Sad, isn't it, that just one day before Christmas, we have to stand out in the cold and worry about getting another big lump of coal from our politicians?! But unfortunately it's expected that Obama will sign the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law right after the holiday. Since that's the same day the big sales start, few Americans will probably be paying attention to the police state being officially ushered in.
On December 23, however, we were still able to protest the despicable NDAA in front of Obama's Minnesota Campaign Headquarters. At the end of the rally led by members of "Occupy Minnesota" and the "Minnesota Committee to Stop FBI Repression", everyone taped their signs to the front window of Obama's campaign office, hoping he'd somehow get the message. Then we also made telephone calls to tell Obama's volunteer receptionists to act as his better angels and plead for him to veto the NDAA.
But a veto would be quite the Christmas miracle. Obama's expected signature will not only de-link the "war on terror" from its original justification, the 9-11 attacks of more than a decade ago, to ensure the "long war" does not end, but it will keep Guantanamo open indefinitely and turn the whole world into a battlefield, including our own backyards here in the U.S. where citizens will stand guilty until proven innocent.
What's the worst that could happen as a result of the congressional rubberstamp broadening the war and allowing indefinite military detention of American citizens as "enemy combatants"? Can it happen here? It's interesting to see what journalist Joshua Phillips learned from research for his new book: None of Us Were Like This Before: American Soldiers and Torture, a harrowing description of the torture of prisoners in Iraq and the deep psychological scars it left on the members of one battalion who dispensed pain to their victims. When asked how this came about, the author says that almost all the soldiers he interviewed cite the main reason for the various torture abuses as the climate of "permissiveness" that began when they were told they did not need to follow the Geneva Conventions anymore. (It should be recalled that Bush's Office of Legal Counsel lawyers Robert Delahunty and John Yoo had written their memo on Jan 9, 2002 stating that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to "non-state actors", i.e. al Qaeda, Taliban and other "terrorist" suspects. Bush consequently signed a directive the following month implementing this OLC memo, and the word went out that gave rise to the abusive conditions at Guantanamo and other military detention sites.)
The term I've personally used for this new culture of "permissiveness" is "the green light". Unless you worked in the system, you might not recognize what the insidious "green light" is. I've tried to warn over and over that the green light will eventually go out and the people down the line who have gone along under its influence instead of resisting in accord with their previously ingrained sense of right and wrong are likely to pay a heavy price. Phillips' book documents that soldiers are now taking their own lives years after having participated in the abuse occasioned by the culture of permissiveness under Bush.
Instead of extinguishing the green light, Obama's signing of the NDAA could well signal an even worse one being turned on than occurred with Bush's torture memos.
Daphne Eviatar: A Bad Day (and New Year) for U.S. National Security
Ginny Sloan: Obama Must Veto Defense Authorization Bill
Jim Garrison: Obama's Most Fateful Decision
Will the rest of the United States follow?
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/december252011/ndaa-recall.php
But in historic irony, that would accelerate and expedite the onset of real people's revolution, in ways that few people can accurately predict. People don't know what, where, when or how the "last straw that breaks the camel's back" would happen, until it happens.
verdict.justia.com/2011/12/21/the-national-defense-authorization-act-explained
I support indefinite detention of foreign militants As it is permitted by Geneva Convention.
However I do not support detention of americans in united states outside of the criminal justice system
We're done folks. America: "Requiescat in pace."
If Obama signs this bill into law, American freedom will be forever lost into the abyss of fear.
Military 'detention encampments' will sprout up all over the land of the free. Drone aircraft will soon follow. The justification for these aircraft will be survellance for the encampments, in actuallity, they will spy on the people looking for those who will certainly defy these encroachments on freedom and individual liberty. This bill creates an enemy combatant out of every American citizen willing to speak truth to power.
Obama needs to watch MLK's speech, I Have A Dream. The promised land doesn't have military detention encampments. It doesn't have POW camps for it's citizens. The Promised Land isn't full of warmongers, and war profiteers, and it isn't ruled by fear.
