, Salem, MA   March 12, 2013  Cyr: Drone strikes continue long
practice of targeting individuals  Up close and personal — that
describes targeting individuals in wartime, even when impersonal
drone aircraft and electronics are employed.  On Thursday, the
U.S. Senate voted 63-34 to confirm John Brennan to head the CIA,
but only after intensive Intelligence Committee debate over use
of drone strikes and a filibuster by Republican Sen. Rand Paul
of Kentucky.  In 2011, the killing in Yemen of al-Qaida leader
Anwar al-Awlaki, his young son Abdulrahman and associate Samir
Khan by U.S. drones sparked controversy. They were American
citizens, and critics argue they were denied essential due
process.  On these grounds, such critics are wrong. Our common-
law tradition assumes that all people have basic human rights.
American citizens here do not have special rights.  That
principle led to defeats of the Bush administration by a largely
conservative U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down the
fallacious argument that accu