Police state Amerika: a Rogue Government

1Gonzolo Lira awakened me to this one. Before his post I was blissfully unaware of the NDAA¹ .

Those who read me already know how I feel about the various renditions of the Patriot Acts. The NDAA passes those so far that you can’t even see them in the rear-view mirror. Embedded into this POS² is a little something called Indefinite Detention AKA the Levin/McCain detention bill. It is a part and parcel of the NDAA. Last December, Glenn Greenwald, writing for Salon, did a detailed analysis of this bill and the three critical points incorporated within it.

1. The Bill codifies Indefinite Detentions: Basically, it suspends Article 1, section 9, of the US Constitution in its entirety and indefinitely. It even removes the requirement for a trial. Anyone may be detained simply on suspicion and no proof is required whatsoever. Of course, without the requirement of a trial, due process becomes a dim historical artifact. It might be noted that Roman tyrants gained permanent ascendency over the triumvirate, ending the Roman Republic, by the simple expedient of declaring a permanent state of war (This may mark the historical end of the Republic of the United States) .
2. It expands the scope of the War on Terror to the point that it can never be won. It becomes a war that does not end and therefore supports the first point (above).
3. US citizens are not exempt from this bill³ . It leaves open the possibility of subjecting American citizens to military detention and trial by a military court to include indefinite detention of anyone suspected of being a member of Al Qaeda or an amorphous group of “associated forces” that could cover just about anyone arrested anywhere in the world.
4. A fourth point that many analysts miss is that these are military detentions of non-military subjects and thus violates the Posse Comitatus Act. Although the Posse Comitatus is not a part of the US Constitution, it is motivated by said document and expands on it.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the NDAA shits all over the US Constitution and the US Bill of Rights.

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1. National Defense Authorization Act of 2012  More links can be found on Google. [↩]
2. POS=Piece Of Shit [↩]
3. Surprisingly, this was done at Obama’s insistence. [↩]

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