Assassinating Americans? Yeah, There's A Czar For That

President Obama sure does love him some Czars, and I always get a kick out of his use of the shockingly honest term. The word Czar or "Tsar" was commonly used in Eastern Europe in reference to Slavic monarchs or other supreme rules.  The title implies absolute, unchecked power in its' holder.  The President seemingly has a Czar for just about everything nowadays, from Mideast Peace to AIDS, and even a Great Lakes Czar!Now it seems that President Obama's chief counter terrorism adviser and official "Terrorism Czar" John Brennan has recently taken on an even greater role: that of determining who exactly is to be targeted by assassination courtesy of U.S. drone strikes.  As Salon's Glenn Greenwald has so succinctly broken down, John Brennan is no spring chicken when it comes to the shady operations of the police state.  He was an ardent advocate of "enhanced interrogation techniques" (aka torture) in the Bush Administration, was caught blatantly lying about the raid that supposedly killed Osama Bin Laden, and more recently defended the drone program as "moral and just".  John Brennan is now taking the lead in deciding who exactly goes on the secret kill lists.  For all intents and purposes, Brennan is now essentially the Assassination Czar."But hey there, them dang terrorists need to be taken out! And drone strikes are better than launching wars, num num!", says Generic Defender Of All Things Government.  Well, GDOATG, you may very well be right about that.  The problem with the drone assassination program isn't necessarily the method used, but the process by which a target is deemed worthy of assassination.  Ideally evidence would be presented to a judge or a grand jury which would prove sufficient enough to indict any sort of terrorism suspect, and a warrant issued for his capture and/or death if that capture is resisted.  However, there is no such process with the drone program.  There is no check, no balance, and no restraint on who may be put on the assassination list.We would like to think that only truly evil terrorists would be targeted for assassination by this program.  The fact is that there have been many civilian casualties related to drone strikes, particularly in Pakistan where drone use has been rampant throughout the Obama administration.  The assassinations are not even limited to foreigners - American citizens including a 16 year old boy have also been targeted under this program.  And according to a New York Times report includes a 17 year old girl and several American citizens.  And now it seems John Brennan will have sole discretion over who gets added to this list.Much like with the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA, the worst part about the secret kill list is that there is no way for anyone to know what makes them eligible to be assassinated.  But for all the evils of the NDAA, at least it was actually passed by Congress and signed into law.  There is absolutely no legal, and certainly no moral, premise for the idea that one single, unelected man should have the power to decide who lives and who dies.  Now that the 2012 NDAA has extended the homeland as part of the "battlefield" (though this was recently ruled unconstitutional, the law remains) as well as the now domestic use of spy drones, which may very well be armed, inside the United States, it seems a perfect storm is brewing for unrestrained assassinations of American citizens.Does all this sound too crazy to be true? Let's hope it is. Until then, let's hope a few tense moments  with the TSA aren't enough to get this blogger on the list.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!