There was a brief moment when civil libertarians were stunned to see President Barack Obama actually take a stand in favor of civil liberties after years to rolling back on basic rights of citizens and moving beyond the Bush Administration in building up the security state. Obama said that he would veto the defense bill that contained a horrific provision for the indefinite detention of American citizens. While many predicted it, Obama has now again betrayed the civil liberties community and lifted the threat of the veto. Americans will now be subject to indefinite detention without trial in federal courts in a measure supported by both Democrats and Republicans. It is a curious way to celebrate the 220th anniversary of the Bill of Rights.
This leave Ron Paul as the only candidate in the presidential campaign fighting the bill and generally advocating civil liberties as a rallying point for his campaign. Paul offered another strong argument against the Patriot Act and other expansions of police powers in his last debate. He also noted that the Patriot Act provisions were long advocated before 9-11, which was used as an opportunity to expand police powers. As discussed in a prior column, Obama has destroyed the civil liberties movement in the United States and has convinced many liberals to fight for an Administration that blocked torture prosecutions, expanded warrantless surveillance, continued military tribunals, killed Americans on the sole authority of the President, and other core violations of civil liberties.
The White House is saying that changes to the law made it unnecessary to veto the legislation. That spin is facially ridiculous. The changes were the inclusion of some meaningless rhetoric after key amendments protecting citizens were defeated. The provision merely states that nothing in the provisions could be construed to alter Americans’ legal rights. Since the Senate clearly views citizens are not just subject to indefinite detention but even execution without a trial, the change offers nothing but rhetoric to hide the harsh reality. THe Administration and Democratic members are in full spin — using language designed to obscure the authority given to the military. The exemption for American citizens from the mandatory detention requirement (section 1032) is the screening language for the next section, 1031, which offers no exemption for American citizens from the authorization to use the military to indefinitely detain people without charge or trial.
At least Senator Lindsey Graham was honest when he said on the Senate floor that “1031, the statement of authority to detain, does apply to American citizens and it designates the world as the battlefield, including the homeland.”
I am not sure which is worse: the loss of core civil liberties or the almost mocking post hoc rationalization for abandoning principle. The Congress and the President have now completed a law that would have horrified the Framers. Indefinite detention of citizens is something that the Framers were intimately familiar with and expressly sought to bar in the Bill of Rights. While the Framers would have likely expected citizens in the streets defending their freedoms, this measure was greeted with a shrug and a yawn by most citizens and reporters. Instead, we are captivated by whether a $10,000 bet by Romney was real or pretend in the last debate.
Even more distressing is the statement from sponsor Senator Levin, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee that “The language which precluded the application of Section 1031 to American citizens was in the bill that we originally approved … and the administration asked us to remove the language which says that U.S. citizens and lawful residents would not be subject to this section.”
Source: Guardian
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Section 1031:
Subtitle D–Detainee Matters
SEC. 1031. AFFIRMATION OF AUTHORITY OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES TO DETAIN COVERED PERSONS PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE.
(a) In General- Congress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate force pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40) includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons (as defined in subsection (b)) pending disposition under the law of war.
(b) Covered Persons- A covered person under this section is any person as follows:
(1) A person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored those responsible for those attacks.
(2) A person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.
(c) Disposition Under Law of War- The disposition of a person under the law of war as described in subsection (a) may include the following:
(1) Detention under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force.
(2) Trial under chapter 47A of title 10, United States Code (as amended by the Military Commissions Act of 2009 (title XVIII of Public Law 111-84)).
(3) Transfer for trial by an alternative court or competent tribunal having lawful jurisdiction.
(4) Transfer to the custody or control of the person’s country of origin, any other foreign country, or any other foreign entity.
(d) Construction- Nothing in this section is intended to limit or expand the authority of the President or the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military Force.
(e) Authorities- Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities, relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.
(f) Requirement for Briefings of Congress- The Secretary of Defense shall regularly brief Congress regarding the application of the authority described in this section, including the organizations, entities, and individuals considered to be ‘covered persons’ for purposes of subsection (b)(2).
This is an incredibly ignorant article. They quoted the very point that debunks the whole argument. If anyone took the 2 minutes to actually read the provision, then maybe they would realize….
e) Authorities- NOTHING in this section shall be construed to affect EXISTING LAW or authorities, relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States
And now its time to veto Obama. The bad thing is that with electronic voting they will never allow us to vote Ron Paul into office. We really need to vote out every incumbent to bad our system is so corrupt this will never happen. Doesn’t mean we shouldnt try though.
After they committ this kind of vile act – all Americans should rise up and revolt. Oh, yeah, that would make us ALL terrorists. US Military new mission: Kill All Americans Who Protest. (…After all, where were they when you were busy killing Iraqis? Shopping….)
By davidswanson – Posted on 08 December 2011
The current President and Congress are destroying our Constitutional rights, our planet’s climate, and the vestiges of a social safety net, and you are obsessing over a freak show of self-hating homosexuals and anti-intellectual intellectuals jumping through hoops in a corporate media circus with Ringmaster Donald Trump. Is this a good use of your time?
