An American

Just who are the Americans, and, come to think of it, we, fighting? In a post on 8th April 2010 I mentioned that President Obama had sentenced an Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen, to death. Mr Awlaki has not been convicted of any crime nor indeed faced any trial. I observed that if George Bush had done this there would have been outrage among the bien-pensant liberal left.

Now Mr Awlaki has been killed, as I predicted, by an unmanned Predator drone.

Ironically Awlaki, unlike Schwarzenegger or Kissinger, was born in the USA and so could have stood for President. And this would have been the best thing for him: a large security detail protecting him and, let's face it, the competition isn't exactly hot, he'd probably have won.

But I would like to know: which of its citizens is the US President allowed to execute without trial and which is he not allowed to?