A Special Message from Americans United for Freedom Contributor KrisAnne Hall
|
DEMAND VOTE IN SENATE & CONGRESS TO HALT NEW NDAA TYRANNY Federal Court Rules NDAA "HOMELAND BATTLEFIELD" Detention Provisions Unconstitutional By KrisAnne Hall Urgent Alert: On Friday May 18, 2012 the U.S. House of Representatives passed the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act – NDAA – and sent it to the Senate, where YOU need to help ensure the measure faces a much higher bar of fealty to the Constitution than has been met so far!
There are also those on this Committee running for reelection, who should be hearing loud and long from YOU – like Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Once the Senate Armed Services Committee issues its version of the NDAA and the full Senate approves it, the House and Senate versions will be reconciled in a Conference Committee. Congress LIED and SAID they were protecting you against indefinite detention in the odious NDAA H.R. 4310 – but they actually made this terrible bill worse! Unless we STOP THEM TODAY, OUR RIGHTS WILL BE DESTROYED! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD NOW! DEMAND THAT CONGRESS AMEND NDAA TO ABIDE BY THE CONSTITUTION! Meanwhile, in a victory for the due process rights of the American people brought by leftwing activists, Federal Judge Kathleen Forrest granted a preliminary injunction on Wednesday, striking down these so-called "Homeland Battlefield" provisions of NDAA 2012 which we have TOLD you provide Barack Obama the power to indefinitely detain citizens in military confines without benefit of their 5th Amendment rights. Section 1021, upon order of the president and at his sole discretion, INDISPUTABLY grants the United States military authority to exercise police powers on American soil and empowers agents of the military to detain "until the end of hostilities" anyone the president accuses of having "substantially supported" al Qaeda, the Taliban, or unspecified "associated forces." Judge Forrest concluded that this Section "…failed to 'pass Constitutional muster' because its broad language could be used to quash political dissent." She added, "Section 1021 tries to do too much with too little – it lacks the minimal requirements of definition and scienter [legal knowledge of guilt] that could easily have been added, or could be added, to allow it to pass Constitutional muster." That is, Congress failed – perhaps deliberately – to define "substantial support" of terrorist groups or describe those activities which might be construed as crossing the legal line of mere dissent. And no law may be enforced if those to whom it applies are unable to clearly understand what a violation of that law entails. Nothing could more plainly reveal Obama's rank corruption and tyrannical lust for power than his duplicity in crafting and then misrepresenting the final text, scope and authority of the NDAA. According to Democrat Senator Carl Levin, it was Obama himself who demanded American citizens be included under the detention law, and that the president have exclusive and discretionary authority to invoke the statute. "The language which precluded the application of Section [1021] to American citizens was in the bill that we originally approved…and the Administration asked us to remove the language which says that U.S. citizens and lawful residents would not be subject to this section," said Levin after the NDAA was signed into law. Yet in his signing statement, Obama wrote that he had in fact forced Congress to "…[revise] provisions that otherwise would have jeopardized the safety, security and liberty of the American people." "I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens," wrote Obama. "My Administration will interpret section 1021 in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law." This of course was an outright lie, given the expressed meaning of the statute as Obama himself had demanded it be written. The notoriously corrupt Department of Justice, which defended the NDAA before Judge Forrest, will doubtless appeal her ruling.
