U.S. Senate Authorizes Military to Detain U.S. Citizens

.James · Dec 12, 2011

On December 1, the United States Senate approved the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA/S. 1867) which includes a provision that would approve the indefinite military detention of anyone, including U.S. citizens, â€œunder the law of war without trial.â€
Section 1031 of the Act reads in part as follows:

â€œCongress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate forceâ€¦includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered personsâ€¦Detention under the law of war without trial.â€ This language was drafted in secret by Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Carl Levin (D-Michigan).

On November 29, Senator Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina) said on the floor of the Senate: â€œ1031, the statement of authority to detain, does apply to American citizens and it designates the world as the battlefield, including the homeland.â€

The White House reportedly has threatened a presidential veto of the bill because of the detention language. However, Senator Levin said that Obama Administration had asked for language to be removed from the bill â€œexpressly precluding â€˜the detention of citizens or lawful resident aliens of the United States.â€™ â€ On December 1, the Senate voted down (61 to 37) an amendment by Diane Feinstein (D-California) that would have stripped the troubling provision from S. 1867.

The ominous prospect of the â€œprolonged detentionâ€ of U.S. citizens without charge or trial, calls to mind Edward Gibbonâ€™s great work, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Take the following remarks about Emperor Augustus: â€œAugustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation that the senate and the people would submit to slavery, provided that they were respectfully assured that they enjoyed their ancient freedom.â€

In the present case, however, it is a majority of the 100-member U.S. Senate that has further â€œsubmittedâ€ the American people to authoritarian rule, all in the name of upholding liberty and justice for all, while claiming to be safeguarding the people from terrorism. Thus, the question arises, â€œHow did the U.S. get to this point?â€

After the U.S. Senate passed the Patriot Act in October 2001, then Senator Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) Wisconsin, the only senator who voted against the Patriot Act, appeared on Larry King Live on CNN. I happened to be watching the program and recall Senator Feingold saying, â€œThe question was not about whether or not to suspend the Constitution, but for how long.â€ Thus, according to Russ Feingold, the question came down to a suspension of the U.S. Constitution.

After the Patriot Act was passed, then-Vice President Dick Cheney began talking in terms of â€œthe new normalcy.â€ UC Berkeley Professor Peter Dale Scott recently wrote an article that appeared on the website Global Research (November 22, 2011). Scott tells the story of a secret program called Project Doomsday and COG (â€œContinuity of Governmentâ€) which involved Colonel Oliver North and â€œa secret plan to suspend the U.S. Constitution in the event of a national emergency.â€ As Scott states, â€œCOG planning, had been carefully developed since 1982â€¦by a secret group appointed by [President] Reagan.â€ This â€œgroup was composed of both public and private figures, including Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.â€

Scott refers to â€œa political process that has helped build up repressive power in America at the expense of democracy.â€ He traces this to â€œthat dark forceâ€ which â€œhas operated for five decades or more at the edge of the public state.â€

Now that the United States Senate has authorized the subjection of U.S. citizens to prolonged military detention (internment)under the law of war without trial, it appears that a dark force indeed is in control of the U.S. government. On Dec. 1, the following exchange occurred on the Senate floor:

Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) â€œMy question would be, under the provisions, would it possible that an American citizens, then, could be declared an enemy combatant and sent to Guantanamo Bay and detained indefinitely?â€

Senator John McCain: â€œI think that as long as that individual, no matter who they are, if they pose a threat to the security to the United States of America should not be allowed to continue that threat.â€ In other words, â€œyes.â€

At least since 1996, the U.S. Executive Branch has classified Indigenous peoplesâ€™ issues as matters of national security for the United States. Thus, what does Senator McCainâ€™s remarks mean for Indigenous peoplesâ€™ representatives who have worked and continue to work on such issues? (See â€˜US National Security Council, Position on Indigenous Peoples, 18 October 2001)

The U.S. ship-of-state is headed directly towards a gigantic iceberg, and a majority of U.S. senators have now voted in favor of a course â€˜full steam ahead.â€™

Steven Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape, is co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute, author of Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery (Fulcrum), and a columnist for Indian Country Today Media Network.
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http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwo...te-authorizes-military-to-detain-u-s-citizens

Thoughts?

mtn dew · Dec 12, 2011

Discussion about it here http://sythe.org/showthread.php?t=1292406

.James · Dec 12, 2011

mtn dew said: ↑

Discussion about it here http://sythe.org/showthread.php?t=1292406
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Thanks, don't know how I missed that. Can a mod please close this?

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U.S. Senate Authorizes Military to Detain U.S. Citizens

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