A Due Process in War

What legal argument authorized the targeting of an American citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, in Yemen?

The Justice Department wrote a secret memorandum authorizing the lethal targeting of Anwar al-Aulaqi, the American-born radical cleric who was killed by a U.S. drone strike Friday, according to administration officials...

“What constitutes due process in this case is a due process in war,” said one of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss closely held deliberations within the administration...

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights argued on behalf of Aulaqi’s father last year that that there is no “battlefield” in Yemen, and that the administration should be forced to articulate publicly its legal standards for killing any citizen outside the United States who is suspected of terrorism.

Read the article here.

Superman Renounces U.S. Citizenship

Comic books are getting complicated:

...Superman announces that he is going to give up his U.S. citizenship. Despite very literally being an alien immigrant, Superman has long been seen as a patriotic symbol of "truth, justice, and the American way," from his embrace of traditional American ideals to the iconic red and blue of his costume. What it means to stand for the "American way" is an increasingly complicated thing, however, both in the real world and in superhero comics, whose storylines have increasingly seemed to mirror current events and deal with moral and political complexities rather than simple black and white morality.

Read the posting here.

Ask. Tell. Defense Leaders Laud Repeal, Return of ‘Equality’

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on DADT:

"I testified early in 2010 that it was time to end this law and this policy,” he said. “I believed then, and I still believe, that it was, first and foremost, a matter of integrity... It was fundamentally against everything we stand for as an institution to force people to lie about who they are just to wear a uniform. We are better than that.”

Chairman Mullen said the repeal will strengthen the DOD and emphasize positive values.

“Today, with implementation of the new law fully in place, we are a stronger joint force, a more tolerant force, a force of more character and more honor, more in keeping with our own values,” he said.

Read the DoD news article here.

R2P Justified...?

Speaking before a select audience of UN representatives gathered to discuss support for Libya, President Obama offered the following:

“Libya is a lesson in what the international community can achieve when we stand together as one.”

“I said at the beginning of this [Libya] process, we cannot and should not intervene every time there is an injustice in the world. Yet it’s also true, that there are times where the world could have and should have summoned the will to prevent the killing of innocents on a horrific scale.”

Read the Article here.

A New Flock for Military Chaplains

The International Humanist and Ethical Union adopted a resolution on the pastoral support of non-religious military personnel that calls for:

1.States that provide support for religious personnel, veterans, and their families through the provision of chaplains to make Humanist equivalents available to non-religious personnel, veterans, and their families.

2.States that provide counsellors or chaplains to support all personnel, regardless of religion or belief, but that limit the opportunity to apply for these jobs to religious applicants, to end such restrictions and open all such roles to all qualified people.

3. Humanist groups to seek ways that they can ensure that non-religious service personnel are not discriminated against in their national armed forces and that all service personnel have full enjoyment of their guaranteed human rights.

Read the full resolution here.