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March
06 2013
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Last Resistance
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Sen. Ted Cruz slams AG Eric Holder’s defense of drone strikes against Americans
Under questioning by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder agreed that it would be “unconstitutional” to kill an American citizen on U.S. soil with a drone strike — absent an “imminent threat” like a 9/11-style attack or an enemy bombardment like Pearl Harbor.
Cruz refused to accept without question Holder’s assertion that any use of lethal force would not be “appropriate” given the high probability that a terrorism suspect could be captured by law enforcement personnel instead.
Cruz asked: “My question wasn’t about appropriateness or prosecutorial discretion, it was a simple legal question. Does the Constitution allow a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil who doesn’t pose an imminent threat to be killed by the U.S. government?”
Holder seemed frustrated by the question. “I do not believe… Given all the facts that you have given me, and this is a hypothetical, I would not think in that situation the use of drone– or lethal force, would be appropriate…”
Cruz cut him off. “Attorney General, I have to tell you I find it remarkable that in that hypothetical, which is deliberately very simple, you are able to give a simple, one word, one syllable answer: ‘No.’ I think it is unequivocal that if the U.S. government were to use a drone to take the life of a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and that individual did not pose an imminent threat, that would be a deprivation of life without due process.”
They went back and forth, basically agreeing that lethal force would not be used in such a circumstance, but Cruz grew more outraged by the second at Holder’s persistent use of the word “appropriate.” Finally, Holder said, “Let me be clear: Translate my ‘appropriate’ to ‘no.’ I thought I was saying no, alright?”
“Well, I am glad,” Cruz replied. “After much gymnastics, I am very glad to hear that it is the opinion of the Department of Justice that it would be unconstitutional to kill a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil if that individual did not pose an imminent threat. That statement has not been easily forthcoming.”
He added that forthcoming legislation would “make clear” that at no point does the currently-in-effect Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001 permit the killing of an American on U.S. soil without proof of an imminent threat.
However, the Bush administration seriously considered using the military in a domestic law enforcement capacity in 2002, in a plan that would have sent troops to swoop in on several men in Buffalo, New York who were suspected of hatching a terrorist plot. They ultimately decided against it, even though legal experts say the congressional authorization of the use of military force is without borders and includes U.S. soil.
Holder himself admitted as much in his letter to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) earlier this week, writing: “It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws… for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States.”
This video is from C-SPAN 3, aired Wednesday, March 6, 2013, snipped courtesy of Mediaite.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/06/sen-ted-cruz-slams-ag-eric-holders-defense-of-drone-strikes-against-americans/
Obama admin email tells feds to make sequester as painful as promised…
SEQUESTER MEMO: ‘Make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be’…
(Washington Times) – The White House announced Tuesday that it is canceling tours of the president’s home for the foreseeable future as the sequester spending cuts begin to bite and the administration makes good on its warnings of painful decisions.
Announcement of the decision — made in an email from the White House Visitors Office — came hours after The Washington Times reported on another administration email that seemed to show at least one agency has been instructed to make sure the cuts are as painful as President Obama promised they would be.
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The Obama administration denied an appeal for flexibility in lessening the sequester’s effects, with an email this week appearing to show officials in Washington that because they already had promised the cuts would be devastating, they now have to follow through on that.
In the email sent Monday by Charles Brown, an official with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office in Raleigh, N.C., Mr. Brown asked “if there was any latitude” in how to spread the sequester cuts across the region to lessen the impacts on fish inspections.
He said he was discouraged by officials in Washington, who gave him this reply: “We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be.”
“This email confirms what many Americans have suspected: The Obama administration is doing everything they can to make sure their worst predictions come true and to maximize the pain of the Sequester cuts for political gain,” said Rep. Tim Griffin, Arkansas Republican.
Mr. Brown, the official who sent the email and who is eastern regional director for wildlife services at APHIS, didn’t immediately return a call Tuesday afternoon seeking comment.
APHIS is an agency within the Agriculture Department, and on Tuesday department Secretary Tom Vilsack was challenged on the email at a House committee hearing by Rep. Kristi Noem, who said she hoped the department wouldn’t tie agencies’ hands.
Mr. Vilsack said he hadn’t seen the email, but said agencies are supposed to be trying to find ways to manage the impact of the cuts.
“If we have flexibility, we’re going to try to use it to make sure we use sequester in the most equitable and least disruptive way,” the secretary testified. “There are some circumstances, and we’ve talked a lot about the meat inspection, where we do not have that flexibility because there are so few accounts.”
The administration earlier had warned that supplies of beef, pork and poultry could drop this year because slaughterhouse inspectors will have to be furloughed, and under federal law meat can’t be processed without inspectors present.
Ms. Noem told Mr. Vilsack the email made it sound like the administration was sacrificing flexibility in order to justify dire predictions.
“I’m hopeful that isn’t an agenda that’s been put forward,” the South Dakota Republican congresswoman told Mr. Vilsack.
The $85 billion in sequesters began Friday, and have hit most of the federal government, where employees will face furloughs.
But even amid the cuts, APHIS is still hiring new employees and interns.
Since Sunday the agency has posted 24 help-wanted ads including 22 student internships, one ad seeking a clerk in a New York office, and one ad seeking three “insect production workers” to grow bollworms in Phoenix.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/5/email-tells-feds-make-sequester-painful-promised/#ixzz2Mh3nZxuo
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