Russ Feingold 'Pleased' Anwar Al-Awlaki was Taken Out by Drone Strike

[The Northerner]

WASHINGTON -- Former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold, whose lone vote against the Patriot Act made him a hero among civil libertarians, said he has no problem with the killing of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone attack in Yemen last fall.

"I'm very pleased that he was taken out," said Feingold, who spoke to The Huffington Post ahead of the Tuesday release of his new book, "While America Sleeps." "I do believe he was part and parcel of al Qaeda. I do think it is legitimate to go after al Qaeda operatives."

The clandestine assassination of an American citizen without a trial sparked a legal and moral debate last year that echoed a similar one after 9/11 as lawmakers drafted the now controversial Patriot Act. A secret Obama administration memo leaked soon after the strike concluded that Awlaki could be legally targeted if it was not possible to capture him alive.

Even as he told The Huffington Post in an interview that "Americans have metaphorically gone back to sleep when it comes to constitutional intrusions in the name of fighting terrorism," the former member of the Senate Intelligence Committee made clear that in Awlaki's case, exceptions should be made.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/22/russ-feingold-anwar-al-awlaki_n_1291593.html

[Dokkie]

1. but do we know he is part

and parcel of al qaeda without any public evidence, investigation or trial. This is really disappointing

[TheWraith]

4. You know he had released videos, right?

Far too many people have swallowed this "no public evidence" line. The fact was Al Awlaki had, among other things, released videos exhorting muslims to kill westerners and non-believers, publicly claimed his responsibility for multiple attacks and attempted attacks, as well as having been convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in the death of a French citizen.

[Dokkie]

5. videos saying what?

supporting or sympathizing with al qaeda doesn't mean he is part of al qaeda. And why the fuck have we not killed the American Al Qaeda? The one Bill Maher interviewed in his religilous documentary, he seems to be more dangerous that Al Walaki. Makes me very suspicious that he is still alive maintaining a website and publishing magazines on how to attack American.

[Robb]

2. Feingold is also the architect of our current military work in Uganda.

He's right on that, too, but I suspect this will send him under the bus on DU, and how.

[politicasista]

7. It's already started n/t

[banned from Kos]

3. Good enough for me. Feingold earned his cred in the Senate.

The journalists who complain were never responsible to constituents.

[gratuitous]

6. Oh! Well . . . if that's a sincere belief, then that's it

We can just dispense with all that messiness that quaint old document. Who needs due process and trials, anyway? Far more efficient to just lob a missile at someone and blow them to Kingdom Come. Al-Awlaki was soooo guilty, in fact, that his teen-aged son got snuffed, too. That should teach those bloodthirsty, lawless savages to respect our system of justice, by cracky.

Would Sen. Feingold favor us with a prospective list of exceptions, or can those be granted only in retrospect?

What. The. Fuck.