I've been trying honestly to wrap my brain around this as it definitely is at least 6 different kinds of uncomfortable.
Ideally, he could be apprehended, charged and tried.
But there are a number of issues at hand. First, he isn't a run of the mill criminal. There's information that he isn't merely a terrorist sympathizer either. He's believed to be an active member of Al Qaeda, the terrorist network with whom we've been fighting, and is recruiting for them. Further, he's in a country we cannot legally extradite from.
There's a point where someone ceases to be a criminal and becomes an enemy in a war. The order that was given is presumaby because we cannot legally apprehend him, so the military has been told that if they are given a shot, to take it. We did that to Admiral Yamamoto in WWII. And I have to believe that if in that war, an American citizen not only joined the German Nazi Party, but also went overseas to actively work for them, recruiting people for the SS, that there would be little question that he could be killed.
Credits & Style Info
Talk Politics. A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 8/4/10 12:58 (UTC)Ideally, he could be apprehended, charged and tried.
But there are a number of issues at hand. First, he isn't a run of the mill criminal. There's information that he isn't merely a terrorist sympathizer either. He's believed to be an active member of Al Qaeda, the terrorist network with whom we've been fighting, and is recruiting for them. Further, he's in a country we cannot legally extradite from.
There's a point where someone ceases to be a criminal and becomes an enemy in a war. The order that was given is presumaby because we cannot legally apprehend him, so the military has been told that if they are given a shot, to take it. We did that to Admiral Yamamoto in WWII. And I have to believe that if in that war, an American citizen not only joined the German Nazi Party, but also went overseas to actively work for them, recruiting people for the SS, that there would be little question that he could be killed.