During an appearance on MSNBC, Representative Keith Ellison highlighted the need for the President to fabricate explicit rules for the use of drones in his assassination program.
Co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Ellison signed
onto a letter from House Democrats (authored by Representative Barbara Lee) to President Obama calling for the release
of Justice Department 'white paper' documents describing the administration's rationale for presumptive murder.
The current hullaballoo over
transparency of executive drone policy conveniently avoids examination of the crime to focus on who gets to choose the victims. If Congress prevails in oversight of the President's 'kill list' selection,
does that make murder OK? Would new rules provide legal shelter for those who go along with the practice?
"I think when we frame things legalistically, we tend to think that resolving problems in the legal texts will resolve them in the real world, when we actually know that is not what happens. What we may end up doing, quite likely, is legalizing the war: then what?" -- journalist Madiha Tahir
