Holder: Executive Branch Reviews Of Targeted Killings Count As ‘Due Process’

Source: TPM
Ryan J. Reilly

The Obama administration believes that executive branch reviews of evidence against suspected al-Qaeda leaders before they are targeted for killing meet the constitution’s “due process” requirement and that American citizenship alone doesn’t protect individuals from being killed, Attorney General Eric Holder said in a speech Monday. 

“Due process and judicial process are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security,” Holder said. “The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.”

Broadly outlining the guidelines the Obama administration has used to conduct lethal drone stikes overseas, Holder said the U.S. government could legally target a senior operational al Qaeda leader who is actively engaged in planning to kill Americans if the individual (1) posed an imminent threat of violence; (2) could not feasibly be captured; and (3) if the operation was conducted in line with war principles. 

Such a use of lethal force against that type of individual, Holder said, wouldn’t violate the executive order banning assassinations or criminal statues because such an act would be in “self defense.” In remarks delivered at Northwestern University Law School in Chicago, Holder also said that targeted killings are not “assassinations,” adding that the “use of that loaded term is misplaced” because assassinations are “unlawful killings” while targeted strikes are conducted lawfully.

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has so far refused to release a copy of a legal memorandum justifying the targeted killing of the U.S. born Anwar al-Awlaki, who allegedly inspired several attacks or attempted attacks on the U.S. 

While not mentioning Anwar al-Awlaki by name — Holder said he “cannot discuss or confirm any particular program or operation” — he arguably referenced his killing by using the example of a U.S. born al Qaeda leader. Holder said that “citizenship alone does not make such individuals immune from being targeted.”

Documents Reveal Rockefeller Foundation Actively Engaged in Mass Mind-Control

Source: Infowars
Jurriaan Maessen

From archive material from the 1940s onward, it has become apparent that the Rockefeller Foundation has for decades now fanatically nurtured research into fear-inducing brainwashing techniques for the masses.  

In a series of generous grants in the 1940s- and 50s, extended to Professor Carl I. Hovland of Yale University, the Foundation actively funded research into “the psychological mechanisms through which communications exert their influence.” Main research subject deals with the question of “how the individual deals with the welter of conflicting ideas with which he is constantly bombarded; how "wishful thinking" and emotional bias affect judgment; and whether the judgment process is transferred from one situation to another are among the problems to be studied”, we read in the 1954 Rockefeller yearly report. 

Hovland, besides conducting research into behavioral and attitude-changes of groups, was also part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s social science staff. In addition to that, the professor was heavily involved in other branches of the Anglo-American establishment. In the study Origins of mass communications research during the American cold war by Timothy Glander, the author explains: 

“(…) Hovland held key positions on several major national boards, including the Air Force’s Human Resources Research Institute, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Office of Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, and he doubtlessly had input in determining the research agendas that these organizations pursued.” 

Already in 1948 the Foundation was directing cash toward Hovland and his team. In the 1948 report the authors outlined the reasons behind the grants given: 

“An understanding of communication and attitude change is important to our educational system, to those who lead great organizations, and to those who are concerned with political opinion and behavior. More dependable knowledge of how effective communication may be achieved in the area of attitude and opinion is essential (…).”

In the days of the Cold War, propaganda was often so blatantly obvious to the accustomed-to-freedom westerner that it was more easily identifiable as such. The Rockefeller Foundation understood that the American people needed to be subjected to more sophisticated forms of manipulation if the gradual push for global government was to be effectively sold in the decades to come. The 1954 report explains: