Ron Paul denounced President Obama on Friday for the drone killing of U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen.
Awlaki was among the most influential al Qaeda leaders, able to call on his American background to recruit and inspire attacks against the United States. But the Obama administration's authorization to kill Awlaki in April 2010 was controversial to some civil-rights advocates. They argued that as an American citizen, Awlaki was due a trial in American court, and that it was a violation of the Constitution for the government to issue an order for his assassination.
"No, I don't think that's a good way to deal with our problems," Paul said Friday in New Hampshire, according to MSNBC. "He was born here, al-Awlaki was born here, he is an American citizen. He was never tried or charged for any crimes. No one knows if he killed anybody. We know he might have been associated with the underwear bomber. But if the American people accept this blindly and casually that we now have an accepted practice of the president assassinating people who he thinks are bad guys, I think it's sad."
Awlaki's lectures on Islamic scripture were cited as inspirational by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged in the 2009 Fort Hood shootings, and Faisal Shahzad, who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square last year. But Paul said it was unclear whether Awlaki had ever been directly responsible for a terrorist killing, and compared him to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
"We didn't assassinate him, who — certainly he had done it. Went and put through the courts then executed him. To start assassinating American citizens without charges, we should think very seriously about this," Paul said.
Paul said that the killing of Awlaki was different from that of other terrorist leaders, like 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.
"Not exactly. Because he was involved in 9/11 and I voted for authority to go after those individuals responsible for 9/11. Al-Awlaki — nobody ever suggested that he was a participant in 9/11," Paul said.
