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    Indivisible, liberty, justice for All: War on Terror to take terrifying turn on American citizens

    Carol
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    Indivisible, liberty, justice for All: War on Terror to take terrifying turn on American citizens Empty Indivisible, liberty, justice for All: War on Terror to take terrifying turn on American citizens

    Post  Carol Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:46 am

    Indivisible, liberty, justice for All: War on Terror to take terrifying turn on American citizens
    Indivisible, liberty, justice for All: War on Terror to take terrifying turn on American citizens Guant-namo-Bay-008
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/15/americans-face-guantanamo-detention-obama
    December 15, 2011 – WASHINGTON – Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay. Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic policing. The legislation has also been strongly criticized by libertarians on the right angered at the stripping of individual rights for the duration of “a war that appears to have no end.” The law, contained in the defense authorization bill that funds the U.S. military, effectively extends the battlefield in the “war on terror” to the U.S. and applies the established principle that combatants in any war are subject to military detention. The legislation’s supporters in Congress say it simply codifies existing practice, such as the indefinite detention of alleged terrorists at Guantánamo Bay. But the law’s critics describe it as a draconian piece of legislation that extends the reach of detention without trial to include US citizens arrested in their own country. “It’s something so radical that it would have been considered crazy had it been pushed by the Bush administration,” said Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch. “It establishes precisely the kind of system that the United States has consistently urged other countries not to adopt. At a time when the United States is urging Egypt, for example, to scrap its emergency law and military courts, this is not consistent.” There was heated debate in both houses of Congress on the legislation, requiring that suspects with links to Islamist foreign terrorist organizations arrested in the US, who were previously held by the FBI or other civilian law enforcement agencies, now be handed to the military and held indefinitely without trial. The law applies to anyone “who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaida, the Taliban or associated forces.” Senator Lindsey Graham said the extraordinary measures were necessary because terrorism suspects were wholly different to regular criminals. But another conservative senator, Rand Paul, a strong libertarian, has said “detaining citizens without a court trial is not American” and that if the law passes “the terrorists have won. We’re talking about American citizens who can be taken from the United States and sent to a camp at Guantánamo Bay and held indefinitely. It puts every single citizen American at risk,” he said. “Really, what security does this indefinite detention of Americans give us? The first and flawed premise, both here and in the badly named Patriot Act, is that our pre-9/11 police powers were insufficient to stop terrorism. This is simply not borne out by the facts.” Paul was backed by Senator Dianne Feinstein. “Congress is essentially authorizing the indefinite imprisonment of American citizens, without charge,” she said. “We are not a nation that locks up its citizens without charge.” –Guardian



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    With deepest respect ~ Aloha & Mahalo, Carol

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