The “Bush tax cuts” are still called that, while Bush has been gone for years. The corporate trade agreements are rolling through at a pace Bush couldn’t have managed. While Social Security was protected by anti-Bush agitation, it now has its neck on a chopping block and the progressive position is that the taxes that pay for it should be cut — rather than expanded to apply equally to large incomes. President Obama has repeatedly blocked serious global efforts to address climate change. And you’re concerned about which Republican buffoon doesn’t know the difference between Iraq and Iran, or which other one thinks the United States has an embassy in Iran. Are you kidding me?
President Obama, the United States Congress, and the Federal Reserve are united in their generosity toward Wall Street and the war machine — both financial generosity and the equally generous provision of immunity from legal prosecution. In the Bush era we were locked in free-speech cages, and we raised hell about it. Now we’re locked in jails, beaten, tear gassed, pepper sprayed, and otherwise brutally assaulted, and . . . wait! Look over there! Is that a presidential candidate who wants to publicly declare his desire to secretly murder Iranians? How outrageous!
For the love of everything decent, the current president is right now murdering Iranians, and it’s not very secret. What in the hell is the matter with you people?
Illegality is over, says Harold Koh (“the good John Yoo”). This is the same guy who claims massive slaughter by bombing of foreign nations is neither war nor an act of hostility as long as no significant number of U.S. citizens die immediately in the process.
How can illegality be over, when the crimes have not been prosecuted and have in fact been legalized? The current Department of Justice, at the direction of President Obama, has radically expanded claims of state secrets and made greater use of the Espionage Act to punish whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined. The current president has formalized, legalized, systematized, and normalized warrantless spying, lawless imprisonment (Bagram is booming!), prisoner abuse, assassination (including of members of the 5% of humanity we’re supposed to care about), war making in direct violation of the will of Congress (Cf. Libya), and the radically expanded use of drones to do much of this dirty work. And you want me to care that some house-broken elephant who’s been trained to parrot platitudes is in favor of child labor? Really?
It is not pleasant to face, but our children are done for if we proceed down either of the paths you are obsessing over the choice between. Behind curtain A is increased plutocratic militarization. Behind curtain B is the same damn thing. It’s an evil choice. Choose which of your children should be shot. This one. No, wait. This one. It is not a choice we have time to dignify with our attention. It is not something we should waste 10 months of inaction and misdirected resources on.
We must do what has finally, finally, finally been begun. We must occupy public space. We must move the entire culture. We must reshape this society. We must drag both political parties and everybody in them and the majority of the population which has long since grown sick up to the eye balls of both of them, we must drag everyone kicking and screaming to a better place, to a place where we do not choose between putting 65% or 62% of discretionary federal spending into war preparation without an enemy in sight. What kind of a range of options is that?
This government will halt the foreclosures only after we have halted the forclosures. This government will forgive student debt only after we have blocked its payment. This government will regulate Wall Street only after we have divested from it. And this government will stop dumping our hard-earned pay into wars we don’t want and cannot survive only when we have made that path (that running of the gauntlet of K Street’s opposition) easier for every type of misrepresentative than continuing on the current trajectory.
Self-government is not a spectator sport. Elections are not reality shows. There is much more at stake than a soap opera. The first step, and it is a more difficult step than sleeping in a tent in the ice cold rain, is to cease giving a damn what some individual who is stripping away your rights and the fruits of your labors really feels in his heart of hearts. Stop it. We do not have the time. Politicians who make speeches opposing everything they do must be pushed to match action to words, not treated as if words speak more loudly than actions. That attitude is what leads us to focus on what a gaggle of misfits with no power and less wisdom have to say about each other, just because they’re on the teevee screen.
Get serious. Get independent. Get principled. And stay nonviolent toward everything in the world except your television.
0digg
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/12/ask-me-anything-imaginging-a-ron-paul-presidency.html
The “CAVE MAN” has struck again.From what I hear from the radio people are really tired of it.The president needs a challenge from a progressive candidate.
The next “CAVE ” will be on the Unemployment and Payroll Tax Cut funding.
Professor Turley wrote:
Yes indeed, betrayal is a curious form of celebration.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/us/politics/gingrichs-foreign-policy-words-summon-the-cold-war-but-enemy-is-iran.html?_r=1
Presidents can do such things as detain 110,000 Japanese people because the broader public made no outcry. So what can we learn from Roosevelt? That it is right and honorable and necessary to speak up, not excuse, what is happening.
The past does not make what is happening in the present OK. It was wrong then and it is wrong now. The past teaches us that we must confront the abuse of others. We should be better people than those citizens who silently stood by while their neighbors were arrested. Speak up or stand complicit.
http://progressiverealist.org/blogpost/huntsman-says-he-d-launch-ground-invasion-prevent-iran-getting-nukes
I could of sworn that the US hung traitors. No? That’s right, we elect liars & let them do whatever they feel like. I forgot.
angryman,
Actually I think that Obama’s previous announcement that the Executive has the unilateral power to execute American citizens without Due Process is a crime worthy of impeachment. It’s every bit a betrayal of his oath of office to protect the Constitution as Bush and Cheney’s treason in attacking Iraq instead of Saudi Arabia were. This latest betrayal is merely icing on the fascist cake.
