Feinstein Amendment Doesn’t Prevent Indefinite Detention
by Michael Kelley
Business Insider
November 30, 2012
An amendment to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and passed by a 67-29 vote late Thursday has been hailed as a way to end the prospect of indefinite detention of U.S. citizens.
But it isn’t, because there’s a catch.
Here’s the key sentence of the amendment:
“An authorization to use military force, a declaration of war, or any similar authority shall not authorize the detention without charge or trial of a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States apprehended in the United States, unless an Act of Congress expressly authorizes such detention.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sent lawmakers a letter that said “the clause ‘unless an Act of Congress expressly authorizes such detention‘ could be read to imply that there are no constitutional obstacles to Congress enacting a statute that would authorize the domestic military detention of any person in the United States.”
Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) seemed to agree: “This is a big ‘unless,'” he said.
11-30-12 PANDA Action Update – Feinstein [video]
P.A.N.D.A. People Against The NDAA
November 30, 2012
The Feinstein amendment to the NDAA does not protect your rights, if anything, it hurts them.
Join the movement: http://www.pandaunite.org
The PANDA (People Against the NDAA Mission Statement:
Our Mission is to nonviolently nullify, strike down, repeal, stop, void and fight the indefinite detention provisions, Sections 1021 and 1022, of the National Defense Authorization Act for the Fiscal Year of 2012, to fight for American civil liberties, to combat laws restricting liberty in the interest of National Security, to support current government officials that are doing so and to engage a younger generation in the politics of the United States so this cannot happen again.
NDAA Says Americans Can Be Detained Indefinitely
by Michael Kelley
Business Insider
November 29, 2012
At first glance it looked like the 2013 version National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) did more to protect Americans against indefinite detention. We and several other news organizations reported as much yesterday.
But on closer examination the new NDAA actually makes it EASIER to detain citizens indefinitely.
Here’s the added clause in question:
“Nothing in the AUMF or the 2012 NDAA shall be construed to deny the availability of the writ of habeas corpus or to deny any Constitutional rightsin a court ordained or established by or under Article III of the Constitution for any person who is lawfully in the United States when detained pursuant to the AUMF and who is otherwise entitled to the availability of such writ or such rights.”
Yesterday we focused on the line “nothing … shall be construed to deny … any constitutional Rights …”
But today we offer another interpretation from Bruce Afran, a lawyer for the group of journalists and activists suing the government over the 2012 NDAA.
Afran explained that the new provision gives U.S. citizens a right to go to civilian (i.e. Article III) court based on “any [applicable] constitutional rights,” but since there are are no rules in place to exercise this right, detained U.S. citizens currently have no way to gain access to lawyers, family or the court itself once they are detained within the military.
“The biggest thing about the [2012] NDAA was that you weren’t getting a trial … Nothing in here says that you’ll make it to an Article III court so it literally does nothing,” Dan Johnson, founder of People Against the NDAA, told BI. “It’s a bunch of words, basically,”
2013 NDAA Amendments/Changes are Smoke and Mirrors
P.A.N.D.A. People Against The NDAA
November 29, 2012
This news needs to get out to all patriots ASAP, as the Senate is voting on the 2013 NDAA this week. There has been a lot of talk on recent Amendments to the 2013 NDAA. None of them will save our rights, and none of them are even a step in the right direction.
The Feinsten-Lee Amendment (formerly known as the Due Process Guarantee Act)
Rand Paul’s Proposed 2013 NDAA Amendment:
FBI uses Facebook “likes” and “shares” to build terrorism case
via Refreshing News
by pooja
November 30, 2012
ACTION ALERT: NDAA Vote This Week — Tell Senate to End Indefinite Detention
by Alcyone
Conscious Life News
November 28, 2012
[URGENT UPDATE FROM POTENT NEWS EDITOR: I would like to apologize to the readers. It appears I hadn’t looked closely enough at what exactly this petition was for. How embarrassing… I considered deleting this post, but that wouldn’t be very honest now would it? Anyway, the point is that upon closer examination it turns out this petition is proposing the Due Process Guarentee Act of 2011 and fortunately P.A.N.D.A. has recently found out that this particular mitigation tactic is just smoke and mirrors. Please disregard everything you read below and refrain from hastily sharing the petition like I foolishly did… OR at the very least, read this explanation of why the Due Process Guarentee Act of 2011 sucks (or this explanation) so you know what you are involving yourself with.]
The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act allows the United States military to detain civilians indefinitely and without charge or trial — even American citizens. Help us reverse this travesty of justice by adding your name at the link below.
Next, please use the new social media tools we’ve built to help us win this fight:
The Senate is taking up the 2013 NDAA this week. Several senators are poised to put forth amendments to revoke or narrow the indefinite detention powers that we’ve been fighting so hard over the last year.
Demand Progress members have sent hundreds of thousands of emails to Congress and have helped fund the courageous lawsuit by Chris Hedges et al — which recently spurred a federal judge to rule that indefinite detention is unconstitutional.
Because there are several amendments in play, our ask is broad and simple: Please urge your Senators to support any and all amendments to revoke or narrow indefinite detention powers.
Earlier this year we helped push an anti-indefinite detention amendment to the House’s version of the NDAA to the brink of passage. The Senate is friendly turf for us: We have a real chance of winning this fight.
Please email the Senate in front of its critical vote — it could happen this week.
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Jeremy Scahill on Obama’s War Machine, American Assassinations & Journalism [video]
We Are Change
November 14, 2012
Sierra Adamson talks to Jeremy Scahill, journalist and author of ‘Blackwater,’ about some of the under-reported issues such as drone strikes in the Middle East, Obama’s kill list/Disposition Matrix, NDAA, use of the Espionage Act against whistle-blowers. Jeremy talks about the assassination of the 16 year old American citizen, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was killed by a drone strike authorized by President Obama and the response Robert Gibbs recently gave us when we questioned him on it. He discusses the left’s disregard of their anti-war principles in favor of being loyal to leaders in their own party and the war propaganda that is fed to Americans through mass media.
Videos mentioned at the beginning of this interview:
Robert Gibbs – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MwB2znBZ1g&feature=plcp
Peter King – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6GQr8m5cOY&feature=plcp
Jeremy Scahill’s upcoming documentary investigates the implications of America’s foreign policies and the covert war in Yemen. http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/03/201231105957403222…
To find out more about Jeremy: http://www.thenation.com/authors/jeremy-scahill
Follow him @ http://www.twitter.com/jeremyscahill
Keep up with all of our latest videos by subscribing here: http://bit.ly/P05Kqb
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