“The NDAA was actually declared unconstitutional by Federal Judge Katherine Forrest in Hedges v Obama. Judge Katherine Forrest was appointed by the Obama administration, by the way… The very next day, the Obama administration requested an emergency stay and it was granted by another judge. As a result, the NDAA is still in full swing today. This is just another example of how the courts have failed us and it is up to us locally to stop this,” wrote the Pontiac Tribune.
The US House of Representatives approved an annual defense spending bill early Thursday after rejecting a proposed amendment that would have prevented the United States government from indefinitely detaining American citizens.
An amendment introduced in the House on Wednesday this week asked that Congress repeal a controversial provision placed in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 that has ever since provided the executive branch with the power to arrest and detain indefinitely any US citizen thought to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda or associated organizations.
Eighty-five of 100 U.S. senators voted to renew the president’s power to indefinitely detain Americans, denying them of their fundamental right to due process.
Photo of Sen. Ted Cruz: AP Images
On December 19, by a vote of 84-15 (Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, did not vote), the Senate sent the Fiscal Year 2014 version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to President Obama’s desk. Although an overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats signed off on the evisceration of the Bill of Rights, a small coalition of Independents, Republicans, and Democrats refused to accede to such a devastation deprivation of rights. A list of the lawmakers who stood against this tyranny is appropriate:
Martin asks Drake how it felt when the government he once worked for filed charges against him using the Espionage Act for blowing the whistle on the illegal wiretapping program, his response “Total betrayal.” He went onto to say “It is important to note I took an Oath four times to support and defend the constitution. That oath was not an oath to the President, it was not an oath to lie, it was not an oath to secrecy, it was not an oath to a national security agency. It was certainly not an oath to look the other way when the government itself commits massive fraud, waste and abuse and engages itself in wrongdoing and illegality and that’s precisely what the government did after 9/11, on a vast scale.”
Drake then goes onto articulate “You can’t have a government violating the constitution in secret and then forming all of these alliances w/corporations who themselves are ensuring the continuance of their own interests through the government. That’s not in the best interests of the country let alone the constitution.”
As for the National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA, Section 1021 also known as Indefinite Detention, Drake holds nothing back pinpointing precisely the concern every American should have stating “Section 1021 is really a generalized provision under which the government unto itself wants to exercise military authority at anytime, anywhere, basically against anybody in the United States of America.” The key word in that sentence is “military authority” not “civilian authority” which should send chills up your spine.
Socialism is not the Answer 