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Obama’s Lawyer Eric Holder Stonewalls at Senate Hearing, Refuses to Rule Out Killing Americans at Home
7 March 2013
(LPAC)—Under questioning from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder refused to rule out whether President Obama could kill an American citizen inside the United States who is considered to be plotting to attack the United States, without granting that person due process of law. While Republicans were the most aggressive in interrogating Holder, the Administration was put on notice by the Committee chairman, Democrat Patrick Leahy, that the Committee may issue a subpoena to the Justice Department for the legal memoranda justifying targeted killings of Americans. Leahy also announced that the Committee will hold a hearing on domestic drones, on March 20th. Among those raising the drone issue was Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), pointing out that the committee’s letters to Obama and Holder seeking access to classified memos "have gone unanswered," and complaining that those documents that were made available to the Senate Intelligence Committee, were not made available to the Judiciary Committee, which needs them as part of its oversight function. "American citizens have a right to understand when their life can be taken by their government, absent due process," Grassley said. One illuminating exchange came when Grassley asked Holder, "Do you believe that Congress has a constitutional authority to pass a law prohibiting the President’s ability to use drone aircrafts, to use lethal force against American citizens on U.S. soil?" Holder answered that such a bill might be unconstitutional, and might violate the President’s Article II (war-making) powers. But when asked if Congress would have the authority to bar the Administration from using "enhanced interrogation techniques against American citizens on U.S. soil to avoid a catastrophic event," Holder said he doesn’t think such techniques should be used against anybody, for any purpose. In other words, you shouldn’t torture an American, but you can assassinate one. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex) came the closest to eliciting an answer from Holder, when he asked, "if an individual is sitting quietly at a cafe in the United States, in your legal judgment, does the Constitution allow a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil to be killed by a drone?" After equivocating by saying it would not be "appropriate" to kill an American who didn’t pose an imminent threat, who wasn’t doing something "imminent," Holder eventually said he wanted to "translate my ’appropriate’ to ’no.’" But Cruz did not pin Holder down as to what he means by "imminent," which was defined extremely loosely in the DOJ White Paper. Not all Republicans were on the attack. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has been very aggressive against Obama on Benghazi and other issues, said that he wanted to "applaud" Obama’s and Holder’s drone program, and said that Obama is "using it responsibly." Holder’s refusal to directly answer the questions on targeted killings were cited repeatedly during the filibuster being waged by Sen. Rand Paul on the Senate floor today, during which many Senators asked questions of Paul about Holder’s non-answers during the Judiciary Committee hearing. |