This is scary.
Rocco
I encourage each of you to read through this. You need to know what
is happening in the US. And as the Occupy Revolution gains momentum
the thugs in congress at the behest of the elite will do whatever it
can to stifle dissent.
Senate Bill to OK Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens Without
Charge, Trial
In what may be a tale too bizarre to be believed by millions of
Americans, the U.S. Senate appears ready to pass a bill that will
designate the entire earth, including the United States and its
territories, one all-encompassing “battlefield” in the global “war on
terror” and authorize the detention of Americans suspected of
terrorist ties indefinitely and without trial or even charges being
filed that would necessitate a trial.
The bill could come to a vote as early as today, according to a
bulletin issued by the American Civil Liberties Union. The legislation
“goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans,” the ACLU
statement said, describing the bill as having moved toward passage
while most Americans were celebrating Thanksgiving and a long holiday
weekend for millions of U.S. workers. “The Senate will be voting on a
bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy
shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and
other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United
States itself,” the ACLU warned.
Labeled the National Defense Authorization Act, S. 1867 was drafted in
secret by Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and
approved in a closed-door committee meeting, according to the ACLU
statement.
“I know it sounds incredible,” wrote Chris Anders of the ACLU's
Washington legislative office. “New powers to use the military
worldwide, even within the United States? Hasn’t anyone told the
Senate that Osama bin Laden is dead, that the president is pulling all
of the combat troops out of Iraq and trying to figure out how to get
combat troops out of Afghanistan too? And American citizens and people
picked up on American or Canadian or British streets being sent to
military prisons indefinitely without even being charged with a crime.
Really? Does anyone think this is a good idea? And why now?”
If passed in its present form, the bill would give the President the
power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or
trial civilians anywhere in the world. “The power is so broad that
even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military
could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States
itself,” Anders warned. Anders also noted that presidential candidate
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) voiced his concerns about the detention
provisions in the legislation in a Republican candidates' debate.
Ironically, President Obama, who has frequently been criticized by
libertarians of both the left and right for exceeding his powers as
Commander-in-Chief, is opposed to the legislation and has threatened
to veto it if it passes both houses of Congress. Both the Secretary of
Defense and the Attorney General of the United States have called the
indefinite detention provisions of the bill harmful and
counterproductive. But Senator Lindsey Graham has praised those same
provisions for saying “for the first time that the homeland is part of
the battlefield” and that people can be arrested without charge or
trial, “American citizen or not.” Freshman Senator Kelly Ayotte, a New
Hampshire Republican, declared that the provisions are necessary
because “America is part of the battlefield.”
Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) has offered an amendment to delete the
indefinite detention provisions and “[set] up an orderly review of
detention power,” Anders said. “It tries to take the politics out and
put American values back in.” The provisions raise a great many
political, sociological, and constitutional questions, including
whether all of the “homeland,” formerly known as “the land of the
free,” should be designated a battlefield and whether people arrested
anywhere in the world, including here in the United States, should be
considered “enemy combatants” even if they were captured nowhere near
a scene of actual battle.
The ACLU is pressing Americans to contact their Senators and urge them
to support the Udall amendment. “Senators need to hear from you, on
whether you think your front yard is part of a 'battlefield' and if
any president can send the military anywhere in the world to imprison
civilians without charge or trial,” Anders wrote.
Johnny Powell
We knew it was coming. The signs were there. The American people need to wake up from their reality tv and Starbucks coffee induced apathy, and take back their diminishing freedom.