Amidst all the partying and pandering, some actual journalism did take place in Charlotte. Gawker’s John Cook asked the following people about whether Americans could trust Mitt Romney to decide which American citizens to assassinate with drones (definitely click through for the video):
- Kay Hagen, Armed Services Subcommittee Chair on Emerging Threats
- Carl Levin, Armed Services Committee Chair and ex officio member of Senate Intelligence Committee
- Cary Booker, Newark Mayor
- Lanny Davis, Asshole
- Brad Woodhouse, DNC Spokesperson
- Chuck Schumer, Judiciary Committee Member
- Gloria Allred, bane of bmaz’ existence
- Bill Press, lefty radio personality
- Unnamed Arizona delegate
Only Bill Press gives an answer that even recognizes the gravity of the answer.
It’s an interesting question, though, for another reason.
If Mitt were elected, then the Kill List’s rightful owner, Cofer Black, might well get it back. The Kill List–like so much else–goes back to the September 17, 2001 “Gloves Come Off” Memorandum of Notification that Black threw together as a wish list of expansive counterterrorism approaches. (Also on there, btw, was partnering with Libya on torture, which Human Rights Watch further exposed the other day and I plan to return to.) And remarkably, when Cofer Black was in charge of the Kill List, it was used more judiciously than Obama has used it (Black had moved out of the Counterterrorism role at CIA before Kamal Derwish became the first American killed in a drone strike on November 5, 2002). And who knows? If Black took responsibility for the Kill List back, he might choose to focus on torture like he did before.
Don’t get me wrong–I don’t want Cofer Black back in any official capacity. But it’s worth remembering that Obama’s Kill List is really just a hand me down from the guy who, along with the Kill List, also instituted torture and partnership with Moammar Qaddafi.