Secrecy of Memo on Drone Killing Is Upheld

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/us/judge-rules-memo-on-targeted-killing-can-remain-secret.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 9:50 AM
Subject: re: Secrecy of Memo on Drone Killing Is Upheld
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Judge Colleen McMahon has been drawn willy-nilly into the great question of our republic in the 21st century. Who's in charge here?  Our forefathers fought and died to give us a republic, in which our executive was answerable to the sovereign people. Many in that generation hoped that they were establishing a  government that would endure through the ages. Thomas Jefferson dissented; he foresaw that those with power and wealth at any instant would corrupt the system to retain power and wealth in the future. Hence, a new revolution would be needed in each generation.  

   Now in 2013, our Executive not only claims the power to kill U.S. citizens far from any recognized battlefield but also claims the sole power to review that ruling.  Where is "government of the People, by the People and for the People" in all this? Have we incrementally installed a new monarch over ourselves in place of the British monarch we fought so hard to reject?

Barry Haskell Levine