Home
PhotographyOn December 5th, Forbes.com described the “National Defense Authorization Act” as the “Greatest Threat to Civil Liberties“:
“[The law] would place domestic terror investigations and interrogations into the hands of the military and would open the door for trial-free, indefinite detention of anyone, including American citizens, so long as the government calls them terrorists.”
Shortly thereafter, the NYTimes posted a great article called “Guantanamo forever“, in which a lot of very serious issues were raised.
Spencer Ackermann also wrote an extensive report on wired.com about the consequences if Obama signed the act:
“So despite the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a right to trial, the Senate bill would let the government lock up any citizen it swears is a terrorist, without the burden of proving its case to an independent judge, and for the lifespan of an amorphous war that conceivably will never end. And because the Senate is using the bill that authorizes funding for the military as its vehicle for this dramatic constitutional claim, it’s pretty likely to pass.”
Yesterday, Obama signed the bill.
“The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it,” Mr. Obama said in a statement issued in Hawaii, where he is on vacation. “I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists.” [...] [He] said that he would never authorize the indefinite military detention of American citizens, because “doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation.”
To sum up: Obama signed a bill which gives himself and any future president the power “to break with America’s most important traditions and values as a nation” (quote Obama).
He didn’t even try to talk himself out of this. You can find the full speech on thinkprogress.org.
Change we can believe in.
EDIT: Jon Stewart talked about the Law on December 7th (the first 10 minutes of the show). The first time I see him being very critical about Obama.
January 10th, 2012 at 18:09
The first time you saw him being very critical about Obama?
You should have watched the coverage on Solyndra… it made me cringe because it was so critical, funny and true.
January 10th, 2012 at 18:13
I’ve watched maybe 40 shows, which is not a lot. But usually he pretty decisively took Obama’s position (against that of Republicans)
January 10th, 2012 at 22:37
As Colbert put it when he roasted W at the now infamous White House Correspondents’ Dinner: “reality has a well-known liberal bias”