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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPresident Obama, Veto the National Defense Authorization Act
CCR urges President Obama to veto the NDAA. If he doesnt, he will bear the blame for making indefinite military detention without trial a permanent feature of the U.S. legal system. He will be responsible for signing into law one of the greatest expansions of executive power in our nations history, allowing the government to lock up citizens and non-citizens without the right to fair trial. Indefinite detention is contrary to the most fundamental principles of the rule of law.
The NDAA would essentially prevent President Obama from bringing men from Guantánamo to the U.S. for trial and severely curtail his ability to resettle them in third countries. More than half of the men currently detained at Guantánamo 89 of the 171 have been unanimously cleared by the CIA, FBI, NSC and Defense Department for transfer or release. Yet no one has been transferred since last January, when Congress created restrictions similar to those in the NDAA. This marks the longest period without a transfer in the prison camps entire 10-year history and only underscores the presidents broken promise and failure to close Guantanamo.
As Obama himself, along with President Bush and NDAA co-sponsor Senator John McCain, acknowledged during the presidential campaign, Guantánamos very existence makes us less safe. Indeed, Guantánamo, Obamas forever prison, has become a global symbol of human rights violations by a country that claims to be the world leader of freedom.
Are these the legacies Obama, the one-time professor of constitutional law, wants for his presidency?http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/13-4
msongs
(67,395 posts)midnight
(26,624 posts)teaching constitutional law?
shift happens
(18 posts)No, there is no explanation. Ergo, we have to face the inimaginable...
midnight
(26,624 posts)getting a one to one with the President..
WillyT
(72,631 posts):kick:
Citizen Worker
(1,785 posts)presidency?" Yes, sadly for what little is left of our Constitution.
burrowowl
(17,638 posts)VETO Mr. President, VETO!
bowens43
(16,064 posts)GeorgeGist
(25,319 posts)If Obama signs it, he could 'disappear' all those who voted for it.