Monday, November 28, 2011

Battlefield USA


Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Saturday, November 26, 2011

The Senate is set to vote on a bill next week that would define the whole of the United States as a “battlefield” and allow the U.S. Military to arrest American citizens in their own back yard without charge or trial.

“The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself,” writes Chris Anders of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office.

This means Americans could be declared domestic terrorists and thrown in a military brig with no recourse whatsoever. Given that the Department of Homeland Security has characterized behavior such as buying gold, owning guns, using a watch or binoculars, donating to charity, using the telephone or email to find information, using cash, and all manner of mundane behaviors as potential indicators of domestic terrorism, such a provision would be wide open to abuse...Read the whole story and see WHO IS BEHIND THIS!

Sen. Udall has proposed an ammendment to the bill in question. Linked HERE

Update...11/30/11

Senate rejects ammendment to infinite detention bill

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The Senate has overwhelmingly voted down an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have provided oversight to check the military’s power to arrest U.S. citizens as suspected terrorists on American soil and detain them indefinitely without trial.

“The Senate soundly defeated a move to strip out controversial language requiring mandatory detention of some terror suspects, voting it down 61 to 37 and escalating a fight with the Obama administration over the future course of the war on terror,” reports the National Journal.

The amendment, introduced by Colorado Senator Mark Udall, was an attempt to weaken Section 1031 of the NDAA bill, which would basically turn the entire “homeland” into a battlefield and allow the military to arrest individuals accused of being terrorists and detain them indefinitely without trial. Americans would be stripped of all constitutional rights and posse comitatus would cease to exist.

“This would be the first time since the McCarthy era that the United States Congress has tried to do this,” warned Daphne Eviatar, Senior Associate, Human Rights First’s Law and Security Program. “In the 1950’s, that was actually repealed before it was ever used. In this case have seen the administration very eagerly hold people without trial for 10 plus years in military detention, so there’s no reason to believe they wouldn’t continue to do that here. So we’re talking about indefinite military detention of U.S. citizens, of lawful U.S. residents as well as of people abroad.”

Sen. Rand Paul Speaks on the Senate Floor on Defense Authorization Act – 11/29/11



5 comments:

Unknown said...

I am currently reading this bill and looking in to this further (I have a tendency to do this when it is reported by the "ACLU")
So far this is what I found with inside the bill itself.

"SEC. 1032. REQUIREMENT FOR MILITARY CUSTODY."
(b) APPLICABILITY TO UNITED STATES CITIZENS AND LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS.—
(1) UNITED STATES CITIZENS.—The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.

Unknown said...

Agreed! It is always advisable to double check ACLU agenda items. I will go to the Udall speech which is linked at Prison Planet.com...

Mr. President, I would also point out that these provisions raise serious questions as to who we are as a society and what our Constitution seeks to protect. One section of these provisions, section 1031, would be interpreted as allowing the military to capture and indefinitely detain American citizens on U.S. soil. Section 1031 essentially repeals the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 by authorizing the U.S. military to perform law enforcement functions on American soil. That alone should alarm my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but there are other problems with these provisions that must be resolved.

Sen. Udall's ammendment to the bill is linked to now on my original post and here...

http://ct.symplicity.com/t/muv/9d4abac93d252e9cfe5db432461d15c4/3208866931/realurl=http:/www.scribd.com/doc/73053672/Udall-Amendment-to-National-Defense-Authorization-Act-Revising-detainee-provisions

Unknown said...

Because this thing has gone ramped on the internet, I will be doing a piece on this very subject, specifically pointing to sec 1031 and 1032. and link back to Udall speech (with a H/T to you, Scott) Thanks.

Unknown said...

Mas Vidas to you sir...I just don't trust any expansion of executive power at this point...FOR ANYONE.

Unknown said...

See UPDATE...11/30/11.