{"id":4031,"date":"2013-03-07T06:18:46","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T06:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=4031"},"modified":"2013-03-07T06:18:46","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T06:18:46","slug":"bipartisan-drone-wars-errupt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=4031","title":{"rendered":"Bipartisan drone wars errupt"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rand Paul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After years in the shadows, the administration\u2019s secret drone program burst into very public view Wednesday with lawmakers grilling the attorney general over legal justification for targeted killings and Sen. Rand Paul launching an old-style one-man filibuster to demand answers from President Obama.<\/p>\n

The Kentucky Republican held the floor for hours, effectively blocking a vote on the nomination of John O. Brennan, whom Mr. Obama has tapped to be CIA director. He said he would relent only if the administration publicly vowed not to target Americans on U.S. soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a long, drawn-out day, but it\u2019s to try to get some answers,\u201d Mr. Paul said after he crossed the eight-hour mark late Wednesday evening. \u201cIt\u2019s to try to shame the president into doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats, who control the chamber, were forced to delay a vote on the Brennan nomination until at least Thursday, and it could go into the weekend, depending on what other blockades Republicans erect.<\/p>\n

At issue is the administration\u2019s argument that it can kill those it suspects have ties to terrorism, including U.S. citizens, without having to put them on trial.<\/p>\n

The fulcrum of the debate is the drone program, started under President George W. Bush and expanded by Mr. Obama, which many lawmakers said gives too much power to the executive branch \u2014 and raises tricky questions about whether drones could be used to execute Americans in the United States.<\/p>\n

The administration has only recently acknowledged the drone program and says it is seeking a public debate in order to find common ground on what Americans are ready to accept.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is going to be a greater effort at the transparency. A number of steps are going to be taken. I expect you will hear the president speaking about this,\u201d Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

But he faced bipartisan demands for more information and more clarity on what is and what isn\u2019t allowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can hear almost unanimous concern about transparency and wrestling with how to move forward here in a way that protects both our constitutional liberties and our security as a nation,\u201d Sen. Christopher A. Coons, Delaware Democrat, told Mr. Holder.<\/p>\n

Under close questioning by Sen. Ted Cruz, Mr. Holder repeatedly said American citizens on U.S. soil were not \u201cappropriate\u201d targets for extrajudicial executions.<\/p>\n

Mr. Cruz said that wasn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou keep saying \u2018appropriate.\u2019 My question isn\u2019t about propriety. My question is about whether something is constitutional or not,\u201d the Texas Republican said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me be clear: Translate my \u2018appropriate\u2019 to \u2018no.\u2019 I thought I was saying no, all right? No,\u201d Mr. Holder said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Holder also said he is not sure Congress could ban the president from using drones to kill Americans on U.S. soil. – Washington Times<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After years in the shadows, the administration\u2019s secret drone program burst into very public view Wednesday with lawmakers grilling the attorney general over legal justification for targeted killings and Sen. Rand Paul launching an old-style one-man filibuster to demand answers from President Obama. The Kentucky Republican held the floor for hours, effectively blocking a vote … Continue reading “Bipartisan drone wars errupt”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[2603,2605,2604],"class_list":["post-4031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-united-states","tag-drone-wars","tag-eric-holder","tag-rand-paul"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/randpaul.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4034,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031\/revisions\/4034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}