No Death Squad Government in My Name!

We the People demand an end to the targeted killings, drone strikes and assassinations policy of the U.S. government.

We cannot have democracy and a death squad government at the same time.

The president cannot function as judge, jury and executioner. Yet the Obama administration has secretly crafted a new power that allows the U.S. president the right to assassinate anyone – including U.S. citizens.

More than 4,000 people, including many civilians and an untold number of children, have been killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere.

The government is acting in our name but not with our consent!

Every Tuesday, the president of the United States and two dozen advisors secretly meet and review names, and then the president selects a “kill list” of those who will be assassinated.

This practice violates and makes a mockery of international and U.S. law.

The federal government’s death squad operations have expanded to allow for the assassinations of U.S. citizens, too.

“Were the target of a lethal operation a U.S. citizen who may have rights under the Due Process Clause and the Fourth Amendment, that citizenship would not immunize him from a lethal operation,” reads a recently leaked White House legal “white paper.”

The White House won’t even release the underlying secret “legal memo” it issued to itself justifying the new system. But it boils down to this: No trial, no evidence, no lawyers, no due process, no rights for the accused. The president will decide in secret and the targeted individual will have none of the constitutional protections that are considered basic to a democratic system.

George W. Bush said the government had the right to kidnap, torture and hold people in prison forever without a trial – including U.S. citizens. The Obama administration says the president can decide who will live and who will be killed.

We will not sit by and let elected officials destroy the foundation of democratic rights!

I agree with millions of other people that targeted assassinations and drone warfare are illegal, immoral and must be ended NOW!