In the course of legislative action, a dichotomy always surfaces between the problem a bill hopes to tackle and the manner in which the bill might be used in future. The Patriot Act is a prime example of how a law written to combat terrorism is now used domestically to spy on Americans. For instance, it allows our government to demand and receive (quite easily) AOL chat logs or Twitter data without our knowledge.
The latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) gives the U.S. president the power to indefinitely detain Americans both at home and abroad. Opposition to the overarching bill is well-established, particularly from the ACLU.
“President Obama’s action today is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,” said Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU’s executive director. “The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.”
Now, President Obama claimed he signed the bill with reservations about the indefinite detention, and assured Americans he would not use the provision during his presidency. That is all well and good, but this will not stop future presidents, especially a potentially strong, ideological president of the Nixonian or Bush variety, from using the new NDAA provision in Orwellian ways.
The American people do have the power of the courts to check the NDAA provision, but if such a case ultimately heads to the Supreme Court, don’t expect the conservative majority to rule it unconstitutional.
For those readers interested in helping the ACLU fight NDAA, sign the pledge.
January 05, 2012 at 12:42 pm, Ron Paul 2012 said:
Obama started a policy of assassinating American Citizens without charge, people shouldn’t think for one second that Obama wouldn’t use NDAA to his advantage. I think its dangerous to assume that he wouldn’t.
January 05, 2012 at 2:25 pm, Citizen said:
In light of this administrations repeal of the people’s Constitution and Bill of Rights by signing NDAA into law, President Obama has lost all credibility.
I hate to say it, but he has deceived the American people in a massive
way with his New Years Eve signing of this legislation. This has been ignored by the mainstream media.
Don’t be fooled, the INDEFINITE DETENTION provisions in NDAA are a neo-cons wet-dream.
Below is really good segment with Cenk on The Young Turks discussing key
provisions in NDAA, sec. 1021 and sec. 1022. Below that is an excellent
breakdown of sec. 1021.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gstBozWfhQ&list=UU1yBKRuGpC1tSM73A0ZjYjQ&feature=plcp
http://www.naturalnews.com/034538_NDAA_American_citizens_indefinite_detainment.html
Also google the following in relation to NDAA:
ACLU
Human Rights Watch
National Lawyers Guild
Justia
The Guardian
Salon
Business Insider”
January 05, 2012 at 2:25 pm, Citizen said:
In light of this administrations repeal of the people’s Constitution and Bill of Rights by signing NDAA into law, President Obama has lost all credibility.
I hate to say it, but he has deceived the American people in a massive
way with his New Years Eve signing of this legislation. This has been ignored by the mainstream media.
Don’t be fooled, the INDEFINITE DETENTION provisions in NDAA are a neo-cons wet-dream.
Below is really good segment with Cenk on The Young Turks discussing key
provisions in NDAA, sec. 1021 and sec. 1022. Below that is an excellent
breakdown of sec. 1021.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gstBozWfhQ&list=UU1yBKRuGpC1tSM73A0ZjYjQ&feature=plcp
http://www.naturalnews.com/034538_NDAA_American_citizens_indefinite_detainment.html
Also google the following in relation to NDAA:
ACLU
Human Rights Watch
National Lawyers Guild
Justia
The Guardian
Salon
Business Insider”
January 05, 2012 at 2:25 pm, Citizen said:
In light of this administrations repeal of the people’s Constitution and Bill of Rights by signing NDAA into law, President Obama has lost all credibility.
I hate to say it, but he has deceived the American people in a massive
way with his New Years Eve signing of this legislation. This has been ignored by the mainstream media.
Don’t be fooled, the INDEFINITE DETENTION provisions in NDAA are a neo-cons wet-dream.
