President Obama's New Military Detention Powers Threaten Basic Rights

[Better Believe It]

New Military Detention Powers Threaten Basic Rights
President Obama in full support of provisions that target US citizens and others with extraordinary powers of detention without trial
By David Swanson
December 22, 2011

(Real News Interview Excerpt)

SWANSON: Well, the president, according to Senator Carl Levin and others--and this has not been disputed by the White House--the president asked that there be no exception for U.S. citizens or U.S. legal residents. And a couple of amendments were voted down in the Senate that would have put that exception in place. After passage of the bill, Senator Feinstein introduced legislation that has quite a few cosponsors that would specifically do just that, carve out an exception for legal residents of the United States, the other 95 percent of humanity be damned. So there is no dispute (although you will find those Obama supporters who simply choose to deny it) that this does indeed apply to everyone. And this is not a change in this president's policy, who has already asserted the right to imprison and to assassinate (and acted on that power) U.S. citizens.

SWANSON: Well, this is not a leap from absolute adherence to the Bill of Rights and standards of law to absolute defiance. This is one step in a gradual process. This is a president who from the earliest months in office claimed the right to imprison people without charge. He claimed that right standing in the national archives in front of the Constitution, who has maintained the power to rendition people to other countries where they might be tortured and abused, who has issued an executive order claiming the right to imprison people without trial, who has in fact asserted the power to assassinate anyone, including U.S. citizens, and acted on it. So what this does is to codify into law this understanding that has developed primarily under presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama that these powers belong to a president. And this is a bill that goes so far as to say this doesn't alter existing law in any way. Well, then, why pass it at all? Because it does clarify specific abuses as being recognized in detail by the United States Congress in law.

SWANSON: Well, the president, according to Senator Carl Levin and others--and this has not been disputed by the White House--the president asked that there be no exception for U.S. citizens or U.S. legal residents. And a couple of amendments were voted down in the Senate that would have put that exception in place. After passage of the bill, Senator Feinstein introduced legislation that has quite a few cosponsors that would specifically do just that, carve out an exception for legal residents of the United States, the other 95 percent of humanity be damned. So there is no dispute (although you will find those Obama supporters who simply choose to deny it) that this does indeed apply to everyone. And this is not a change in this president's policy, who has already asserted the right to imprison and to assassinate (and acted on that power) U.S. citizens.

SWANSON: Well, I work for RootsAction.org, which is very active against this. The ACLU is to be applauded for its absolutely principled opposition to this. Both of those groups are demanding a veto. And there are all kinds of local organizations on board with that. But there are many, many missing, including the bulk of those organizations that tend to take their directions from the Democratic Party and who without a doubt would be opposing this very, very passionately were the president at this moment a Republican, which is incredibly crazy, in that these powers will be passed on to every following president, regardless of which party he or she comes from.

Read the full interview transcript at:

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=767&Itemid=74&jumival=7732

Or watch the interview on Youtube.

[Frosty1]

1. Funny how no one complained when Bush used these very same tactics

The powers that be said it was legal for him to do so. Now they are trying to set it up legislatively so they can't be sued for Bush admins prior actions. Now they are all screaming loudly...go figure.

This is nothing new!