal rights of

those four people had been respected before they were killed.

Given that they might not even have known that they were

accused of the alleged crimes for which they were executed, that

they had no opportunities to contest the charges, let alone be

granted judge or jury, this suggests that the former law

professor's interpretation of constitutional rights is somewhat

elastic. If Obama and his nameless advisers say someone is a

terrorist, he stands convicted and can be put to death.

Left hanging in his speech is the implication that non-US

citizens may be killed without even the pretence of due process.

The many hundreds killed by drone strikes (who, civilian or

combatant, retrospectively become terrorists by virtue of having

been killed in a US anti-terrorism operation) are afforded no

rights even in principle.

As the process of decision-making remains secret, as the US

government refuses even to acknowledge let alone to

document or investigate the killing by its drones of people

who patently had nothing to do with terrorism or any other

known crime, miscarriages of justice are not just a risk emerging

from the deployment of the president's kill list. They are an

inevitable outcome. Under the Obama doctrine, innocent until

proved guilty has mutated to innocent until proved dead.

The president made his rejection of habeas corpus and his

assumption of a godlike capacity for judgment explicit later in

the speech, while discussing another matter. How, he wondered,
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/http://livingunderdrones.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Stanford-NYU-LIVING-UNDER-DRONES.pdfhttp://livingunderdrones.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Stanford-NYU-LIVING-UNDER-DRONES.pdfhttp://livingunderdrones.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Stanford-NYU-LIVING-UNDER-DRONES.pdfhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/http://livingunderdrones.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Stanford-NYU-LIVING-UNDER-DRONES.pdfhttp://livingunderdrones.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Stanford-NYU-LIVING-UNDER-DRONES.pdfhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-texthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/23/obama-drones-guantanamo-speech-text


4/4

should the US deal with detainees in Guantnamo Bay "who we

know have participated in dangerous plots or attacks, but who

cannot be prosecuted for example because the evidence

against them has been compromised or is inadmissible in a courtof law"? If the evidence has been compromised or is

inadmissible, how can he know that they have participated? He

can suspect, he can allege, but he cannot know until his

suspicion has been tested in a court of law.

Global powers have an antisocial habit of bringing their work

back home. The British government imported some of the

methods it used against its colonial subjects to suppressdomestic protests and strikes. Once an administrative class

becomes accustomed to treating foreigners as if they have no

rights, and once the domestic population broadly accepts their

justifications, it is almost inevitable that the habit migrates from

one arena into another. If hundreds of people living abroad can

be executed by American agents on no more than suspicion,

should we be surprised if residents of the United States beganto be treated the same way?

A fully referenced version of this article can be found at

monbiot.comTwitter: @GeorgeMonbiot

This article was originally published in THE GUARDIAN
http://www.monbiot.com/https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiothttps://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiothttps://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiothttp://www.monbiot.com/http://www.monbiot.com/

Documents

The Shooting of Ibragim Todashev- Is the Lawlessness of Obama's Drone Policy Coming Home Coming Home?