The Unconstitutional and Frightening Reality of the "Disposition Matrix"


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In the 2014 film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the main plot is for Captain America is to stop an evil organization, who has built themselves up in the US Government, from starting a string of widespread assassinations called "Project: Insight."  Though arguably the greatest movie in the MCU, the plot of this movie seems fairly ridiculous when you think about it.  A secret terrorist organization builds itself up in our government for 60+ years, builds three flying aircraft carriers with thousands of guns on them, and those guns are all connected to some database that predicts who will be a threat, even before they can become one, and subsequently dispose of them before they can become a problem.  This idea makes for a good movie, but seemingly has no bearing on the real world.  Well, they aren't doing it with flying aircraft carriers, and they aren't very secret about it, but the American government seems to have a "Project: Insight" of its own.  Under the Obama administration, the Disposition Matrix was started under the watchful eye of John O. Brennan, Obama's counterterrorist advisor who was forced out of the CIA for his views on the treatment and torturing of prisoners.  The Disposition Matrix, more commonly referred to as "The Kill List," is a list of people that the American government deems to be potential threats, and has intentions of killing at some point in time.  The existence of this list in the first place is quite chilling, but seemingly necessary in a post 9/11 world, but the presence of American citizens on the list is what makes it unconstitutional.  In his article, " US Invokes State Secrets to Block Lawsuit Challenging Kill List," Jason Ditz explains how an American journalist has sued the American government for his placement on the Kill List, and that the supreme court justice who struck down his lawsuit stated that"there was no reason to accept lawyers’ proposal that people on the kill list have any due process protections."  This, for obvious reasons, should send red flags to any American who has any remote idea of their right to trial.  As a communications student, the fact that American citizens are on this list, especially a journalist, creates fear in me for the future.  If it is up to the government to determine who to kill and who to spare, and American citizens are included on the list, the logical next question is: how long will it take for the government to start picking off people who disagree with it? 
Article: https://news.antiwar.com/2019/09/24/us-invokes-state-secrets-to-block-lawsuit-challenging-kill-list/

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