National Defense Authorization Act Passes Senate

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Capable of indefinite detention of United States citizens, and called an "abomination" during a furious dissent by Senator Rand Paul, the National Defense Authorization Act passed the U.S. Senate.

President Obama said he would veto the bill because it would prevent him from closing Guantanamo Bay.  It is unclear whether the president will follow through on the threat.

The NDAA has been controversial because of its provision that would allow the military to detain Americans if suspected to support terrorist groups, or to be a terrorist themselves.  The definition of terror in the bill is not specific, giving the government the opportunity to create broad definitions at their discretion.

Rand Paul said of the bill on the Senate floor, "We had protection in this bill. We passed an amendment that specifically said if you were an American citizen or here legally in the country, you would get a trial by jury.  It's been removed because they want the ability to hold American citizens without trial in our country. This is so fundamentally wrong and goes against everything we stand for as a country that it can't go unnoticed."

"When you're accused of a crime in our country you get a trial, you get a trial by a jury of your peers, no matter how heinous your crime is, no matter how awful you are, we give you a trial," he said. "This bill takes away that right and says that if someone thinks you're dangerous, we will hold you without a trial. It's an abomination."

He also pointed out the open-ended nature of the "war on terror." "When will your rights be restored if the battle has no end, and the battlefield is limitless, and the war is endless?" Paul asked.

Senators in support of the bill claimed language in the NDAA preserves Americans' constitutional right to trial by jury. Only when they ally themselves with foreign terrorist powers, they said, do Americans abdicate their rights as citizens.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

NDAA Indefinite Detention Bill Passes Senate After Rand Paul Calls it an Abomination - Huffington Post