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Published at 6:05 p.m. ET
By Tom Curry, National Affairs Writer, NBC News: At his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency, defended Obama’s policy of targeted killings of terrorists, saying that some Americans had a misimpression that “we take strikes to punish terrorists for past transgressions. Nothing could be further from the truth. We only take such action as a last resort to save lives when there’s no other alternative” to avert a threat to the nation.
Alluding to some raucous protesters who had interrupted and delayed the hearing earlier, Brennan said, “They really have a misunderstanding of what we do as a government, and the care that we take, and the agony that we go through” to ensure that innocent bystanders or civilians aren’t hit in targeted killings. “People are reacting to a lot of falsehoods that are out there.” Read the full story.
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Sad but the US goverment is also murdering innocent people in Mexico as well ...
Most of the shots came from behind
The results of the autopsy on the body of a young man who was killed by the Border Patrol on October 10, 2012 report that at least 11 of the bullets came from behind the body of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez.
According to autopsy reports conducted by the Attorney General of the state of Sonora, Mexico, to the body of Jose Antonio Rodriguez Elena 16, who was killed in the Arizona border last October, the youth received at least 11 bullets in his body and most of them came from behind, told Univision reporter Vilma Tarazona.
Is this an example of excessive use of force by the Border Patrol?
About the autopsy report, the Associated Press said that shows that at least eight bullets hit the teen, one in the head and the rest in various parts of the back. We found six bullets into the body of the young.
The copy of the autopsy report is signed by Dr. Absalom Madrigal Díaz Javier Godinez and Trejo, PGJE specialists in Nogales, Sonora
It's very unfortunate if that young man was innocent and was shot from behind. Perhaps the Border Patrol employee(s) responsible for this over-reacted or simply showed poor judgment. People can over-react with guns when they feel they are threatened, even when they are wearing uniforms.
But is it accurate to say, "the US government is also murdering innocent people"? You make it sound as if this was a deliberate policy decision by our federal government to pump 11 bullets from behind into a 16-year-old kid. I hardly think that is likely. We should know by now that any armed man in a uniform can display poor judgment and do something he may later regret, no matter how he tries to justify it. We have all heard of "poor judgment" displayed by policemen, National Guard, armed forces in overseas conflicts, hired security personnel, etc., so it's entirely possible that Border Patrol people sometimes over-react. (This does, by the way, demonstrate the folly of the NRA fantasy of "bad guy with a gun being stopped by a good guy with a gun." People are fallible, and often make mistakes. When armed people make mistakes, someone usually dies.)
I think there should be an investigation or inquiry by the Border patrol about this matter, but I object to your exaggerated statement that our government is now killing innocent people in Mexico. Actions like this will hardly win us any friends south of the border, but I would like to hear both sides of the story, and I would refrain from hysterical statements.
Excessive use of force my Ass. These criminals need to learn that when they break the laws of this country and become combatants as the 16 year old mention in hte poster and the one the border patrol shot is what they are going to get. we have walkedon egg shells for too long. Our prisons ar filled with murders that should already be dead for thier crimes. If this 16 year old had been at home instead of in a country that is our enemy he would still be alive. it doesn't matter whether or not you are an American if you take up arms against the o@!$%#ry you should die. Lincoln proved this withthe civil war. That was no different than now. we capture too many murders instead of killing them on the spot. Bullets are cheaper than prison for these no goods. Everyone wants to whine about the peref what about the victims of their crimes. Illegal aliens that ae trafficing drugs are murders and they desrve to die. using drones to take out the enemy is the First thing i have ever agreed with of Obama's.
You sound like someone filled with anger and violent impulses. You make the statement that murderers should be shot on the spot instead of giving them a trial and sending them to prison. The error in that kind of judgment is easy to detect: it's not up to the police to pass judgment on who is a murderer and who is not. Haven't you read the news stories lately about innocent people serving years of their lives in prisons for crimes they were not guilty of? DNA analysis was able to clear them, a technology that was not perfected at the time they were sentenced. Yet you would have had some of them killed on the spot by the cops who apprehended them. It will be a sad day for justice when the armed and uniformed men who are supposed to apprehend suspected criminals are now able to play judge and jury and executioner.
You should try to find out why you are so filled with hate instead of projecting it on everyone else in the world. It's not - fortunately for the rest of the world - up to you to decide who "deserves to die."
A 16 year old American terrorist is still a terrorist.
First time I ever agreed with wack job Republicans agreeing with Obama.
Don't want to get killed by a drone when overseas? Don't hang out with terrorists. It's pretty simple.