US Senate wants the entire USA to be a Battle Ground

[MiddleClassCentrist]

http://newsvoice.se/2011/12/02/us-senate-declares-the-entire-usa-to-be-a-battleground/

In a stunning move that has civil libertarians stuttering with disbelief, the U.S. Senate has just passed a bill that effectively ends the Bill of Rights in America.

Text: Mike Adams | Also watch this video: The US Constitution is gone

[The article's heading re-named on Dec 4, 2011 (01:28 local time SE). The word "declares" was exchanged with "wants"]

The National Defense Authorization Act is being called the most traitorous act ever witnessed in the Senate, and the language of the bill is cleverly designed to make you think it doesn’t apply to Americans, but toward the end of the bill it essentially says it can apply to Americans ”if we want it to.”

Bill Summary & Status, 112th Congress (2011 – 2012) | S.1867 | Latest Title: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 | Sponsor: Sen Levin, Carl [MI] (introduced 11/15/2011) | Related Bills: H.R.1540 | Latest Major Action: 12/1/2011 Passed/agreed to in Senate. | Status: Passed Senate with amendments by Yea-Nay. 93 – 7. | Record Vote Number: 218. | Latest Action: 12/1/2011 National Defense Authorization Act | Amendment details

This bill, passed late last night in a 93-7 vote, declares the entire USA to be a ”battleground” upon which U.S. military forces can operate with impunity, overriding Posse Comitatus and granting the military the unchecked power to arrest, detain, interrogate and even assassinate U.S. citizens with impunity.

Even WIRED magazine was outraged at this bill, reporting:

Senate Wants the Military to Lock You Up Without Trial

…the detention mandate to use indefinite military detention in terrorism cases isn’t limited to foreigners. It’s confusing, because two different sections of the bill seem to contradict each other, but in the judgment of the University of Texas’ Robert Chesney — a nonpartisan authority on military detention — “U.S. citizens are included in the grant of detention authority.” Source

Bin Laden bread

The passage of this law is nothing less than an outright declaration of WAR against the American People by the military-connected power elite. If this is signed into law, it will shred the remaining tenants of the Bill of Rights and unleash upon America a total military dictatorship, complete with secret arrests, secret prisons, unlawful interrogations, indefinite detainment without ever being charged with a crime, the torture of Americans and even the ”legitimate assassination” of U.S. citizens on right here on American soil!

If you have not yet woken up to the reality of the police state we’ve been warning you about, I hope you realize we are fast running out of time. Once this becomes law, you have no rights whatsoever in America — no due process, no First Amendment speech rights, no right to remain silent, nothing.

I saw this posted on another board I frequent.

I brought it here for discussion.

[sharkman]

Did Congress pass this yet?

[Guest American Woman]

Did Congress pass this yet?

No, and it sounds as if Obama might veto it.

[cybercoma]

Why would the Senate even pass something this ridiculous?

So much for "business as usual" following 9/11.

[maple_leafs182]

No, and it sounds as if Obama might veto it.

Didn't they pass it? I thought the vote was 93-7 in favour of it.

[Guest American Woman]

Didn't they pass it? I thought the vote was 93-7 in favour of it.

The Senate passed it, but the House still has to vote on it, and rather than sign it into law if the House passes it, Obama can veto it - then it would have to go back to Congress for another vote, and it would have to pass by 2/3 to override the veto.

Edited December 5, 2011 by American Woman

[eyeball]

I have to say the irony of Americans being so terrified of their own military operating on their soil while rarely thinking twice about sicking it on other people is...well, disgraceful certainly comes to mind along with pathetic and of course hilarious fits this situation like a glove.

What a spectacle.

[maple_leafs182]

The Senate passed it, but the House still has to vote on it, and rather than sign it into law if the House passes it, Obama can veto it - then it would have to go back to Congress for another vote, and it would have to pass by 2/3 to override the veto.

ahh, ok. What are your thoughts on the bill. Most American's I have talked to are against it.

[dre]

ahh, ok. What are your thoughts on the bill. Most American's I have talked to are against it.

Seems like a logical next step to me.

[Wilber]

Interesting that a country which maintains the necessity of the Second Amendment would give that kind of power to its military.

[Guest American Woman]

Seems like a logical next step to me.

[olp1fan]

soon to be used against OWS

[Guest Manny]

Jeez, 93-7 sure is a one sided vote. Do these people even read what they're voting for, before they vote?

[GostHacked]

Jeez, 93-7 sure is a one sided vote. Do these people even read what they're voting for, before they vote?

Ron Paul has been asked why he did not vote for the Patriot Act. His response was that he had actually read the bill.

[olp1fan]

Ron Paul has been asked why he did not vote for the Patriot Act. His response was that he had actually read the bill.

