Yesterday, I reported that Senator Rand Paul was holding up John Brennan's confirmation until he got an answer from the White House on whether drone strikes would ever be used within the United States, since U.S. laws restrict the use of our military within our borders.
Today, he got an answer from Obama's Attorney General:
“It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States,” Holder replied in a letter yesterday to Paul’s question about whether Obama “has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and without trial.”
Holder noted that Paul’s question was “entirely hypothetical [and] unlikely to occur,” but cited the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as the type of incidents that might provoke such a response.
“Were such an emergency to arise, I would examine the particular facts and circumstances before advising the President on the scope of his authority,” he concluded.
Emphasis mine.
In other words, Holder and the president feel that in an 'emergency' or anything they determine as such, they're free to use drones, those spiffy new heavily armored APC's Homeland Security is stocking up on, any military force they want against our own citizens without due process.
Strange days...
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