Several officials said that when Awlaki became the first American put on the target list, Obama was not required personally to approve the targeting of a person. But one official said Obama would be notified of the principals' decision. If he objected, the decision would be nullified, the official said.

A former official said one of the reasons for making senior officials principally responsible for nominating Americans for the target list was to "protect" the president.

If you think this process isn’t an invitation for the worst sort of abuses, you must have been in a coma for most of the last decade. And it is striking how spotty and lacking in specifics about actual terrorist activity even the unrebutted, unchecked case against Awlaki is.

So a panel operating out of the White House — that meets in total secrecy, with no known law or rules governing what it can do or how it operates — is empowered to place American citizens on a list to be killed by the CIA, which (by some process nobody knows) eventually makes its way to the President, who is the final Decider. It is difficult to describe the level of warped authoritarianism necessary to cause someone to lend their support to a twisted Star Chamber like that; I genuinely wonder whether the Good Democrats doing so actually first convince themselves that if this were the Bush White House’s hit list, or if it becomes Rick Perry’s, they would be supportive just the same. Seriously: if you’re willing to endorse having White House functionaries meet in secret — with no known guidelines, no oversight, no transparency — and compile lists of American citizens to be killed by the CIA without due process, what aren’t you willing to support? [my emphasis]

Even for those deeply cynical about American political culture: wouldn’t you have thought a few years ago that having the President create a White House panel to place Americans on a CIA hit list — in secret, without a shred of due process — would be a bridge too far?

• Cheney and Bush establish the torture policy, which included murdering prisoners and torturing American citizens (e.g., John Walker Lindh and José Padilla)

• Cheney and Bush establish a kangaroo court system outside the official civilians and military courts

• Cheney and Bush practice indefinite detention

• Cheney and Bush defend the torture policy under a effectively unlimited theory of Presidential power (the Unitary Executive, aptly called the Unilateral Executive by Al Gore)

• Cheney and Bush Make federal legal officials complicit in the crimes

• Cheney and Bush claim very expansive Executive secrecy claims

• The Obama Administration avoids prosecution of the torture crimes

• The Obama Administration continues key elements of the policy like the secret prisons, which virtually guarantee that torture will occur

• The Obama Administration makes even more expansive secrecy claims than the Cheney-Bush Administration

• The Obama Administration claims the right to assassinate American citizens accused of being enemies of the US with no legal process or judicial review

• The Obama Administration carries out such an assassination

"We, the family of Samir Khan, in our time of grief and mourning, request that the media let us have our peace and privacy during this difficult time. It has been stated in the media that Samir was not the target of the attack; however no U.S. official has contacted us with any news about the recovery of our son's remains, nor offered us any condolences. As a result, we feel appalled by the indifference shown to us by our government.

"Being a law abiding citizen of the United States our late son Samir Khan never broke any law and was never implicated of any crime. The Fifth Amendment states that no citizen shall be 'deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law' yet our government assassinated two of its citizens. Was this style of execution the only solution? Why couldn't there have been a capture and trial? Where is the justice? As we mourn our son, we must ask these questions."

Friday's drone attack is thought to be the first instance in which a U.S. citizen was tracked and killed based on secret intelligence and the president's say-so. Al-Awlaki was placed on the CIA "kill or capture" list by the Obama administration in April 2010 - the first American to be so targeted.

What's crucial to keep in mind is that nobody can see this "evidence" which these anonymous government officials are claiming exists. It's in their exclusive possession. As a result, they're able to characterize it however they want, to present it in the best possible light to support their pro-assassination position, and to prevent any detection of its flaws. As any lawyer will tell you, anyone can make a case for anything when they're in exclusive possession of all the relevant evidence and are the only side from whom one is hearing; all evidence becomes less compelling when it's subjected to adversarial scrutiny. Yet even given all those highly favorable pro-government conditions here, it’s obvious — even these officials admit — that the evidence is "partial," "patchy," based on "suspicions" rather than knowledge. [emphasis in original]