The final version of the National Defense Authorization Act has passed the House and will be voted on in the Senate on Thursday. Despite tens of thousands of emails and calls the wording in the bill which would allow indefinite military detention of US citizens has not been changed substantially. The offending sections have been renumbered to cause confusion. They are now sections 1021 and 1022 (You can read the conference report in this PDF), and although there are slight changes in the language it still allows for military detention of civilians at the discretion of the President.
The only remaining way to block this unprecedented attack on our civil liberties and to preserve our Constitutionally guaranteed rights is to vote down the entire bill on the Senate floor and send it back to committee for revision.
Representative Justin Amash (RLC-MI) was surprisingly successful marshalling Republican opposition in the House but there just weren’t enough votes. He wrote of our efforts:
“For those of you who don’t believe that your calls and e-mails to Members of Congress work, let me assure you that they do. Members “freak out” when they receive more than half a dozen calls on any issue.”
“Thanks to our efforts, several Members of Congress are reconsidering their support for the NDAA provisions that permit the indefinite detention of Americans without charge or trial. They have approached me on the House floor to let me know. Please keep up your efforts.”
Law enforcement, national security agencies and the military itself all oppose this aspect of the NDAA. Like most Americans we believe in a strong and effective national defense and the unqualified support of our troops, but that does not mean we should sacrifice our most basic legal protections under the Constitution in our pursuit of the War on Terror. We certainly shouldn’t make our own troops the enemies of our people in the service of a government which has forgotten the principles on which our nation was founded. If we give up everything which makes America a great nation in pursuit of a tiny bit of additional safety then the terrorists have won.
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You may think that this sort of insane legislation which totally undermines our Constitutionally protected rights can’t be real. You may find it hard to believe that most Republicans are supporting it. You may not think this could happen in your America. Yet this outrage is entirely real and our only hope is to demand that our elected representatives listen to our concerns and stand up for liberty by voting down the NDAA and resubmitting it without these provisions.
It is very unlikely that President Obama will veto this bill and we cannot rely on his judgement on this important issue. Even if you previously wrote in during our efforts to stop the bill in the Senate and during Reconciliation, please take this opportunity to write your Senators using the form below to ask them to vote down the final version of the NDAA and get to work fixing it and protecting our liberty. We encourage you to customize the text to express your personal concern and outrage.
If you prefer to call your Senators on Monday, use our tool to get their phone numbers.
On December 14th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Dave, thanks for providing yet one more quick and easy way to make ourselves heard on this LIBERTY stealing issue.
On December 14th, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Why do I get the feeling that I’m adding myself to the list of first-round detentionites
On December 14th, 2011 at 9:56 pm
joining you all in the detention centers….. we must stand together against a nanny state.
On December 14th, 2011 at 10:47 pm
because we believed a lie. we were sold out in 1913 thanks to FDR. we did not do as we were told by the bible and the founding fathers.
On February 3rd, 2012 at 2:54 pm
Nothing included in any bill is worth forfeiting ANY OF OUR RIGHTS. PERIOD. I will definately remember these votes on their next election cycle. They voted now it is my turn. Now, are you going to arrest me before or after you read this???