We normally are not followers of the ACLU (nor do we agree with them much) but in strange times life creates strange bedfellows. This is definitely one case. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) must be invalidated. No citizen should ever be held without charge or trial in the US. The is a disgrace. It violates everything in which our Founding Fathers believed. The 4th Amendment was meant to prevent these type of actions. On this matter, we agree completely with the ACLU.
America has always been known to protect the rights of its citizens, however, since 9/11, we have seen a dramatic decline in our rights. Not only NDAA, but also the Patriot Act which essentially allows the the TSA to strip search all people boarding a plane. If the individual cannot go through the scanner, he/she will be subjected to an invasive, de-humanizing pat down. It makes no difference if the person is 2 months or 95, that is the way it is. This is not freedom.
In addition to our rights being violated by government, we are hearing about generals being asked if they will fire on Americans and if they say no, they are sacked; we have had the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) purchasing billions, yes billions with a b, of killer bullets and now those purchases being classified (not very open if you ask us); we see drones flying over the US collecting data for who knows what; we have reports of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) camps around the country for what purpose, we don't know; and we see the President nominating the most anti-American, anti-Israeli Secretaries of State and Defense and the head of CIA. All of this is going on while they try to take away our guns from us. What is going on?
Never in our experience have we seen such a determined effort to undermine the country to the point that conservatives agree with the ACLU. It must be even worse than we ever thought!
We are in a world of hurt. We must being to think about our breaking point. When will it be enough? What will the last straw, the one that makes you decide to resist the government? That time is coming and each of us will reach our decision in our own time and in our own way, however, we must be prepared. Are you ready?
Conservative Tom
America has always been known to protect the rights of its citizens, however, since 9/11, we have seen a dramatic decline in our rights. Not only NDAA, but also the Patriot Act which essentially allows the the TSA to strip search all people boarding a plane. If the individual cannot go through the scanner, he/she will be subjected to an invasive, de-humanizing pat down. It makes no difference if the person is 2 months or 95, that is the way it is. This is not freedom.
In addition to our rights being violated by government, we are hearing about generals being asked if they will fire on Americans and if they say no, they are sacked; we have had the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) purchasing billions, yes billions with a b, of killer bullets and now those purchases being classified (not very open if you ask us); we see drones flying over the US collecting data for who knows what; we have reports of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) camps around the country for what purpose, we don't know; and we see the President nominating the most anti-American, anti-Israeli Secretaries of State and Defense and the head of CIA. All of this is going on while they try to take away our guns from us. What is going on?
Never in our experience have we seen such a determined effort to undermine the country to the point that conservatives agree with the ACLU. It must be even worse than we ever thought!
We are in a world of hurt. We must being to think about our breaking point. When will it be enough? What will the last straw, the one that makes you decide to resist the government? That time is coming and each of us will reach our decision in our own time and in our own way, however, we must be prepared. Are you ready?
Conservative Tom
Talking Points: 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
February 22, 2012
On December 31, 2011, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), codifying indefinite military detention without charge or trial into law for the first time in American history. (To learn more about the NDAA, visit www.aclu.org/NDAA).
- The law is an historic threat because it codifies indefinite military detention without charge or trial into law for the first time in American history. It couldpermit the president – and all future presidents – to order the military to imprison indefinitely civilians captured far from any battlefield without charge or trial.
- This kind of sweeping detention power is completely at odds with our American values, violates the Constitution, and corrodes our Nation’s commitment to the rule of law, which generations have fought to preserve.
- The breadth of the NDAA’s worldwide detention authority violates the Constitution and international law because it is not limited to people captured in an actual armed conflict, as required by the laws of war.
- Under the Bush administration, claims of worldwide detention authority were used to hold even a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil in military custody, and many in Congress assert that the NDAA should be used in the same way. The ACLU does not believe that the NDAA authorizes military detention of American citizens or anyone else in the United States. Any president’s claim of domestic military detention authority under the NDAA would be unconstitutional and illegal.
- Nevertheless, there is substantial public debate and uncertainty around whether Sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA could be read even to repeal the Posse Comitatus Act and authorize indefinite military detention without charge or trial within the United States.
- The law does not require even an allegation that a detained person caused any harm or threat of harm to the United States or to any U.S. interest. Mere allegation of membership in, or support of, an alleged terrorist group could be the basis for indefinite detention. Under the American justice system, we don’t just lock people up indefinitely based on suspicion.
- Congress and the president should clean up the mess they created. Congress should repeal the NDAA’s detention provisions.
- More than ten years after the 9/11 attacks, with the United States withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States should not be asserting new worldwide authority for the military to imprison persons seized in any country.
- We have seen how disregard for the rule of law has disastrous results for America’s standing in the world. It is time for a return to the rule of law. It is time to turn that page.
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