The U.S. Justice Department has just released a 16-page memo outlining its justification for why President Obama can order drone killings of American citizens. The paper is a wild tour of bizarro-land justifications from a government that no longer abides by any Constitutional limits or even principles of human rights.

A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be "senior operational leaders" of al-Qaida or "an associated force" — even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S.

White House press secretary Jay Carney, the mouthpiece of tyranny and lawlessness in America today, added that "These strikes are legal, they are ethical and they are wise." (FreeBeacon.com)

Thus, the idea that an American citizen receives a trial by jury, a defense attorney, due process of law and an ability to face his accusers is utterly thrown out the window. What this memo essentially "legalizes" is the ability of the U.S. President to simply order the murder of anyone he names. No law needs to be followed. No arguments offered. There does not even need to be a single shred of evidence that this person has violated any law whatsoever. The decision process takes place in total secrecy and is not subject to judicial review of any kind.

The President has become a dictator

There's no other way to say it: This is tyranny. A President who has the power to kill anyone he wishes, completely outside of law and the Constitution, is a dictatorial tyrant. He is a "king." This is precisely the kind of thing our Founding Fathers fought against in breaking away from the King of England. Our ancestors were fed up with secret trials, secret executions, secret court proceedings and suffering under the whims of one man whose power was completely unchecked.

"If you believe the president has the power to order U.S. citizens executed far from any battlefield with no charges or trial, then it’s truly hard to conceive of any asserted power you would find objectionable," writes constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald. He goes on to explain:

The memo isn't justifying the due-process-free execution of senior al-Qaida leaders who pose an imminent threat to the US. It is justifying the due-process-free execution of people secretly accused by the president and his underlings, with no due process, of being that. The distinction between (a) government accusations and (b) proof of guilt is central to every free society, by definition, yet this memo – and those who defend Obama's assassination power – willfully ignore it.

This isn't even an Obama issue, by the way: it's an issue of the next President who comes to power, and the one after that. With this Justice Department memo, the office of the President is being granted permanent power to order the killing of any person added to a list. This power is wildly unconstitutional and illegal, yet if it remains unopposed, it is a power that will be retained by the office of the President and used by future Presidents.

As Greenwald writes:

During the early Bush years, the very idea that the US government asserted the power to imprison US citizens without charges and due process (or to eavesdrop on them) was so radical that, at the time, I could hardly believe they were being asserted out in the open.

Yet here we are almost a full decade later. And we have the current president asserting the power not merely to imprison or eavesdrop on US citizens without charges or trial, but to order them executed – and to do so in total secrecy, with no checks or oversight.

But all this isn't even the big story here. The bigger story is found in the title of this article: If the Obama administration would justify drone killings of U.S. citizens, is there anything they can't justify?

Every violation of law and the Constitution can be justified with a "legal memo"

I'm not sure where in the Constitution it says, "…unless a legal memo says otherwise." The U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights lay out immutable rules, limits and guidelines for government. But when an oppressive government regime decides to utterly ignore the Constitution and the limits of power described therein, it become a dictatorial tyranny. We are there now in America.

Consider this: If the Obama administration can justify the drone killing of Americans, it could also justify all the following actions:

• The use of military troops on the streets of America (in violation of Posse Comitatus).

• The rounding up and internment of American citizens (into FEMA camps).

• The government seizure of all private retirement funds and IRAs. (This is coming soon during the coming financial collapse.)

• Government takeover of all farms, food, livestock and seeds. (This has already happened, actually. Click here for details.)

• The "disappearing" of all political enemies, journalists and critics.

• The arrest and imprisonment of all parents who do not vaccinate their children.

• Government disarmament of the population; outlawing of all guns and ammo in the hands of private citizens.

• Nullification of states' rights and the rollout of an armed private "White House military" that occupies the streets of America.

Heck, in fact, a President who can justify drone killings of American citizens could also justify a return to slavery — except this time, they'll make it white people!. There's nothing the Obama administration can't justify if it's already justifying killing American citizens outside the rule of law.

The Bill of Rights was written precisely to stop this kind of tyranny

This is precisely why we need to adhere to the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment, for example, was written precisely for this age when government is desperately trying to disarm the citizens and create a monopoly of firepower in its own hands.

The Fifth Amendment was written precisely for this time when government has decided it no longer needs to respect due process and can simply order the killing of anyone it wants, with no trial, no evidence presented and not even a court hearing.

The Tenth Amendment was written precisely for this time when the federal government is steamrolling states' rights and attempting to rule by force everywhere across the country. Every federal agency in existence today — FDA, DEA, FTC, USDA, IRS, etc. — operates in blatant violation of the Tenth Amendment.

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