The Smith-Amash Amendment would also have altered the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, enacted days after Sept. 11, 2001, which grants the president the authority to use all "necessary and appropriate force" against individuals determined to have participated in that day's terrorist attacks. Persons suspected of harboring those individuals or terrorist groups can also be detained under the AUMF. "It is very, very rare to give that amount of power to the president [and] take away any person's fundamental freedom and lock them up without the normal due process of law," Smith told The Hill. We need to keep the Smith-Amash Amendment to NDAA in play in the Senate and in the reconciliation process, and END the indefinite detention of Americans. In addition to UNCONSTITUTIONALLY codifying the authority of the military to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects without charge or trial, the NDAA Section 1022, requires that a category of foreign terrorism suspects be initially held in military custody, absent a presidential waiver. Though Obama issued a Presidential Policy Directive saying he would limit the instances in which mandatory military custody applies, neither Obama nor future presidents are bound by this directive. The Smith-Amash Amendment would repeal the NDAA mandatory military custody provision altogether. It MUST be applied to both FY 2012 and 2013 NDAA legislation for these Acts to be remotely Constitutional! We do NOT just trust the president won't assassinate us; we do NOT surrender our rights of habeas corpus against indefinite detention and military tribunals; we do NOT grant vague, expanded, extraordinary "cyberspace" war-making powers to the Department of Defense to conduct "clandestine online operations" – that could be waged against U.S. citizens LIKE US! NO MORE NDAA without CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITS, CONTROLS, AND EXPLICIT OVERSIGHT outside the Executive Branch. Congress still refuses to protect YOUR rights! Along with clinging to all their previous Constitutional violations, new "cyberspace" language in the FY 2013 H.R. 4310 NDAA actually EXPANDS war making powers to the DoD /NSA, while REMOVING the present restriction that the DoD must take only actions that are "subject to the policy principles and legal regimes that the Department follows for kinetic capabilities, including the law of armed conflicts." Instead, Congress seems determined to grant Obama unfettered war making latitude. The DoD will be empowered to use these new expanded powers without restriction, against anyone declared an enemy under the very broad AUMF (the Authorization for Use of Military Force joint resolution passed by the Congress on September 14, 2001, authorizing the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the attacks on September 11, 2001). Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security Big Sis Napolitano has already made it explicitly clear that Constitutionalists, veterans, border security activists, home schoolers, Second Amendment advocates and the like are potential terrorists, otherwise known as "belligerents"… The cyberspace change in NDAA smacks of further enabling the military to operate against our own civilian population, which is why not only the right of habeas corpus but the Posse Comitatus Act MUST BE immediately reinstated! CONTRARY TO CONGRESSIONAL TALKING POINTS – the FY 2013 NDAA bill does NOTHING to prevent the indefinite detention of Americans, just as it does not under the 2012 version. The new bill only reiterates that habeas corpus is a right in our courts system as established under Article III of the Constitution. That such a right exists in the courts of the United States has never been under debate. But millions of Constitution-minded Americans vigilant for liberty recognize that Americans detained as "belligerents" under the terms of the NDAA will not be detained and tried in Article III courts, but will be unconstitutionally subjected to military tribunals. There is nothing in the 2013 NDAA H.R. 4310 that passed out of the House last week to guarantee Americans will be tried in a Constitutional court and not a military commission. Most of what is contained in the over-500-page 2012 version of the NDAA is inimical to liberty. For example, under the provisions of Section 1021, the president has the absolute power to arrest and detain citizens of the United States without their being informed of any criminal charges, without a trial on the merits of those charges, and without a scintilla of the due process safeguards protected by the Constitution of the United States.
Regardless of denials, protestations, and promises to the contrary, the language of the NDAA places every citizen of the United States within the universe of potential "covered persons." Any American could be branded a "belligerent" and thus subject to the complete confiscation of his or her constitutional civil liberties and nearly never-ending incarceration in a military prison. The NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013 is scheduled to come for a vote before the Senate Armed Services Committee THIS WEEK. We MUST ENSURE that the revocation of habeas corpus, Posse Comitatus and the legalization of the indefinite detention of Americans in military prisons BE REVOKED! NDAA 2012 PASSED WITH MASSIVE BI-PARTISAN SUPPORT IN BOTH THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE – WE MUST DEMAND THAT CONGRESS AMEND NDAA WITH SMITH-AMASH, AND MAKE THIS LEGISLATION CONSTITUTIONAL! An episode in Florida only DAYS after Obama signed NDAA, with armed DHS officers at a busy Social Security office had skeptics rapidly reassessing; even Rush Limbaugh quickly reassessed – NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 is "Total Authoritarianism." With the new Federal Court ruling by Judge Forrest against it as UNCONSTITUTIONAL – WE CAN DEFEND OUR RIGHTS AND PREVAIL! America is awakening to Congress's monumental mistake and Obama's treachery. NOW HOLD CONGRESS ACCOUNTABLE – MAKE CERTAIN THEY SUPPORT SMITH-AMASH AND AMEND NDAA NOW! Supposedly, through Congress' incorporation of the Right to Habeas Corpus Act, NDAA ensures "beyond a shadow of a doubt that every American will have his day in court."
For the love of God and Country, I implore you – fax Congress today and absolutely, unequivocally DEMAND CONGRESS RESTORE OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. If we are complacent, Congress will resort to trickery to silence our public outrage, and pass FY 2013 NDAA H.R. 4310 with provisions that are not just as bad – but are worse – than what we are already contending against! Without the protections provided by Habeas Corpus and the Posse Comitatus Act, America is no better than a banana republic awaiting a despot to round up dissenters and lock us away. We know the Obama Administration is wasting no time. Just days after passing NDAA 2012, DHS officers appeared at a Florida Social Security office armed with semi-automatic rifles and K-9 dogs. While the agency claims the action was simply a "preparedness exercise," DHS officers nonetheless demanded identification papers from the law-abiding citizens waiting in line. AMERICA, WHAT HAVE WE BECOME???!!! Make no mistake: on the 220th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, Congress overwhelmingly voted to effectively extinguish those rights. They relinquished their claim to lawful authority by violating Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution and granting license to the Executive Branch to become the very tyrannical dictatorship our Founding Fathers fought and died to escape. Congress' betrayal has now set America firmly upon the path of pathetic banana republics and fearsome totalitarian states, with the knock on the door in the dead of night, the disappearances – where political dissidents can be suppressed, silenced or left to rot in unknown prisons. As I wrote you when Congress passed NDAA, I grieved for my country. Today, we must fight back! This gaping wound to our liberty MUST not stand. My earlier, straightforward analyses of Sections 1031 and 1032 of the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) make it clear why.