Below is really good segment with Cenk on The Young Turks discussing key
provisions in NDAA, sec. 1021 and sec. 1022. Below that is an excellent
breakdown of sec. 1021.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gstBozWfhQ&list=UU1yBKRuGpC1tSM73A0ZjYjQ&feature=plcp
http://www.naturalnews.com/034538_NDAA_American_citizens_indefinite_detainment.html
Also google the following in relation to NDAA:
ACLU
Human Rights Watch
National Lawyers Guild
Justia
The Guardian
Salon
Business Insider”
January 05, 2012 at 3:41 pm, Brandt Hardin said:
The NDAA only goes to further stifle our Constitutional
Rights without the approval of the Americans, just as the Patriot Act was
adopted WITHOUT public approval or vote just weeks after the events of
9/11. A mere 3 criminal charges of
terrorism a year are attributed to this act, which is mainly used for no-knock
raids leading to drug-related arrests without proper cause for search and
seizure. The laws are simply a means to
spy on our own citizens and to detain and torture dissidents without trial or a
right to council. You can read much more
about living in this Orwellian society of fear and see my visual response to
these measures on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/09/living-in-society-of-fear-ten-years.html
January 06, 2012 at 2:01 pm, Anonymous said:
really cool artwork!!
January 05, 2012 at 3:42 pm, Anonymous said:
For anyone who cares to take action. These three bills offer a means to affect change and address this particular assault on our civil rights.
You can help eliminate indefinite detention and restore due process for U.S. citizens by contacting your representatives and urging them to support these bills:
Senate bill S.2003 – Due Process Guarantee Act 2011 http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s2003/show
House bill H.R.3702 – Due Process Guarantee Act 2011 http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3702/show
…and “sure why not” House bill H.R.3676 http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3676/show
January 05, 2012 at 3:47 pm, DJ said:
Thanks, alea_acta_est.
Nice Julius Caesar reference, Sir or Madame.
January 06, 2012 at 1:52 am, Checkem44 said:
I thought I would never see a day were our own president would sign this into law. who knows what under the vague term of combatant can the president do with this power. also a promise he wont use it to detain and charge people without trail is not enough for me. politicians are known to flip flop their policies.
January 06, 2012 at 1:59 pm, Anonymous said:
exactly–whenever a law is this vague, there are always ways to circumvent language and justify it legally. this bill in particular allows future presidents to authorize indefinite detention of US citizens with no trial. it allows Obama to do the same. since when has a president’s “promise” codified anything in law??
January 15, 2012 at 7:56 am, Futurism said:
Obama has made a ton of promises and not kept more than a handful. A signing statement is meaningless and has no legal authority, so our rights are screwed, again, just like under George Bush. The more authority these men take for themselves, the less free we are. They will never give any of this extrajudicial power up and they will use it eventually. Citizens of America will be indefinitely detained under any suspicion the government wants to lay on them… . It’s a police state and it’s gotten even worse then when Dick Cheney ran the country. There’s your change for you.
January 06, 2012 at 1:56 pm, Anonymous said:
I guess Obama just made it that much easier for a third party, independent-minded candidate to come into the picture and win the support of those in favor of the Bill of Rights. Great article on how Obama signing the NDAA will affect him in the 2012 election http://ivn.us/news/2012/01/06/a-closer-look-at-the-national-defense-authorization-act/
January 07, 2012 at 10:43 am, Anonymous said:
What means this martial array but to intimidate us into submission?
Your chains have already been forged.
2012 is the year of the people. Liberty is rising. The traitors will answer for their crimes.
I withdraw my consent from this government.
We the people will abolish this government.
We the people will institute a new government.
We will provide new guards for our Future Security.
It is our Right and our Duty.
This tyranny does not intimidate the American people, it angers us.
January 08, 2012 at 12:52 pm, James Michel said:
Pledge signed–thanks for sharing the link.
November 13, 2012 at 1:32 pm, Elizabeth Allen said:
Obama says HE wont use NDAA….he already has! Its unconsitutional, anti american, anti democracy and must end. The Patriot act should have been over turned, posse comitatus reinstated and our Consitution made whole. Yet NO corporate reporter even asked him the question. This is our america today, one step away from total corporate fascism.