A Second Chance on Human Rights

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/a-second-chance-on-human-rights/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Subject: re: A Second Chance on Human Rights
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Professor Lewis correctly identifies sins of president Obama's first term that must be fixed in his second. But his proposed cure for the summary execution of Americans by drone-strike is no fix at all. No court can be simultaneously "ad hoc" and "duly constituted".  If it is formed just for the purpose of approving the president's hit-list, it is "ad hoc". If it is not "duly constituted" it cannot preserve the target's right to due process of law.

   It is likely that Anwar al-Awlaki would have been convicted of treason if he had been charged and tried. But he was neither charged, nor tried. All that has been established is that he engaged in noxious political speech. That's his right as an American citizen.

Barry Haskell Levine