Ron Paul is their only hope

Sadly that is why he will never be a contender

[Guest American Woman]

Ron Paul has been asked why he did not vote for the Patriot Act. His response was that he had actually read the bill.

I'm thinking he didn't say that.

"It's my understanding the bill wasn't printed before the vote — at least I couldn't get it. They played all kinds of games, kept the House in session all night, and it was a very complicated bill. Maybe a handful of staffers actually read it, but the bill definitely was not available to members before the vote."

link

[maple_leafs182]

Senate past the NDAA 86-13...its heading to Obama now.

In this bill it calls for tougher sanctions on Iran.

One of the measure's chief sponsors welcomed the results. "Moving forward, the Congress will need to be more vigilant than ever before in holding the administration's feet to the fire to collapse the Central Bank of Iran and force international financial institutions to choose between doing business in the U.S. and doing business in Iran," said Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.

source

I also heard that Greece is no longer allowed to buy oil from Iran...so along with that and these new sanctions, together are destroying Iranians the ability to make a living. I don't know if some people are happy about that but it is these kinds of things that make people hate us. I think we will see things escalate with Iran going into next year. Next year looks like it is going to be a very dark year.

[Guest American Woman]

Senate past the NDAA 86-13...its heading to Obama now.

Obama will sign the bill, which had passed the House and Senate this week with revisions.

“Those who say that we have written into law a new authority to detain American citizens until the end of hostilities are wrong. Neither the Senate bill nor the conference report establishes new authority to detain American citizens – or anybody else,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich) one of the key negotiators on the issue, who at times expressed frustration with the administration and opponents of the provisions over what he called “misstatements” about what they contained.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70527.html#ixzz1ggpL6Eb7

I don't think the bill is saying what people are claiming it does.

[eyeball]

Obama will sign the bill, which had passed the House and Senate this week with revisions.

“Those who say that we have written into law a new authority to detain American citizens until the end of hostilities are wrong. Neither the Senate bill nor the conference report establishes new authority to detain American citizens – or anybody else,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich) one of the key negotiators on the issue, who at times expressed frustration with the administration and opponents of the provisions over what he called “misstatements” about what they contained.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70527.html#ixzz1ggpL6Eb7

I don't think the bill is saying what people are claiming it does.

Amnesty International’s Tom Parker said the bill “enshrines the war paradigm that has eroded the United States’ human rights record and served it so poorly over the past decade as the country’s primary counterterrorism tool,”

I think the concern about human rights and civil liberties is justified given how far your country's use of military rhetoric has taken you down this road before - your war on drugs has resulted in America having one of the highest incarceration rates on the planet...with nothing to show for it at all.

From your link...

In all, the bill authorizes $670 billion in spending for the Defense Department, along with Energy Department nuclear weapons programs.

That's just great. We've certainly seen some wonderful results on the human rights front when your country's Defence and Energy Departments get together.

[Topaz]

I don't if this apply here but I've heard several times on US news that most of the time the senators and the congressmen/women don't even read the whole bill before them, could this happen here?

[jbg]

I also heard that Greece is no longer allowed to buy oil from Iran...so along with that and these new sanctions, together are destroying Iranians the ability to make a living. I don't know if some people are happy about that but it is these kinds of things that make people hate us. I think we will see things escalate with Iran going into next year. Next year looks like it is going to be a very dark year.

Oil is fungible so if one country doesn't buy the oil another will.

[cybercoma]

Hotly contested issue? Just sign it on New Year's Eve in Hawaii when no one is paying attention.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hU_NWbXtM2XLyIFwXd-uxxrE_mNA?docId=CNG.708e02122a0745a94d1e4949e69f7399.601

Despite serious reservations, Obama signs the bill anyway. Oh but don't worry. He "promises" his administration won't use the indefinite detention rules against American citizens.

One thing I'll give Bush credit for... you knew where he stood. Obama is possibly one of the most two-faced presidents the United States has had in at least a generation.

[jbg]

Hotly contested issue? Just sign it on New Year's Eve in Hawaii when no one is paying attention.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hU_NWbXtM2XLyIFwXd-uxxrE_mNA?docId=CNG.708e02122a0745a94d1e4949e69f7399.601

Despite serious reservations, Obama signs the bill anyway. Oh but don't worry. He "promises" his administration won't use the indefinite detention rules against American citizens.

One thing I'll give Bush credit for... you knew where he stood. Obama is possibly one of the most two-faced presidents the United States has had in at least a generation.

That he is.

But in the U.S. the Courts are obliged to construe legislation in ways that preserves its constitutionality. In short, there will be very few detentions of U.S. citizens under the legislation.