Roosevelt detained 110,000 Japanese.
http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/12/12/us-revised-detainee-bill-still-fundamentally-flawed
a834346@nwldx.com 1, December 15, 2011 at 11:47 am
This article is misleading … Get informed before you make a fool out of yourself.
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Well, that advice is too late for you.
The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.
Proper statutory construction mandates that in such cases the text be read in pari materia, in which case the outcome is:
Going from “absolutely not” per the constitution to “it is up to you” is why people who can read and think are outraged.
Well; here we are again. It is still hard to believe. Everytime they take away another right, I am still shocked. This is that thing that was never supposed to happen. This is what the Constitution was designed to protect us against.This government; Democrat and Republican have officially placed themselves in direct opposition to the Constitution. I call them all Traitors. Legal definition be damned.
And I agree that this is something we would expect of the Republicans but Obama?
What a terrible disappointment he has proved to be. I don’t have words to express my emotions. I feel like someone kicked me in the stomach.
Rather like William Wallace when he realizes that his strongest alies have betrayed him and gone over to the side of the tyranical Edward I. (“Brave Heart” the film)
Pollish your eagles and start practicing the Goose Step.
So Ron Paul is the only one left in opposition to this Bill huh?
So suppose everyone is so dissapointed in Obama that they run out and vote for the only guy still defending the Constitution (so to speak).
Perhaps this is all just a ruse to get Ron Paul elected. perhaps Ron Paul; the intellectual Father of the Tea Party is to be our Dictator.
It has always seemed odd to me that a person ewho holds that Exalted title should come accross as so moderate in many areas and is seen now as the last defender of our rights while our “Liberal?” President has now declared himself publically to be a destroyer of that venerable document.
Almost as if we were being driven towards him.
We are in great danger my friends. How long will it be before they are arresting and detaining citizens such as us. Those who speak out. Free speach is the next victim of the abomination.
The Declaration of Independence states clearly:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these
rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles
and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that
Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient
causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to
reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to
throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security.
Perhaps the time has come. So hard to say. So obviously true.
I would say Impeach the Son of a Bitch but not only would the Congress never vote to impeach their Patsy but I am 99% sure Gene will tell us that we have no grounds under our legal system for such a measure. That damn Gene. Always killing my fun with legalities. Oh well, I guess somebody has to do it.
Besides the more I see the more I am convinced that any action instituted within the bounds of our current legal and political system is bound to fail. The corruption runs too deep now. You can’t salvage an apple once the rot has reached the core. You throw it away and get a new apple.
Damn I am a very angryman this morning. I spent alot of years going along; assuming that this could never happen. That the Constitution would protect us from this sort of measure. As though words on paper ever stopped a despot from his plans. I feel a lttle bit ashamed. Ashamed of Obama; of the government as a whole; of myself for not paying attention for so long.
But I don’t think it’s too late; if we take action to stop it now. I admit I wouldn’t know what action to take to solve this. Our own historical documents provide what appears to be a great big nasty “Catch 22″. The Decalaration says it is the peoples right and responsibility to remove a tyranical government and replace it. If however, you were to take action to do so; the Constitution says you are committing Treason and Sedition.
because I am not naive enough to think that a few thousand protesters are going to walk to the White House gates and convince the current Traitor…eh….President to give up the reigns.
Protest Representative: President Obama. As the people of the United States of America have become aware of a Seditious plot to take control of the Nation by a group of Fascist, Uber-wealthy, Right-wing corporations and their CEOs; and as said people have determined through the actions you have taken in direct opposition to the Constitution of the United States; and by your failure to protect the Constitution as specified in the oath of office you have taken and sworn to: that you have committed crimes against the Constitution and the People of the United States of America and have given aid and comfort to her enemies.
It is therefore resolved by a majority of………..well by a whole bunch of us folks here that you, your Administration and the Congress must turn the control of the Government and the Country over to a select committee of these citizens until such time as a New Constituion or the Existing Constituion; amended to secure our rights and freedoms can be agreed upon by a Plebisyte of the American people; and a new government established in accord with the provisions of said new Constitution.”
President Obama: “Oh. Ok you caught us. Damn; if only you hadn’t seen through our clever disguise. Oh well. Here you go. Keys to the front door and you better take these nuclear codes as well. Wait! better take the whole Secret Service agent instead.”
How’s that for Graveside Humor. It’s a shame it’s our own grave.
This article is misleading, if you read the actual Bill, no where in there does it allow indefinite detention and this Bill cannot overwrite current laws.
(d) Construction- Nothing in this section is intended to limit or expand the authority of the President or the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military Force. (e) Authorities- Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities, relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.
The bill is not affect American citizens:
(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.
(2) LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS- The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to a lawful resident alien of the United States on the basis of conduct taking place within the United States, except to the extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States.
In plain English, before the bill was revised: suspected domestic terrorist will be handle by military. The revised bil allows Law Enforcements, not military, to deal with domestic terrorists.
Get informed before you make a fool out of yourself.