Friends,
Have to break away from theatre for a moment because this is beyond important.
Congress has overwhelmingly passed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA S.1253), a bill which has sections included that will enshrine in law the ability for any American citizen to be detained in the USA and held in detention INDEFINITELY without any right to a trial or hearing. I don’t care if you’re conservative or liberal, Republican, Democrat, Tea Party, Libertarian, staunchly independent, or full-on anarchist this is not what our country was founded on. In fact, it’s the opposite: 235 years we rebelled against exactly this kind of tyranny and now we’re enshrining it in law.
As I mentioned, this bill has been passed by Congress and sent to the White House where President Obama has every intention of signing it into law. I don’t know if it’s too late or not, but if there’s any hope of convincing him to veto you MUST act now.
I just sent the below email to the White House, and I urge all of you to send something similar. You can do so yourself by clicking here.
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Dear Mr. President,
I am writing to urge you to oppose, in its current form, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The bill requires the military to handle certain suspected terrorism cases that belong in the civilian justice system. It also makes indefinite detention without trial a permanent part of US law, and keeps all Guantanamo detainees — even those cleared for release — locked up indefinitely with little possibility of release.
If enacted, sections 1031, 1032 and 1033 of the NDAA (S.1253) would:
• Make indefinite detention without trial a permanent part of US law. As proposed, section 1031 expands detention authority beyond what is authorized by the laws of war and creates a system of indefinite detention without trial that may be used by this and all future administrations.
• Require military custody for a category of terrorism suspects apprehended in the US, regardless of the status of a civilian law enforcement investigation. The proposed bill would require the military – not the police, the FBI or the Department of Justice – to handle the criminal investigation. As proposed, section 1032 severely encroaches upon professional law enforcement at both the state and national level.
• Enact permanent and virtually insurmountable restrictions on the ability of this and future administrations to send Guantanamo detainees home or to third countries. Provisions of section 1033 would apply even to the scores of detainees already held for years without trial and cleared for release. It would force the administration, for example, to continue to hold a Guantanamo detainee simply because they were from a country of an accused terrorist.
Current provisions in the NDAA bill are inconsistent with American values. They will also hinder US counterterrorism efforts by stripping civilian law enforcement of the crucial role it plays in gathering actionable intelligence and apprehending terrorist suspects. These provisions directly affect law enforcement yet the Senate Judiciary Committee has not even screened the bill.
I urge you, Mr. President, to veto this bill.
I am a liberal who tends to vote Democrat, but if you don’t veto this bill, in no uncertain terms, I will not vote for you or any other member of Congress who voted in favor of this bill ever again. This is a travesty of “law.”
Sincerely,
Timothy J. Lord
