military. huge amounts flowing to defense contractors who have had a good few decades. we send hundreds of thousands of american troops around the world. we engaged in warfare in dozens of countries, drone killings in dozens of countries, created a new global legal architecture to wage war whenever we wanted at any point in any country in an open-ended global war on terror that s going to enter its third decade, even after we leave afghanistan. i was 22 around then. i remember the saying was, this changes everything. never forget, this is a turning point in history. a hinge. anyone not on board was accused of being soft or terror or siding with the terrorists, being a traitor. here is the thing to think about as i sit here talking to you this august 2021. we are going to lose a 9/11 s
The Atlantic
America’s Shadow Death Row
The government does not exclusively kill people who are on death row. It condemns many to die by drone strike.
January 22, 2021
Christopher Griffin / Handout / Reuters
Last week, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor published a dissent in a death-penalty case that flagged the striking number of killings taking place in the last months of the Trump administration. “After seventeen years without a single federal execution, the Government has executed twelve people since July,” she wrote, calling it “an unprecedented, breakneck timetable of executions.” As an opponent of capital punishment, I am pleased to see it criticized. But Sotomayor’s claim that the federal government went 17 years without executing anyone is misleading, because the federal government does not exclusively kill men and women who are on death row. It maintains a kill list of people whom it condemns to die in secret and kills with drones.
write that i did not have the chops to write. it was actually trying to draw some sort of connection between the fact that you have a man with a bust of martin luther king in the oval office, you know, who really will be responsible for, you know, ramping up, you know, drone killings, who has, you know, and this is kind national security, you know, state. we re enrolled in that now. i mean, we are. we meaning we meaning black people because we supported him. you know what i mean? it s not like, you know, when it was j. edgar hoover, you know what i mean the enemy sort ofoutside of it, you know what, i mean, not completely outside of it anymore. you know? this is part of getting integrated into the house with all of its problems and all of its structural to me, the crazy question now politically, both the democratic party, for the future frankly of multiracial pluralistic democracy in america, right, is, like, how do you keep a progressive majority together that is m
elected is not going to be that. so then is it actually worth it? do you know what i mean? does it does barack obama being president fundamentally and permanently alter the relationship of blackness to american power? yeah, i think so. yeah. even after he s gone. that was a section in this piece that i really wanted to write that i did not have the chops to write. it was actually trying to draw some sort of connection between the fact that you have a man with a bust of martin luther king in the oval office, you know, who really will be responsible for, you know, ramping up, you know, drone killings, who has, you know, and this is kind national security, you know, state. we re enrolled in that now. i mean, we are. we meaning we meaning black people because we supported him. you know what i mean? it s not like, you know, when it was j. edgar hoover, you know what i mean the enemy sort ofoutside of it, you know what, i mean, not completely outside of it anymore.
to their death. and diane is worried about blowing cigar smoke in detainee s faces. i had a judge do that to me in the middle af trial. i got over it. these people are our enemy, they want to kill us yet you say we need to be kinder and gentler to them. should we have matinees at gitmo, how about exercise classes, one detainee now walking the streets. are you interested in saving the enemy at the expense of americans. you say one thing and support another. you support drone killings of americans without due pros he, no arrest, no trial, just kill them with a drone and you