While due process doesn't mandate a trial or situation-specific court review, it's hard to argue that it doesn't demand input from any other federal branch at all.
I would entirely agree that the AUMF (which underpins the administration's policy on the use of drones) is overbroad and that Congress should either drastically narrow its scope or consider rescinding it completely after US troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2014, after which we would arguably no longer be in a state of war.
Likewise, I think it's past time for Congress to develop legislation on the scope of military technology - not least because we are approaching or already at the point where we have technology capable of automatically identifying and firing on targets more quickly and accurately than any human. We don't have the technology for making ethical or legal determinations about the rightness of targeting someone; I'm talking purely about the physical capabilities of machines v. humans.
Only Congress can bind the Executive on such matters. The incumbent administration can eschew any intention of using drones domestically (as they have done) but can't bind future administrations.
And Crongress has the (enumerated) power of declaring war, issuing letters of reprisal and so forth (A1,s8.11), and has lawfully granted the President broad powers to wage war under the AUMF. The fact that the President is constitutionally named as the Commander in Chief of the armed forces means that when a state of war obtains he has the privilege of commanding which military activity is to take place.
Would you please try discussing this in its proper context instead of pretending that the Executive pulled its military powers out of thin air?
I would entirely agree that the AUMF (which underpins the administration's policy on the use of drones) is overbroad and that Congress should either drastically narrow its scope or consider rescinding it completely after US troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2014, after which we would arguably no longer be in a state of war.
Likewise, I think it's past time for Congress to develop legislation on the scope of military technology - not least because we are approaching or already at the point where we have technology capable of automatically identifying and firing on targets more quickly and accurately than any human. We don't have the technology for making ethical or legal determinations about the rightness of targeting someone; I'm talking purely about the physical capabilities of machines v. humans.
Only Congress can bind the Executive on such matters. The incumbent administration can eschew any intention of using drones domestically (as they have done) but can't bind future administrations.