7/28/2019 The Shooting of Ibragim Todashev- Is the Lawlessness of Obama's Drone Policy Coming Home Coming Home?
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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-inquiry7/28/2019 The Shooting of Ibragim Todashev- Is the Lawlessness of Obama's Drone Policy Coming Home Coming Home?
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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§ion=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§ion=5http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Due_process&action=edit§ion=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.html7/28/2019 The Shooting of Ibragim Todashev- Is the Lawlessness of Obama's Drone Policy Coming Home Coming Home?
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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-text7/28/2019 The Shooting of Ibragim Todashev- Is the Lawlessness of Obama's Drone Policy Coming Home Coming Home?
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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
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