The Declaration of Independence acknowledges 'all men are created equal', thus citizen and non-citizen alike are entitled to a judge and jury.

This guy was a traitor but I am uncomfortable with his summary execution. I think we should have had a jury trial for treason, with allowances for the accused not to be present. If found guilty, a dead or alive order would then be issued. It would lead to the same end but leave our system of law and justice preserved.

When I was in my native land, the USA, in 2007 for the only time in 2 decades, I was impressed by Ron Paul on television when I was in transit, staying in a cheap motel instead of with friends. Flights to and from Australia, where I've lived for 45 years following my marriage to an Aussie, are very expensive and exhausting for people of 72. I'm a dual citizen, politically independent, active in civic life still as a writer, and I voted for Mr Obama though I admired John McCain for many reasons. Their biographical writing is available in Aussie municipal libraries. My major work in the last 15 or so years has been with school failures, but I've taught literature at university level. Pensioners use local libraries regularly. So do people with more solid means. In this country, on tv forums, in the federal Parliament, and of course in newspapers Aussies praise the Opposition when its members uphold the Common Good for principled reasons. So these responses have interested me greatly. Global terrorism is a big issue for us too after Bali. Nobody yet knows what to do. The traditional 'rule of law' doesn't cover the bases (though here Rugby is far more important still than baseball). We get PBS NewsHour, delayed broadcast, from Tuesday to Saturday: very useful. I watch it religiously.Constitutional rights are of obvious, huge importance; but Sophocles' Antigone raised the issue of Higher Law. In today's world, political leaders have an awesome responsibility. We could have a new Prime Minister this year--either Kevin Rudd (Labor, closer to the Democrats), who was (metaphorically) knifed by Julia Gillard (Labor) in the chest and in the back, or Tony Abbott, the Leader of our Opposition (Liberal--closer to the Republicans). I'll bet on Tony. Nobody in my life would not want their jobs. Years ago Tony and I worked in the same office of a national think tank: me on Education, Tony on Government. This is a much tougher world for all of us, especially our grandchildren.

It is called self defense not assassination.

This is one issue which I agree with Ron Paul. Regardless if we have information an American citizen commited treason, that information is not evidence presented in a court. I admit we had overwhelming evidence these individuals committed treason, yet as citizens they were entitled to a judge and jury of their peers. In this situation there was no consideration of their rights as American citizens.It would have been different if they were armed and confronted by soldiers attempting to arrest them and died in a battle. This was not the case. These men were apparently unarmed and killed by a predator drone while traveling from one spot to another. This type of warfare is disturbing as when directed at non Americans and far worse when directed at Americans.The War of Terrorism has long been nothing more than and excuse for us to do what ever we want and not be held accountable. It is beyond time for our reckless execution of the wars in the Middle East to end. End the War on Terrorism now.

We took them out because of their exemplary past. Of course, we were wrong if all they were doing in Yemen was engaging in a harmless game of chess. But they could have done that harmlessly in America. Why were they in Yemen, producing hate messages for the internet, and recruiting poor deluded suicide bombers to die for deluded agendas and selling that as dying for God? America performed a public service for the world by removing these sick *&^%$#'s from the earth.

there seems to be a division among conservatives emerging, one which we also see among progressives. this division is between those who think big government is bad, but imperial government is good, because our national security state, acting in defense of empire, kills our enemies anyway possible.progressives also fear big government around the issue of civil liberties, but since most assume 9-11 was what the government said it was, they now are tolerating the violation of all human rights of all peoples across the planet, in the name of the national security state's war on terror.9-11 was a bizarre event, if only because so many people in the us government, and across the globe, seemed to know it was coming, and because those who actually attacked us, if we believe the official story, were working for agents of the saudi and pakistan intelligence agencies, and we are not at war with either of these essentially fascist agencies, but instead they are our close allies in the so called war on terror.i prefer to believe that the war on terror is really about repositioning us military based in central asia and the middle east, as well as africa (we already have them well established in latin america, central europe, western europe and north america), and we need a reason to fight a war without end, the official narrative, against these so called muslim terrorists.this gentleman who was allegedly recently destroyed by a drone missile attack most likely got caught up in a double game, where he was working for certain interests who later let him be used as a little oswald, as i believe osama bin laden was also used. funny how the 9-11 commission made it very clear in their final report that they did not consider the financing of the terrorist plot important. funny because they also obviously did not consider why the cia was pressuring the state department to allow all these saudis to get visas into the usa, when they had histories of being involved in activities having nothing to do with their stated purpose for visiting the usa.funny too how so many of these guys were identified by the Pentagon's own Al Qaeda special intelligence unit, Able Danger, including alleged ringleader Atta, and after 9-11 the Pentagon destroyed all of its massive database collection on these Al Qaeda networks it investigated, inside and outside the USA.Now why would a government use its intelligence agencies to monitor AQ before the attacks and then destroy the collected data after the attacks?Not rational behavior if they are not assets your associates control.No, you would only destroy the database if you thought the problem of AQ was solved.Officially, the problem of AQ has been used to justify a permanent global war on terror.So who gave orders to destroy this Pentagon Special Operations database on AQ and why?

Anyone can call anyone anything, but that doesn't mean that they ARE that. I could call you a murderer, a child molester, or a terrorist, but you would know that you would be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
This is a slippery slope, folks, and we've been slipping & sliding into some very scary territory for some time.

"Traitor" Who defines? What is that? Can we have our government just say the word and they are dead? Extrajudicial, summary executions? There's a word for that kind of government and it ain't pretty. It's what we fought in WWII.

Prevention or disease? Obama needs to get the Koch brothers now. They are more dangerous than this misguided kid. I will vote for him if he goes after these domestic terrorist. Send a big Predator for these terrorist. If Obama won't go after these terrorist then he is a turncoat.

Calling him an American citizen is only a legal term and has nothing to do with his actions. He is an Islamist and a traitor. Does anyone wonder why our government allowed these people into our country?

If politicians are allowed to do an end run around constitutional rights and kill citizens without due process of law then we really have no rights. These rights were granted by the founders of this nation to protect the innocent. The presumption of innocence cannot be swept away by an executive order. That is a crime that nobody in government has the guts to investigate and prosecute because they have abandoned the document they swore to defend.

I'm a fan of Paul on many issues...but not this one. I will support him when he says we should not be invading and terrorizing other countries. But when an American citizen turns traitor, I say "whack him". Adam is next.

Thanks for this article.

Ron Paul vs Big Brother 2012!