U.S. Senate wants martial law in America

Rand Paul tries to kill provision allowing the military to detain individuals without trial or due process

(UPDATE  -  An amendment by Democrat Senator Mark Udall drew support from civil liberties groups but was defeated on a rare bipartisan vote, 60 to 38. Fifteen Democrats and one independent joined almost all Republicans to uphold the detainee provisions. Two Republicans — Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mark Kirk of Illinois — joined 35 Democrats and one independent in voting to strip the provisions. Two senators did not vote.)

With the bill expected to be up for a vote within 48 hours, Republican Senator Rand Paul has offered an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that will kill a provision allowing the military to detain individuals, including American citizens, without trial or due process.

The “indefinite detention” sections of the NDAA bill would turn the whole of the United States into a “battlefield” and hand the executive branch the power to have the military arrest U.S. citizens and hold them without trial.



Senator Rand Paul



The provision is merely an update to the “parallel legal system” had been in place under the auspices of the war on terror for over a decade, “In which terrorism suspects — U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike — may be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without legal protections guaranteed by the ordinary system,” as the Washington Post reported in December 2002.

In attempt to kill the indefinite detention provision of the legislation, Senator Rand Paul aims to strike Section 1031 from the bill, which reads as follows.

“Congress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate force…includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons…Detention under the law of war without trial”.

Republican Congressman Justin Amash also warned that the bill had been “carefully crafted to mislead the public,” in suggesting that the indefinite detention provision didn’t apply to American citizens when it clearly does.

“Note that it does not preclude U.S. citizens from being detained indefinitely, without charge or trial, it simply makes such detention discretionary,” Amash wrote on his Facebook page.

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