Two leading figures within the Obama administration now insist that the president of the United States does not have the authority to launch drone strikes on US soil.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) received a response from the Obama administration on Thursday afternoon after spending 13 hours demanding answers about the possible use of drones inside of the United States.

During a briefing Thursday afternoon, White House press secretary Jay Carney said, “The president has not and would not use drone strikes against American citizens on American soil.”

Mr. Carney also elected to read a statement penned by Attorney General Eric Holder earlier that day that had been sent to Sen. Paul. Mr. Holder’s entire statement, only 43 words, confirmed Mr. Carney’s remark.

“It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: ‘Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?’ The answer to that question is no,” wrote the attorney general.

The official response came one day after Sen. Paul stood up on the floor of the Capitol Building in Washington and said he would filibuster the nomination hearing for US President Barack Obama’s choice for the next CIA director, John Brennan, until he was presented with answers about the administration’s past and planned use of drones both overseas and domestically. Days earlier, Holder told the senator, “It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States.” Into the evening and eventually Thursday morning, Sen. Paul continued with his presentation, occasionally being joined by members of both sides of the aisle to demand answers about the drone program.

“I will speak until I can no longer speak. I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court,” Paul said during part of the roughly 13-hour filibuster.

After receiving word of the remarks from both the White House and Justice Department, Sen. Paul was asked if he was satisfied with their response. “Yes,” Sen. Paul told CNN, adding that he would allow for the Senate to continue confirming Mr. Brennan since he felt he won his fight: the right for every American of due process.

The remarks from both the attorney general and official administration spokesperson came shortly after a reconvened US Senate continued weighing in on the nomination of Mr. Brennan earlier in the day. During the filibuster, Sen. Paul and his colleagues raised questions about the government’s drone program and the possible overstepping of authority from around the world, earning headlines and praise by even fair-weather followers of American politics. Right on cue, however, establishment politicians of both the Democratic and Republican parties responded by dismissing Sen. Paul’s claims as not relevant to either major groups, smearing his statements much the way the politics of his father, former-Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), often left him portrayed as a representative “on the fringe.”

It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: “Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?” The answer to that question is no.
Sincerely,
Eric H. Holder, Jr.

More from Russia Today

Posted by The NON-Conformist