Yesterday Senator Rand Paul, the conservative son of Libertarian Dr. Ron Paul who ran for president, stood on the floor of the Senate to conduct an actual filibuster against President Obama’s choice of John Brennan as CIA director. He is taking this drastic stand because the Obama Administration declared that the president has the right to order drone strikes against Americans on American soil. This occurred when Attorney General Holder was asked about the use of drones over the U.S.A. and he responded with the statement that the president could use drones to kill a citizen “under extraordinary circumstances.”
AG Holder says president may legally kill Americans in the USA by drone strikes
Rand Paul filibusters Obama’s CIA Director
Senator Paul received a message from the Obama Administration today stating that he was correct, the president does not have the power to wave citizen’s rights at will for those who are living in the United States. On Megyn Kelly’s “America Live” on FOX News today when told of the Administration’s response, Paul responded, “Hurray, for 13 hours yesterday we asked them that question. And so there is a result and a victory. So under duress and under public humiliation the White House will respond and do the right thing. It took a month and a half to get them to admit that the CIA does not operate in the United States. That’s been the law since 1947,” (when the CIA was created, before that it was the Navy Department that conducted foreign intelligence operations).
The Constitution guarantees that all citizens of the United States have a right to a trial. While a drone strike was used against a citizen, Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was living in a foreign country working with Al-Qaeda to kill Americans, that was a situation in which that person could not be arrested and whose actions were treasonous. The president would have been within Constitutional rights to strip Al-Awlaki of his citizenship as President Lincoln did to traitors during the Civil War.
While Sen. Paul gathered great support from many Americans, he was chastised by liberals of the Democrat Party and by moderates like Senators McCain and Graham of the Republican Party claiming that Paul was like his father and against all drone attacks. Paul disagreed strongly with both saying he supports drone attacks on foreign terrorists and that it is a disservice to Americans not to question an administration when they speak of violating the Constitution. Rand Paul is a one of many favorites of the Tea Party.
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