When the President has lost the trust of the American people, what is the effect of his saying “trust me?”

Richard Fernandez at Belmont Club discusses the super-secret group that delivered the death sentence to Anwar al-Awlaki.

Don’t misunderstand, I support his death. He was a bad man in an ugly war and deserved what he got. But for an administration that rode into Washington claiming that George Bush abused the powers of his office and tortured prisoners as a matter of policy, the establishment of secret tribunals to condemn people to death is … troublesome. Fernandez harkens back to the Star Chambers that originally were used to deliver justice to nobles that could not be convicted in open court, but became a means to kill political enemies.

The dense shroud around it suggests the “secret panels” are either about much more than taking out Anwar al-Awlaki and his wannabees or a paranoid excess. As Tapper himself suggested, but did not pursue, the entire process and the secrecy around it would be absurd in the context presented; it would be like shooting a squirrel with an institutional elephant gun. But an elephant gun, once glimpsed, implies an elephant or bigger game than squirrels. If that is speculative, it is only because so little information about what the program actually consists of exists and hence the temptation to put on a tinfoil hat. Speculation on the panels will end, of course, when hard information about it begins.

What ended the Star Chamber system was the metamorphosis of the Star Chamber system itself. It eventually evolved away from a special way to get at “untouchables” to become a system of political vendetta and corruption.

This President has, by his actions and his words destroyed his credibility to the extent that even his political friends doubt him. I do not trust Obama and the creation of American Star Chambers makes me queasy.