This bill is an extension of the PATRIOT Actt. It destroys every vestage of America's creed. Freedom and Justice for All. There is no provision in the US Constitution allowing the detention of US Citizens without due process, and without being officially charged with a crime. To impose these provisions is outright treason to the oath of office given to EVERY politician.
You're one of the few people I agree with absolutely and wholeheartedly. And yes, if the NDAA hadn't already been drawn up beforehand, a la the Unpatriot Act, it would be hard to believe this is happening in our own country, Land of the Brave and Home to the Free, or something. It's not scary; it's numbing. Well what IS scary is so many of our fellow-Americans who have not a clue, and will follow them to hell, including turning on us in the name of the homeland. Throw in a little "Zee," and you've got the CIA half-million-man secret, uh, guess what? On our soil.
We will no longer be, "The Land of the Free, and, Home of the Brave." when our president signs into law, provisions, that call for the oppression of it's citizens based on what is an imagined threat.
Americans need to stop this in it's tracks, and they also need to remember....none of the 911 terrorists came from America, and NONE of them were American citizens.
Whoever wrote this bill, and those who voted for it, have commited treason of the highest order, and should be brought to justice.
A President was assass'nated, and dozens of foreign leaders assass'nated, and there was no accountability.
Multiple disastrous wars of aggression were started and lost, and there was no accountability.
The treasury is looted to the point of bankruptcy, and there was no accountability.
Now repression is coming home to roost, and still there is passive mass silence.
Patriots Act, secret rendition, torture, secret serogate foreign prisons, ... American version of SS (=StaatSicherheit) = "Homeland Security", a military empire with over 800 worldwide military bases, what more proof do people need to wake up and stand up ?
That progression reads like a doomsday book, with regressive chapters towards a paroxysm of repression.
Rest assured, he promisedto closed GITMO, now he'll keep it opened indefinetly - why ????
Chances are, those that know how to make a BUCK from a crisis want it open cuz it suits their purposes.
Good Luck people for it seems like it matters NOT who is elected, POLICIES SHALL REMAIN IN-FORCE !!!
This act and this act alone is reason enough for progressives to abandon the Democrats this year. Go to Americans Elect and nominate a bi-partisan ticket that promises to challenge this law along with so many other unconstitutional laws such as the Patriot Act and DOMA. It's time for progressives to come out from the wilderness and help rebuild America.
These are people who believe or believed in the Constitution and this nation enough to sign and serve this nation. They believed strongly enough in America to put even their lives on the line, despite their family members and friends.
We did not swear an oath to any particular politician, in fact quite the contrary. We swore an oath to defend this nation against any enemy, foreign or domestic, in line with the Constitution of this nation. The NDAA flies directly against the Constitution.
As a veteran with disabilities, I am left with the same oath - yet the disabilities I experience will not allow me in any way to somehow pick up arms in an attempt to defend the Constitution. I am left to exercise my First Amendment rights. There are millions of veterans and servicemembers who may have quite another reaction, should citizens begin to disappear however; hard to say.
With the terms, 'terrorist,' and, 'terrorism,' being thrown around like penny candy, I suggest these terms are worthless labels that are being abused in America. Watch out folks - these are dangerous times; not only from foreign threats, but from domestic ones as well.
There can be no reason why an American cannot be tried in an American court. There are no circumstances that would prohibit the courts from rendering judgement. The only reason to hold an American without trial is because they are not guilty. This act codifies the right of the government to arrest, detain, and torture American citizens for political differences. First it will be neo-Nazis or a few disgruntled Muslims, then it will be those who speak out against this and demand their release, and then it will be anyone that speaks badly of the government. The TSA will be our Stasi.
We need new leadership in Washington. There are 93 Senators that must go, either through elections, impeachment, or mass protest. Those that voted in the House need to be defeated in the upcoming election and replaced by representatives that serve the people and not the corporations. This act and all its implications must be repudiated.
Interacting with traitors; however, is certainly not on the agenda.