XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.trump, alt.politics.liberalism   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats, alt.politics.usa.republican   
   From: katt@gmail.com   
      
   Kesha Rogers Stated On March 19, 2014 in statements on her campaign website:   
      
   President Barack Obama Was Responsible For "The Assassination Of At Least Four   
   American Citizens" In Drone Strikes.   
      
      
   Four U.S. citizens killed in Obama drone strikes, but 3 were not intended   
   targets   
      
   As LaRouche Democrat and U.S. Senate candidate Kesha Rogers of Texas calls for   
   the impeachment of Democratic President Barack Obama, she lists among her   
   reasons the "assassination" of U.S. citizens.   
      
   Rogers says on her campaign website that OBAMA VIOLATED THE FIFTH AMENDMENT   
   "with the avowed assassination of at least four American citizens, Anwar Al-   
   Awlaki, his 16-year-old son, Samir Khan, and Jude Mohammed, WITHOUT BENEFIT OF   
   DUE PROCESS OF LAW. Indeed, the death warrants against these individuals were   
   effectively signed in secret, in a committee which is overseen directly by the   
   president."   
      
   PolitiFact has dipped before into the debate around the Obama administration's   
   use of pilotless drones armed with missiles to target terrorism suspects,   
   exploring whether the president can legally authorize the killing of a U.S.   
   citizen fighting for a foreign terrorist group, whether the program could be   
   used on U.S. soil, if it complies with international law and if Obama has kept   
   Congress fully informed.   
      
   Were the individuals named by Rogers all U.S. citizens "assassinated" at   
   Obama's direction?   
      
   Rogers' views and alignment with conspiracy theorist and former presidential   
   candidate Lyndon LaRouche led the Texas Democratic Party to urge voters not to   
   cast ballots for her in the March 4,2014, primary. Rogers still won enough   
   votes to trigger a May 27 runoff that will determine whether she or Dallas   
   investor David Alameel, who led the field, will challenge the Republican   
   nominee, second-term U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, in November.   
      
   In support of Rogers' assassination claim, her campaign manager, Ian Overton,   
   emailed us news stories from The New York Times and the New Yorker magazine,   
   and we found more news coverage using Google and the Nexis news database.   
      
   The citizens   
      
   On May 22,2013, the Obama administration "formally acknowledged for the first   
   time that it had killed four American citizens in drone strikes outside the   
   battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq" since 2009, The New York Times said in a   
   news story posted online that day.   
      
   The acknowledgment came in a letter signed by U.S. Attorney General Eric   
   Holder sent that day to the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman:   
      
   Since 2009, the United States, in the conduct of U.S. counter-terrorism   
   operations against al-Qa'ida and its associated forces outside of areas of   
   active hostilities, has specifically targeted and killed one U.S. citizen,   
   Anwar al-Aulaqi. The United States is further aware of three other U.S.   
   citizens who have been killed in such U.S. counter-terrorism operations over   
   that same time period: Samir Khan, 'Abd al-Rahman Anwar al-Aulaqi, and Jude   
   Kenan Mohammed. These individuals were not specifically targeted by the United   
   States.   
      
   Anwar al-Awlaki and Khan were killed in Yemen on Sept. 30,2011. A March   
   9,2013, Times news story about the strike said al-Awlaki, a cleric born in New   
   Mexico, incited and plotted terrorist incidents involving U.S. targets,   
   including lending support via email to Nidal Hasan in 2009 before Hasan killed   
   13 and wounded more than 30 people at Fort Hood in Texas. Khan, who the story   
   said came from North Carolina, edited the online al-Qaeda propaganda magazine   
   Inspire.   
      
   The Times wrote of al-Awlaki's death, "For what was apparently the first time   
   since the Civil War, the United States government had carried out the   
   deliberate killing of an American citizen as a wartime enemy and without a   
   trial."   
      
   Al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, a U.S. citizen born in Denver, Colo., died Oct.   
   14,2011, in Yemen when, the Times wrote, "a missile apparently intended for an   
   Egyptian Qaeda operative, Ibrahim al-Banna, hit a modest outdoor eating place   
   in Shabwa. ... Banna was not there, and among about a dozen men killed was the   
   young Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who had no connection to terrorism."   
      
   U.S. citizen Jude Kenan Mohammad was believed by his family to have been   
   killed in a November 2011 strike in Pakistan, according to a May 24,2013, Los   
   Angeles Times news story that said, "Former U.S. officials said that even if   
   Mohammad wasn't the target of the strike, he was of interest to American   
   intelligence because he was believed to have communicated with Muslims in the   
   United States and encouraged them to travel to Pakistan or carry out attacks   
   at home."   
      
   The New York Times said another U.S. citizen, Kamal Derwish, had been killed   
   by a drone strike in Yemen on Nov. 3,2002, when George W. Bush was president.   
   Derwish was a recruiter who put together an al-Qaeda sleeper cell in   
   Lackawanna, N.Y., according to an Oct. 12,2003, New York Times news story. The   
   U.S. said he was not the intended target and did not acknowledge killing him,   
   but a Yemeni official identified him as one of six men who died in the attack,   
   the story said.   
      
   Another U.S. citizen could be facing death by drone, according to news   
   reports. A Feb. 28,2014, New York Times news story said Abdullah al-Shami, "a   
   militant who American officials say is living in the barren mountains of   
   northwestern Pakistan" and who was possibly born in Texas, "is at the center   
   of a debate inside the government over whether President Obama should once   
   again take the extraordinary step of authorizing the killing of an American   
   citizen overseas."   
      
   Obama's role   
      
   Of the 2011 deaths, Rogers spokesman Overton said, "The Obama White House   
   claims that only Anwar al-Awlaki was specifically targeted. However, there is   
   no way to verify that, since the deliberations are secret. Either they were   
   targeted or they were collateral damage of a kill policy. In either case, the   
   program is run by Obama, who personally makes the final decision to kill a   
   target. If the three were not specifically targeted, their deaths remain the   
   responsibility of Obama."   
      
   We looked to Obama's public comments as well as news reports, including those   
   Overton sent, for details.   
      
   In a May 23,2013, speech at the National Defense University, Obama said he had   
   authorized the attack on Anwar al-Awlaki: "I would have detained and   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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