Ron Paul Condemns al-Awlaki ‘Assassination’

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has weighed in on the killing of prominent al Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki: “I don’t think that’s a good way to deal with our problems,” Paul told MSNBC on Friday morning. The Texas congressman called his death an “assassination” and said the American-born terrorist should have been afforded a trial. “No one knows if he killed anybody. We know he might have been associated with the underwear bomber,” he said. Taking a stab at Obama, Paul added, “But if the American people accept this blindly and casually that we now have an accepted practice of the president assassinating people who he thinks are bad guys, I think it’s sad.” Does he feel the same way about Osama bin Laden? “Not exactly,” he answered, because bin Laden was responsible for the September 11 attacks, whereas “nobody ever suggested [al-Awlaki] was participant in 9/11.”