Extra-judicial assassinations are exactly the kind of foreign policy that radicalises terrorists.
A State Department cable on Aug. 23, 1990, for example, described information from a Peruvian intelligence source, a former naval officer, who said that the plan to carry out extra-judicial assassinations of suspected terrorists had "the tacit approval of President Fujimori".
Palestinians call the Israeli tactic a policy of extra-judicial assassination and a provocation to further violence.
Al-Awlaki's situation as a target for extra-judicial assassination is not unique for those accused of waging a war on the US, such as Osama bin Laden, who are not in custody.
Leaders of the mosque issued a statement saying that although Awlaki "encouraged impressionable American-Muslims to attack their own country," they deplored "extra-judicial assassination" and believed the drone attack "sends the wrong message to law-abiding people around the world".
"This is the beginning of a new age of judicial character assassination and it only gets worse from here".
Judge Bates made a similar point: How can the government prohibit judicial scrutiny for assassination, he asked, if it is required to get approval for electronic surveillance?
She supports presidential invocations of state secrets to frustrate congressional oversight or judicial review of government assassinations, kidnappings, or torture.
Berlusconi accused him of "political assassination through judicial means", as the Senate considered whether to throw him out of parliament.
This month, the American military said in a statement that it had arrested a man who had committed "assassinations against Iraqi judicial and police officials, and has allegedly coordinated improvised explosive device attacks against" the Iraqi police and army.
Responding to reports of his death on Friday, Cage said he should have been tried as a war criminal and said his suspected killing "presents more questions than it does answers, adding: "State sponsored targeted assassinations undercut the judicial processes that provide the lessons by which spirals of violence can be stopped".
