Wednesday, January 18, 2012

National Defense Auth. Act - What the Hell?

From the ACLU - 

As Congress considers the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the 2012 fiscal year, a handful of senators have turned the bill into a vehicle for dangerous provisions that would authorize the president — and all future presidents — to order the military to pick up and imprison people, including U.S. citizens, without charging them or putting them on trial.

Earlier this year, the House passed its own version of the bill, with an even smaller group of members pushing for inclusion of a provision that would authorize worldwide war, and worldwide imprisonment, in virtually any country where a terrorism suspect lives, even here in America itself.

Now, both houses of Congress are now rushing to come up with a joint version and rush it through Congress within the next week or two. 

The "Big Four" leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committee are huddling behind closed doors and may very well spring a new bill on Congress, once again without so much as a hearing.

The president isn't the one asking for this legislation – in fact, the White House has repeatedly threatened to veto the bill over its concern for indefinite detention provisions. And, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the FBI and the head of theJustice Department’s National Security Division have all said that the indefinite detention provisions in the NDAA are harmful and counterproductive.

The provisions – which were negotiated by a small group of members of Congress, in secret, and without proper congressional review – are inconsistent with fundamental American values embodied in the Constitution. Fundamental American values and fundamental freedoms are on the line.

1 comment:

SeanD said...

I know you're probably busy but unless I'm missing something you're about a month late on this one: Obama signed this one on New Year's Eve (and even added a disingenuous signing statement to it).

Whether or not he chooses to exercise is authority to detain Americans on US soil (and we would never know because he does not have to tell) he has enshrined the essential repeal of Habeas Corpus in law for subsequent Executives to wield.