Obama Crosses the Rubicon: The Killing of Anwar al-Awlaki  On
September 30th predator drones flying out of a secret airbase in
Yemen blew up a car carrying Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan,
American citizens allegedly involved with Al Qaeda.  While Khan
was considered “collateral damage,” Awlaki was the main target
and a man who, based upon the President’s word, had been placed
onto an official kill list. On Forbes.com, Daniel Schwartz and I
argue that the administration’s actions were highly troubling,
as they represented a heretofore unimagined expansion of
executive power. A presidential-ordered assassination of an
American citizen, without the involvement of either of the other
two branches of government, is a matter of profound consequence,
regardless of the heinousness of the target. In a constitutional
democracy, we argue, process matters.  Comments (0)   The hub of
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