Final Step to Fascism? National Defense Authorization Act Passes

Posted by Mike Tirone - Thursday, December 15th, 2011

Say goodbye to your civil liberties, folks.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will be put into

law this week in Washington, D.C.

This new law has had the most unique coverage of any political

act in years. Some mainstream media outlets have “covered” it,

when merely scratching the surface, while other networks have

blatantly chosen to ignore it. Either way there are a lot of mis-

conceptions about this bill, which was put together by Democratic

Sen. Carl Levin and GOP Sen. John McCain.

Here is what this Act entails:

1) mandates that all accused Terrorists be indefinitely imprisoned by the military rather than in the civilian court system

2) permits (note it does not mandate) that U.S. citizens on American soil accused of Terrorism be held by the military rather than charged in the civilian court system

3) renews the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) which allows force and military detention against those involved in the 9/11 attacks and countries that harbor them, as well as anyone who “substantially supports” Al Qaeda, the Taliban or “associated forces”

4) imposes new restrictions on the U.S. Government's ability to transfer detainees out of Guantanamo Bay

So aside from the fact that we are ten years out of the 9/11 attacks,

Bin Laden is dead and Al Qaeda is barely functioning, our current

Congress has now begun poking at the fading flames. Bringing back

what many are calling even more unconstitutional than the Patriot

Act is not only a step, but a massive journey in the wrong direction.

And all of it fueled from a bipartisan basis to not only re-affirm the war

on terror but to expand it beyond necessary.

Essentially what the U.S. has done is declared that all of planet

earth (including it's VERY own country) is a battlefield for our military

to engage in war forever upon.

The most revealing and unnerving part of this bill is explained by Glenn Greenwald:

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) said last night

that the bill contains “harmful provisions that some legislators

have said could authorize the U.S. military to pick up and

imprison without charge or trial civilians, including American citizens, anywhere in the world” and added:

“if President Obama signs this bill, it will damage his legacy.” 

Human Rights Watch said that Obama’s decision “does

enormous damage to the rule of law both in the US and

abroad” and that “President Obama will go down in history

as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without

trial in US law.”

And what is even more discouraging is the absolute 180-flip that

President Obama has made on this bill, initially threatening to veto the Levin/McCain detention bill, and now signing it into law.

As Human Rights Watch put it: "President Obama will go down

in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention

without trial in U.S. law." Greenwald's seconds the Human Rights Watch's strong stance, "There is no partisan loyalty or leader-

reverent propaganda strong enough to obscure that fact."

Antiwar.com's John Glaser says that the White House explained it

would veto the bill because mandating military custody lead to

restricting the president's authority.

But once signed into law, it not only discredits the President

and his reversal of veto but it shows that Obama feels more

comfortable with the military's decision making than his own.

Glaser continued, “But in truth it’s reasonable to assume that a

veto threat was a mere political theater, because Senator Carl

Levin one of the provision’s primary authors revealed during

senate debate that it was the Obama administration itself who

requested the inclusion of language mandating military detentions, including US citizens. So you could say the administration never

changed their minds, it was just a sort of doing it for public

consumption,”

If you inspect the legislation carefully, the new law will give the right

to have the U.S. military basically make any American citizen “disappear”

for offenses that are never even made public. Also, if a friend or family publicizes of your disappearance, they also will be obtained.

Radio host Ralph Schoenman says “if anybody helps you with a taxi ride

or attempts to give assistance to your family in the circumstances of your disappearance, they too can be detained. THIS is the architecture of the fascist state.”

When it comes to other political figureheads speaking out about the

NDAA, many have kept quiet. But one man -- one who is constantly

muffled by the mainstream media -- has voiced his opposition:

presidential candidate Ron Paul.

“This is a giant step – this should be the biggest news going right now – literally legalizing martial law,” Paul said. “This is big, this step where they can literally arrest American citizens and put them away without trail... is arrogant and bold and dangerous!”

Paul has said to be incredibly surprised and mind-boggled that this bill

has yet to be discussed in an recent GOP debates, despite its very

provisions are harmful to the U.S. Constitution and the freedom of each

and every American.

RT.com quotes Paul,

“Today it seems too easy that our government and our congresses

are so willing to give up our liberties for our security,” Paul said during

a presidential debate earlier this election season. “I have a personal

belief that you never have to give up liberty for security. You can still provide security without sacrificing our Bill of Rights.”

Paul has also condemned the Patriot Act for crushing the freedoms

of Americans, while top-tier candidate and former-House Speaker

Newt Gingrich has insisted on finding a “balancing act between

our individual liberties and security.”

But the key takeaway from this kafkaesque law is not its specific

provisions or complete decimation of civil liberties, but the fact that

this war was never declared on a nation or tangible enemy.

It is a war against an abstract idea, therefore there is no enemy to

step down and no chance for this war to end. So strap in because

this seems to be just the beginning.

:

Use your masterful powers of thought,
visualization and verbal intent to
Co-create a peaceful world now...