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"Prolonged detention"
without a trial for American Citizens?
Would Pro-Life Christians and Veterans be
suspect?
See also
Barbed Wire Camps for American
Citizens
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Updated on
Dec. 1, 2011
First posted
June 2, 2009
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"Take heed, watch and
pray; for you do not know when the time is. " Mark 13:33
“These things I have
spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world.” John 16:33 |
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Secret Bill to be voted
on would allow the military to sweep up US citizens at home or
abroad :
"...the Senate will vote [expected this week] on a bill that allows
the US military to imprison civilians with no formal charges and
hold them with no trial....
"...the National
Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)...would:
1. Explicitly authorize the federal government to indefinitely imprison
without charge or trials....
2. Mandate military detention of some civilians who would otherwise
be outside of military control...
3. Transfer to the
Department of Defense core prosecutorial, investigative, law enforcement,
penal, and custodial authority and responsibility now held by the Department
of Justice."
On April 7,
2009, the Department of Homeland Security issued a controversial report
on "rightwing extremism." Titled
Rightwing
Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence
in Radicalization and Recruitment, its warning seems to be aimed
at creating a special class of Americans: those who question and
resist the rapid shift to socialism. These targeted groups (who
still appreciate our Constitution and its promised human rights) must
now be vilified as "the enemy of the people" -- a dangerous threat to
peace and unity. According to this report,
"Rightwing extremism in the
United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements,
and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred
of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that
are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor
of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely.
It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a
single issue, such as
opposition
to abortion or
immigration....
"Prominent antigovernment conspiracy
theorists have incorporated aspects of an impending
economic collapse
to intensify fear and paranoia among like-minded individuals and
to attract recruits during times of economic uncertainty. Conspiracy
theories involving declarations of martial law, impending civil
strife or racial conflict, suspension of the U.S. Constitution,
and the creation of citizen
detention
camps often incorporate aspects of a failed economy."
USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005,
SEC. 605. (a) There is hereby created and
established a permanent police force, to be known as the `United
States Secret Service Uniformed Division'. Subject to the supervision
of the Secretary of Homeland Security, the United States Secret Service
Uniformed Division shall perform such duties as the Director, United
States Secret Service, may prescribe.... Under the direction of the
Director of the Secret Service, members of the United States Secret
Service Uniformed Division are authorized to--...make arrests
without warrant for any offense against the United States committed
in their presence."
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Rachel Maddow: "A tale of two speeches
both from the same man, both from president Obama. One speech that could have
been billed as a Ballad to the Constitution.... And in another speech
announcing a radical new claim of 'presidential power' that is not afforded
by the Constitution and that has never been attempted in American history....
OBAMA: "...The decisions that were made
over the last eight years established an ad hoc legal approach for 'fighting
terrorism' that was neither effective nor sustainable."
Maddow: "An 'ad hoc legal approach for fighting
terrorism' that 'was neither effective nor sustainable.' Ouch! Then moments
later he announced his own ad hoc legal approach for fighting terrorism. President
Obama today proposed something called 'prolonged detention.' Doesn't sound that
bad right? Did you ever see the movie "Minority Report"? ...it came out in 2002
and starred Tom Cruise, remember? He played a police officer in something called
the Department of Pre-Crime. Pre-Crime is where people are arrested and incarcerated
to prevent crimes that they have not yet committed! ... Putting someone in jail,
not for what they have done, but for what you are very sure they're going to
do?"
OBAMA: "There may be a number of people
who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, in some cases because evidence
may be tainted; but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of
the United States."
Maddow: "We're not prosecuting them for
past crimes, but we need to keep them in prison because of our expectation of
their future crimes."
OBAMA: "Al Qaeda and their affiliates
are at war with the United States and those that we capture, like other prisoners
of war, must be prevented from attacking us again."
Maddow: "Prevented" We will incarcerate
people preventively! Preventive Incarceration! Indefinite detention without
trial; that's what this is! That's what president Obama proposed today. If you
strip away the euphemisms, one civil liberties advocate told the NY Times today:
"We've known this was on the horizon for
many years, but we were able to hold it off with George Bush. The idea
that we might find ourselves fighting with the Obama administration
over these powers is really stunning...."
OBAMA: "...but we must do so with an abiding
confidence of The Rule of Law. Our government was defending positions that
undermined The Rule of Law, to insure that they are in line with The Rule of
Law."
Maddow: "How can a president speak the
kind of poetry that president Obama does about The Rule of Law AND call for
the power to indefinitely, preventively imprison people because they might
commit crimes in the future? How can these things co-exist in the same man,
even in the same speech? Well this brings us to the self-conscious awkwardly
embarrassing part of this speech today. After condemning the Bush administration
for what he called their 'ad-hoc legal strategy'; for trying to make things
seem legal that patently weren't -- this is what Obama proposed."
OBAMA: "My administration has begun to
reshape the standards that apply to insure that they are in line with
The Rule of Law. We must have clear and lawful defensible standards for
who shall fall into this category. ... We must have a thorough process of periodic
review so that any prolonged detention is kept carefully evaluated and
justified! Our goal is to construct a legitimate legal framework for the remaining
Guantanamo detainees that cannot be transferred. Our goal is not to avoid a
legitimate framework. In our constitutional system, prolonged detention
should not be the decision of any one man."
"If and when we determine that the United States
must hold individuals to keep them from carrying out an act of war; we will
do so within a system that involves judicial and congressional oversight. And
so going forward, my administration will work with congress to develop an appropriate
legal regimen so that our efforts are consistent with our values and our
constitution."
Maddow: "You'll construct a legal regime
to make indefinite detentions legal -- you will develop an appropriate legal
regimen! So you can construct a whole new system outside the courts -- even
outside the military commissions -- so that you can indefinitely imprison people
without charges, and you'll build that system from scratch. What's that somebody
said about 'Ad-hoc legal strategies'?"
OBAMA: "Right now in distant training
camps and in crowded cities, there are people plotting to take American lives.
That will be the case a year from now; five years from now; and in all probability
ten years from now."
Maddow: "Ten years from now? ... Prolonged
Detention he's calling it. This was a beautiful speech from president Obama
today with patriotic, moving, and even poetic language about The Rule of Law
and the Constitution -- and -- one of the most radical proposals for defying
the Constitution that we have ever heard made to the American people."