FBI Director Unsure About Legality of Assassinations on U.S. Soil

[Conley]

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday said he would have to go back and check with the Department of Justice whether Attorney General Eric Holder's "three criteria" for the targeted killing of Americans also applied to Americans inside the U.S.
Pressed by House lawmakers about a recent speech in which Holder described the legal justification for assassination, Mueller, who was attending a hearing on his agency's budget, did not say without qualification that the three criteria could not be applied inside the U.S.

"I have to go back. Uh, I'm not certain whether that was addressed or not," Mueller said when asked by Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., about a distinction between domestic and foreign targeting.

Yoder followed up asking whether "from a historical perspective," the federal government has "the ability to kill a U.S. citizen on United States soil or just overseas."

"I'm going to defer that to others in the Department of Justice," Mueller replied.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/07/mueller-have-to-check-with-holder-whether-targeted-killing-rule-is-outside-us/?test=latestnews#ixzz1oXBPzsEo

This doesn't exactly inspire confidence in our government.

[Stoney]

I saw that and can't really see what it means. Is Mueller being politically safe? maybe that's the best guess. An opinion would put him on one side of the fence or the other. Of course it could be that he hadn't really given the Holder position that much thought.

[ramone]

You can't just go around killing American citizens because you "Think" they are terrorists or an enemy no matter where they are. What is the next step, public justice and automatic hangings because somebody says you did something. There is a reason for due process.

[Stoney]

Well, Obama, Holder and Peter disagree.

[Mainecoons]

America, the police state. You can be murdered without benefit of arrest and trial. Who needs a steenking Constitution anyway? Not the U.S Federal malgovernment.

[RollingWave]

You can't just go around killing American citizens because you "Think" they are terrorists or an enemy no matter where they are. What is the next step, public justice and automatic hangings because somebody says you did something. There is a reason for due process.

Yeah, but why then does it apply to Americans OUTSIDE fo the US (like that cleric they killed in Yemen a while back), or non-Americans ? the most troubling part of this whole war on terror thing is that outside of a small group, most of the guys getting killed or Guantanamoed folks outside of the US intellegence inner circle really have no clue at all what sort of terrorist act they conducted.

If Mueller was to be politically safe he should just said a flat out NO!, that's a no brainer question, that he even hesitated is a rather scary proposition.

The Bush / Obama administration have used the justification of war to conduct what is essentially political assasination. that's really a slippery slope . if China actively went out and killed Chinese dissidents in the US I think we would have a big problem here for example... let alone using military weapons to do it.

[MMC]

This is the director of the FBI? One would be sure that he would know the answer and or answers to that question. In one aspec he shouldn't even be concerned what Holder says or does. As he knows that whatever he brings Holder. Needs to be legit. Or that if it is not, what that will lead to.