Thursday, December 8, 2011

Americans Stripped of All Rights Under Section


We have only a few days to speak up to Congress before the President signs NDAA Section 1031, permitting citizen imprisonment without evidence or a trial. Congress plans to give it to him to sign by Dec 9. But if we act urgently to raise awareness among our friends, family, and colleagues, we can still prevent this. Here is what we can do:

1) Americans must know about this to stop it. Urgently pass this petition as widely as possible: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-ndaa-section-1031-citizen-imprisonment-l... - Contact the media about this clip by any means available to you. ZERO news stories have covered this Chairman Levin clip so far.

2) Congress can still block the law before December 9. Write and call your Representative and Senator telling them to stop NDAA Section 1031.
Contact your Representative: http://writerep.house.gov/writerep/
Contact your Senator:http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

3) Write and call the White House to tell the President you won't sit by and watch NDAA Section 1031 become law:http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

4) Stay smart -- To slow down journalists and concerned citizens, it appears Section 1032 was deliberately crafted to distract from Section 1031. However, section 1032 is NOT the citizen imprisonment law. Disturbingly, this confusion is helping Section 1031 to slip by the American people. Do NOT fall for the misdirection, stay informed and urgently work to stop NDAA Section 1031.

Also disturbingly, some people are saying the Feinstein compromise Amendment helped -- that is sadly wrong. The Feinstein Amendment allows citizen imprisonment without evidence or trial -- for life -- as long as the Supreme Court doesn't EXPLICITLY repeal 1031. This language is dangerously confusing to some people, including journalists.

Excerpt property of C-SPAN.
Fair Use: http://legacy.c-span.org/about/press/release.asp?code=video

WARNING !!! TRUTH Being Told Here. !!! The "Stench of Truth" F-bomb WARNING !!! TRUTH Being Told Here. !!!


Congress about to undermine our basic constitutional rights


Congress about to undermine our basic constitutional rights
December 1, 2011, by Jay Bookman

It is a question that in a rational world should not have to be asked, because the answer is so damn obvious:

Should the U.S. military be given the power to arrest U.S. citizens, here on U.S. soil, and to detain those citizens indefinitely in military prisons, without access to legal counsel or due process, and without trial in civilian court?

The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights say hell no. Holding U.S. citizens in military prisons without right to trial or counsel? Really?

Centuries of American liberty also say hell no. The CIA, FBI and the entire U.S. intelligence system say no, as does the military. They do not want the power to arrest and detain U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, and any legitimate reading of our nation’s traditions, beliefs and founding documents says they should never have it. It is antithetical to a free people.

Yet a majority of the U.S. House and Senate says otherwise. Despite a stern veto threat by President Obama, Congress is about to pass such language into federal law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. I hope and pray that Obama has the guts to carry out his veto threat, and I hope freedom-loving Americans of all ideologies rally to support him in that cause.

The theory behind the proposed law is that the United States is part of the battlefield against the war on terror, and that the military must be given free rein to fight that war, even here in the United States itself. Sections 1031 and 1032 of the NDAA say that the military can arrest and detain anybody “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.”

Look, if U.S. citizens are suspected of aiding and abetting terrorists, they should of course be arrested and tried. If convicted, they should be put away for a long long time. But there is no reason to suppose that civilian courts are not capable of handling such cases competently and fairly. And without access to our civilian system of justice, what agency or body is supposed to determine whether a citizen has “directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces?”

Would Oregon attorney Brandon Mayfield, for example, have been tossed into a military brig without a lawyer under such a law? If so, he might still be there, despite the fact that the FBI was later forced to acknowledge that he was absolutely innocent. What about the people falsely accused of terrorism as documented here and here? What about the million or more people whose names have somehow ended up on the government’s “terrorist watch list?”

Some advocates of the proposed change in federal law claim that it would not apply to U.S. citizens. They are either wrong or deliberately misleading. Any lawyers out there can confirm that claim by reading the provisions in question. They contain no language protecting U.S. citizens on U.S. soil from being swept into military custody.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, an advocate of the provisions, certainly understands that they apply to U.S. citizens. As he said on the floor of the Senate:

“But we need to let this president know, and every other president, that if you capture someone in the homeland, on our soil — American citizen or not — who is a member of al-Qaida, you do not have to give them a lawyer or read them the rights automatically. You can treat them as a military threat under military custody, just like if you captured them overseas…. Under domestic criminal law, you cannot hold someone indefinitely without giving them a lawyer or reading them their rights, nor should you. But under military law, if you have evidence that the person is a military threat, you don’t have to give them a lawyer.”

This is not some temporary provision. As Graham said, he expects the war on terror to continue long after he is dead. Nor is there any compelling need for such legislation. It tears a huge hole in the U.S. Constitution, and for what reason?

Earlier this week, a group of senators attempted to strip the provisions in question from the defense bill. By a vote of 38-60, they failed. Two Republicans — Mark Kirk of Illinois and Rand Paul of Kentucky — voted to kill the change, while 15 Democrats voted in favor of it. Since the bill has already passed the House of Representatives, it seems almost certain to end up on the president’s desk.

Again, I hope that he has the courage to veto it. And in an era when some Americans claim to see a dire threat to their liberty in some health-care reform law, I hope the American people are still wise enough to recognize a very real threat to their freedom when one arises. SOURCE

– Jay Bookman




We have only a few days to speak up to Congress before the President signs NDAA Section 1031, permitting citizen imprisonment without evidence or a trial. Congress plans to give it to him to sign by Dec 9. But if we act urgently to raise awareness among our friends, family, and colleagues, we can still prevent this. Here is what we can do:

1) Americans must know about this to stop it. Urgently pass this petition as widely as possible: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-ndaa-section-1031-citizen-imprisonment-l... - Contact the media about this clip by any means available to you. ZERO news stories have covered this Chairman Levin clip so far.

2) Congress can still block the law before December 9. Write and call your Representative and Senator telling them to stop NDAA Section 1031.
Contact your Representative: http://writerep.house.gov/writerep/
Contact your Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

3) Write and call the White House to tell the President you won't sit by and watch NDAA Section 1031 become law: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

4) Stay smart -- To slow down journalists and concerned citizens, it appears Section 1032 was deliberately crafted to distract from Section 1031. However, section 1032 is NOT the citizen imprisonment law. Disturbingly, this confusion is helping Section 1031 to slip by the American people. Do NOT fall for the misdirection, stay informed and urgently work to stop NDAA Section 1031.

Also disturbingly, some people are saying the Feinstein compromise Amendment helped -- that is sadly wrong. The Feinstein Amendment allows citizen imprisonment without evidence or trial -- for life -- as long as the Supreme Court doesn't EXPLICITLY repeal 1031. This language is dangerously confusing to some people, including journalists.

Excerpt property of C-SPAN.
Fair Use: http://legacy.c-span.org/about/press/release.asp?code=video

No comments:

Post a Comment