Congressional and Obama Administration supporters of this bill do not WANT to protect the rights and civil liberty of U.S. Citizens. Establishment defenders of the NDAA continue to circulate the legislation summary put out by Congress describing this bill, which was a blatant misrepresentation of the bill itself. The CRS Summary (Congressional Research Service) stated that section 1032 had specific language that said the detention provisions were "inapplicable to U.S. Citizens." That not only is not an accurate summary, it is a bold-faced lie – blatant propaganda! The language, "The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States" is not even close to saying detention is inapplicable to U.S. Citizens. How many Congressmen just read the CRS summary and based their entire vote on that lie? The thing I find most frustrating is knowing that I am not the only one out there seeing and shouting the truth. I have heard statements by Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Mike Lee, and others. I watched the debate in Congress. I know YOU and other patriot citizens have been contacting their Congressmen and Senators, DEMANDING action. I really believe if at least a handful of people have enough information to make an informed and educated decision, there is no excuse to believe a lie. And there is certainly no excuse to settle for a lie. Yet, that is where we are unless we FORCE CONGRESS TO FIX THIS BILL. DON'T BELIEVE A LIE BECAUSE IT MAKES YOU FEEL SAFE. Listen to these words of Justice Blackstone, as quoted by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper 84. "'To bereave a man of life, [says he] or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole nation; but confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government. 'And as a remedy for this fatal evil he is everywhere peculiarly emphatical in his encomiums on the habeas corpus act, which in one place he calls 'the BULWARK of the British Constitution.'" This is EXACTLY what these provision in the NDAA do. We do not have to keep these provisions to fund the military. They are completely irrelevant to that need. The truth is out there. You have a responsibility to it. Our elected Congressmen and Senators have a responsibility to it. Don't let them get away with promulgating a distortion and destruction of that truth. DEMAND THEY FIX THIS TERRIBLE LEGISLATION, AND RESTORE OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES! We must know that we cannot have peace from terrorism without having liberty in America! Don't sell our liberty for a little temporary security. It is not our liberty to sell. Our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor for ages and millions not yet born. This liberty belongs to our children, our grandchildren, and their children. WE MUST STAND FOR LIBERTY TODAY OR OUR CHILDREN WILL BOW TO TYRANTS TOMORROW!
Lynne Roberts, President
To send a check, please complete and print a contribution page form Americans United for Freedom
|
The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to begin consideration of their version of the defense bill THIS week. The Committee is Chaired by Senator Carl Levin and the ranking Republican is Senator John McCain. Several Senators who are NOT running for reelection and who have military experience sit on this Committee, like Jim Webb and Lindsey Graham. They should be aggressively petitioned by YOU to DO THE RIGHT THING, AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION.
In valiant attempt to uphold Constitutional rights in the House, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., a ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Republican Justin Amash of Michigan – a Tea Party freshman – introduced an Amendment to NDAA that would strip it of these provisions empowering the military to indefinitely hold, without a trial, accused citizen suspects detained on U.S. soil contrary to the plain language of the Constitution. The amendment had 59 co-sponsors.
In order to execute this immense power, the NDAA unlawfully grants the president the absolute and unquestionable authority to deploy the armed forces of the United States to apprehend and to indefinitely detain those suspected of threatening the security of the "homeland." In the language of this legislation, these people are called "covered persons."
Conservative icon Rush Limbaugh is on the record with what we have been saying all along, that NDAA 2012 really does allow the President "to detain anybody, for no reason and they don't even have to charge you." Limbaugh has discussed a radio broadcast some of the facts and arguments we have presented at length to alert concerned citizens of the threat NDAA poses to Liberty – and thanks to overwhelming popular outcry from even civil libertarians on the left of the aisle, CONGRESS WITH THE FY2013 AUTHORIZATION IS MOVING TO AMEND NDAA!
Congressmen Claimed Section 1032(b)(1) Specifically Excludes US Citizens
