Assassinatos legais?

Um artigo indispensável. A ler, na íntegra, aqui: The New York Review of Books

ABC News

A computer-generated reconstruction by ABC News of the US drone strike in Yemen that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen and a leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

Killing Our Citizens Without Trial, November 24, 2011

David Cole

"(...) In September, the US carried out that order with a drone strike that killed al-Awlaki and another US citizen traveling with him. Two weeks later, the US also killed al-Awlaki’s son, reportedly “collateral damage” in a separate drone attack in Yemen. Al-Awlaki himself was afforded no notice, no charges, no trial. (...)

Al-Awlaki was evidently a dangerous character. He corresponded by e-mail with Nidal Hasan for six months before Hasan shot and killed thirteen men at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009, and was allegedly involved in planning the foiled bombing of an airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. (Umar Farouk Abdulmutallub pleaded guilty to the Christmas Day bombing attempt on October 12.) But al-Awlaki was not charged in either crime. Neither attack, moreover, was carried out by al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Are unofficial “allegations” of encouragement of or involvement in terrorism enough to authorize secret executions without trial outside of a military conflict? (...)

For the moment, the US appears to have a near monopoly on drone technology; only Britain and Israel have also used drones for strikes. But that is only temporary. What the United States does today will have repercussions for what other countries feel free to do tomorrow with the drones they will inevitably develop. (...)  It may seem fanciful that Russia would have the nerve to use such an authority within the United States—though in the case of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko it appears to have had few qualms about taking extreme measures to kill a person who had sought refuge in the United Kingdom. But it is not at all fanciful that other nations may follow the US’s lead and seek to use drones against perceived “enemies” residing in less powerful countries. (...)"