Surrendering More American Rights

[marmar]

from Consortium News:



Surrendering More American Rights
December 22, 2011

More than a decade after the 9/11 attacks – even after Osama bin Laden’s death and U.S. intelligence assessments that al-Qaeda is collapsing – Congress keeps on chipping away at U.S. constitutional rights in the name of fighting terrorism, and President Obama is ready to go along, writes Lawrence Davidson.

By Lawrence Davidson


The U.S. Congress ended the year by assaulting the Constitution in the form of the 2012 National Defense Appropriations Act (NDAA), which passed both the House and the Senate by large margins despite having an attached provision (the “Homeland Battlefield Bill”) that allows the United States military to take into custody and hold indefinitely without trial, any American citizen designated a “terrorist suspect.”

As if to make sure that everyone knew just what they were voting for, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, who supports the legislation, said on the Senate floor, “the statement of authority to detain, does apply to American citizens and it designates the world as a battlefield, including the homeland.”

That means U.S. citizens designated terrorist suspects are stripped of their protections under the Constitution. They simply fall into a judicial black hole. Ironically, Congress did this to the country on the 220th anniversary of the Bill of Rights.

At first it seemed that President Obama was prepared to veto the bill to prevent this attack on citizen rights. But this proved to be untrue. What Obama was really interested in was language that prevents the military from interfering with the work of the FBI in cases of suspected terrorism. Actually, this should add to our worries because the FBI has a disturbing record of manufacturing terrorists out of poor and disgruntled U.S. citizens. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2011/12/22/surrendering-more-american-rights/

[limpyhobbler]

1. Seems like interest in this topic is waning.

Clearly one of the most important current issues, but it seems like also of people are suffering from NDAA fatigue. I know I am. Trying to explain to people how dangerous these detention provisions sometimes it feels like banging my head against the wall. Some people are just determined not to see it. When you couple this law with the other facts, like animal rights investigators being declared terrorists, hopefully some more people will start to realize how dangerous this really is.

[EFerrari]

3. This week and next week are no measure of interest

because a lot of people are involved with their family holidays right now.

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. K&R

[Solly Mack]

4. ...

K&R