Under the recently signed 2012 defense bill, the Pentagon now has the power to keep home-grown terror suspects off Main Street America for good. Just don’t expect to see that happen while President Barack Obama is in office.
The commander in chief brought 2011 to a close by signing the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act into law, despite weeks of criticism and warnings from lawmakers and federal officials concerned over the bill’s provisions that authorize the U.S. military to indefinitely detain anyone – including American citizens – suspected of terrorists acts inside the United States.
Federal agencies such as the FBI have expressed concern that the new law could interfere with criminal investigations, jeopardizing the success of current domestic counter-terrorism operations.
The American Civil Liberties has vowed to challenge the NDAA’s controversial provisions, which also authorize the indefinite detention of any person from any battlefield, no matter the country.
Despite the outcry of opposition, however, it seems that very little will actually change in the way the Pentagon does business for now.
Both the Defense Department and the Army were reluctant to comment on how the detention provisions will affect their day-to-day operations.
Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a spokesman for DoD, said he is “comfortable with what the president has already said on this matter,” referring Military.com to the public comments the White House released when Obama signed the NDAA on Dec. 31.
Here’s what the president had to say:
“I want to clarify that my administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation. 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.”
Section 1022 of the NDAA seeks to require military custody of non-citizen detainees who are captured during hostilities in areas where the “authorization for use of military force” has been approved. Obama characterized this section as “ill-conceived,” since the executive branch already has the authority to “detain in military custody those members of al-Qaida who are captured” in these situations.
“I have concluded that section 1022 provides the minimally acceptable amount of flexibility to protect national security. Specifically, I have signed this bill on the understanding that section 1022 provides the executive branch with broad authority to determine how best to implement it, and with the full and unencumbered ability to waive any military custody requirement,” Obama wrote.
While President Obama might never authorize the military to use these new detention guidelines, ACLU officials argue that future White House administrations may follow them to the letter.
“Military detention of American citizens would be unconstitutional and illegal,” Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, told Military.com.
The laws of war have an important role to play in America’s counter-terrorism policy as long as they don’t degrade the individual rights of U.S. citizens, Shamsi said.
The ACLU also intends to fight NDAA language that restricts the transfers of cleared detainees from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to foreign countries for resettlement or repatriation. Such a provision makes it more difficult to close Guantanamo, something President Obama pledged to carry out as one of his first acts in office, ACLU officials said.
“No one here advocates that terror suspects should not be prosecuted,” said Shamsi, but the ACLU argues that America’s reputation as a world advocate for “the rule of law and human rights is profoundly diminished by laws like these.”
Articolul original: aici