In recent years, the United States has waged a quasi-secret campaign of targeted killings against suspected militants abroad. This past Thursday, the public got a rare glimpse inside these clandestine operations as the chief architect of the strikes, John Brennan, a White House counterterrorism advisor, was up for conformation for C.I.A. director. Additionally, a recently made public Justice Department White Paper states that it is lawful to kill a United States citizen if "an informed, high-level" government official decides that the target is a ranking Al Qaeda figure who poses "an imminent threat of violent attack" What do you think about the killing of terrorist targets without trial, citizen or not?

Alia Goldfarb '13

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The U.S. model of democracy has unfortunately allowed for grave human rights abuses to take place within seemingly ever changing 'legal' frameworks. For example, the internment camps in World War II authorized by President Roosevelt led to many legal killings of internees. These camps were highly popularized through propaganda comparable to publicity tactics of today-merely the focus has shifted towards Islamophobic and xenophobic prejudices. Thus, I wonder how a 'democratic' nation can give a single authority figure the exclusive power to decide over any human being's life, citizen or not. I further question our government's ethical code. In my opinion, such legislation only aggravate further violent actions and inhibit the nonviolent attempts to nurture peaceful coexistence. 
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Alia Goldfarb '13 is the undergraduate departmental representative for Peace, Conflict, and Coexistence studies. 
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Marielle Temkin '13
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The biggest of many problems with this whole Justice Department memo scandal is that our government can order the killing (aka: murder) of its own citizens without any proof of their involvement in Al Qaeda. What happened to due process? What happened to innocent before proven guilty? I understand that the safety of our country is incredibly important to our leaders-it's important to citizens too. But my blood boils when I think about the fact that someone sitting in the White House can order the murder of an American for no reason. Sure, they can claim they were acting in self-defense by protecting the country from dangerous individuals, but I am more concerned about the danger these officials are inflicting on our country by acting against the values upon which it was founded. Bring back due process. 
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Marielle Temkin '13 is the managing editor for the Justice. 
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Prof. Reuven Kimelman (NEJS)
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The government position on targeted assassination of would be terrorists has a moral and legal difficulty. Morally, targeted assassination can only be condoned were the target already to have committed a capital crime or were the committing of such crime imminent. Imminence means there is no time for an alternative and that without intervention immediately the target would commit a capital crime. Legally, the problem is who makes the judgment. It cannot be the call of the executive branch. Indeed, it cannot be the call of anybody who has something to gain from the act whether politically or personally. This has to be the call of the judiciary who is to assess the nature of the potential crime and its imminence and only then issue a warrant. If this is proper procedure with regard to police breaking into the house of a suspected criminal then all the more so with regard to killing a suspected criminal. 
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Prof. Reuven Kimelman is a professor in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department with an expertise in ethics. 
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Sarah Park '14
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The way our high-ranking government officials decide to exact justice based on a suspect's religion, politics or other affiliations is immoral and unconstitutional for it implicitly condones government-sponsored murder. A "hunch" that someone is a terrorist is insufficient to stand alone as evidence of a crime. Under the Fifth, Sixth and fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution, all American citizens are guaranteed the right to a trial by jury, due process and habeas corpus. These rights must not be ignored under any circumstance for they protect citizens from the tyrannical rule of the masses. We must diverge from the mindset that suspected terrorists are convicted terrorists. All American citizens-whether they are suspected terrorists or confirmed enemy combatants-deserve to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Further, President Obama must mind his duties as the President, which is to serve as the representative of the People, not to serve as the judge, jury and executioner of the People.
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Sarah Park '14 is the Vice President of Young Americans for Liberty. 
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