So, who, and how, does the administration decide to kill this week? [View all]

[MadHound]

"US officials with firsthand knowledge of how the government determines who gets put on the CIA and Pentagon's lists for 'targeted killing' have confessed concern over the implications and nature of the process. In conversations with the Associated Press, one official involved -- who spoke with assurances of anonymity -- said that some of those carrying out the policy have become leery of "how easy it has become to kill someone," under the rules established under the Obama administration and orchestrated by Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan.
-snip-
Needless to say, all of this takes place in total secrecy, with no legal framework and no oversight of any kind. Indeed, even after they had Brennan publicly defend the CIA drone program, the Obama administration continue to insist in federal court that the program is too secretive even to confirm its existence. It’s just a tiny cadre of National Security State officials who decide, in the dark, whom they want dead, and then — once the President signs off — it is done. This is the Change with which the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate has gifted us: ”some of the officials carrying out the policy are equally leery of ‘how easy it has become to kill someone."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/22-2

Sorry, but there is no defense for these kinds of actions, none. The real scary part about this is that these Obama administration programs are laying the groundwork for this assassination program to come home to America. We already have drones taking to the skies over this country, how long before we start seeing those drones armed and targeting American citizens in this country?

What have we come to, where it is now normal to have weekly meetings behind closed doors, where it is decided who lives and who dies, whether you are an American citizen or not.