Tag Archives: National Defense Authorization Act

4 States Advance Anti-NDAA Legislation

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Activist Post February 27 2013

In a stunning move last week, four states, Indiana, Colorado, Montana and Arizona, successfully advanced anti-NDAA legislation. The goal for each bill is to protect the people of that state from indefinite detention under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012.

The 2012 NDAA applies to U.S. soil broad detention power, using terms such as “associated forces” and “substantially supported,” allowing the federal government to detain and even execute any person, including an American citizen, on U.S. soil. There has not been such a backlash against federal law since Congress attempted to enforce a mandatory national speed limit, as over 21 states have introduced legislation to counter the law.

In Indiana, S.B. 400 passed through the State Senate by a vote of 31 – 17. Next, it will be assigned to a committee in the State House, where the battle will begin anew. It will then need to be given a committee hearing, pass the hearing and then be voted on by the full State House floor. The last step, if it passes those hurdles, would be for Governor Mike Pence to sign it into law.

On, Thursday, three similar pieces of legislation passed through House Committees in Arizona, Montana and Colorado.

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Joe A. Wolverton II, J.D. ~ States Join The Fight To Nullify Indefinite Detention Under NDAA

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The New American February 14 2013

President Barack Obama signed the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law on January 2, renewing the power to apprehend and detain Americans indefinitely granted in the previous year’s version.

In order to protect their citizens from being grabbed and imprisoned under the provisions of the NDAA, many state lawmakers are standing up to the federal government, proposing resolutions nullifying this unconstitutional power at the state borders.

Nullification is a concept of constitutional law recognizing the right of each state to nullify, or invalidate, any federal measure that exceeds the few and defined powers allowed the federal government as enumerated in the U.S. Constitution.

Nullification exists as a right of the states because the sovereign states formed the union, and as creators of the compact, they hold ultimate authority as to the limits of the power of the central government to enact laws that are applicable to the states and the citizens thereof.

As President Obama continues accumulating all legislative, executive, and judicial power, the need for nullification is urgent, and liberty-minded citizens are encouraged to see state legislators boldly asserting their right to restrain the federal government through application of that very powerful and very constitutional principle.

The House of Representatives of Washington, for example, is considering the “Washington State Preservation of Liberty Act.” Introduced earlier this month, this bill “condemns and criminalizes” the use of the indefinite detention provision of the NDAA.

H.B. 1581 enjoys bipartisan support. The bill’s primary sponsor is state Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos (D), who is joined by at least eight other Democrats and 12 Republicans.

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Daniel Ellsberg On The NDAA Lawsuit [Video]

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wearechange February 7 2013

Daniel Ellsberg speaks at the press conference after the hearing for the second circuit court of appeals in the NDAA lawsuit, Hedges v Obama. He speaks about what is happening in the lawsuit, the erosion of the Bill of Rights and Bradley Manning.

Daniel Ellsberg is a former United States military analyst turned whistleblower, most known for publishing the Pentagon Papers.

Indiana, South Carolina Anti-NDAA Bills Fly Through Committee

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Activist Post February 13 2013

“Anti-NDAA” legislation has now passed senate committees in both Indiana and South Carolina.

In Indiana, S.B. 400 was championed by Sen. Jim Banks and Elkhart County Sheriff Bradley Rodgers who both spoke before the Corrections and Criminal Law Committee hearing in support of the bill.

Sen. Banks pointed out the sections of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 that violated the U.S. Constitution, specifically Sections 1021 and 1022 that allow for the indefinite detainment of American citizens without due process.

PANDA Indiana Team Leader James Kerner praised Sen. Banks’s speech, saying, “I suggest the ACLU, Occupy movement, Tea Party movement and Oath Keepers throw their full support behind Sen. Banks. He should be made a household name like Ron Paul.”

Sheriff Rogers spoke of the oath he took to uphold the Constitution and asked if he would be prohibited from taking action if federal agents illegally kidnapped citizens in his district.

The committee’s answer: “No.” The bill passed unanimously, 8-0.

Likewise in South Carolina, word comes from the Tenth Amendment Center that legislation seeking to nullify the “indefinite detention” provisions of the 2012 NDAA was approved by the state Senate Judiciary Committee today, 14-6.

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Daniel Ellsberg ~ NDAA Indefinite Detention Provision Is Part Of “Systematic Assault On Constitution” [Video]

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Democracy Now February 6 2013

A lawsuit challenging a law that gives the government the power to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens is back in federal court this week.

On Wednesday, a group of academics, journalists and activists will present oral arguments in court against a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, authorizing the military to jail anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world without charge or trial.

In a landmark ruling last September, Judge Katherine Forrest of the Southern District of New York struck down the indefinite detention provision, saying it likely violates the First and Fifth Amendments of U.S. citizens.

We’re joined by Daniel Ellsberg, a plaintiff in the case and perhaps the country’s most famous whistleblower. Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, exposing the secret history of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Dave Hodges ~ When The Rule Of Force Replaces The Rule Of Law: The Emerging American Gulag System

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Activist Post February 5 2013

The imposition of a brutal totalitarian system of government, in the annals of history, is far more common than it is not. Some say it was only a matter of time until America regressed into a brutal totalitarian regime similar to what has occurred in the history of our planet.

America is witnessing the Sovietization of its legal system. The similarities are striking, undeniable and should prove frightening to all Americans.

The Soviet Gulag System of Justice Consisted of Two Major Components

  • The “disappearing” of dissidents and anyone suspected of not being 100% loyal to Stalin.
  • Anyone not murdered by the Secret Police upon being secretly arrested, was exploited as slave labor in the re-education camps which would ultimately reward the state-owned corporations.

The Emerging American Gulag System of Justice Consists of Two Major Components

  • The authority of the government to “disappear” and even murder dissidents and anyone suspected of not being loyal to the ruling elite has been granted by the government to itself.
  • Anyone not murdered by the American NDAA agents of totalitarian enforcement, upon being secretly arrested, will be forced into slave labor, which will ultimately benefit select corporations.

The Soviet Gulag System 

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Chris Hedges ~ Breaking The Chains Of Debt Peonage

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TruthDig February 3 2013

The corporate state has made it clear there will be no more Occupy encampments. The corporate state is seeking through the persistent harassment of activists and the passage of draconian laws such as Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act—and we will be in court next Wednesday to fight the Obama administration’s appeal of the Southern District Court of New York’s ruling declaring Section 1021 unconstitutional—to shut down all legitimate dissent. The corporate state is counting, most importantly, on its system of debt peonage to keep citizens—especially the 30 million people who make up the working poor—from joining our revolt.

Workers who are unable to meet their debts, who are victimized by constantly rising interest rates that can climb to as high as 30 percent on credit cards, are far more likely to remain submissive and compliant. Debt peonage is and always has been a form of political control. Native Americans, forced by the U.S. government onto tribal agencies, were required to buy their goods, usually on credit, at agency stores. Coal miners in southern West Virginia and Kentucky were paid in scrip by the coal companies and kept in perpetual debt servitude by the company store. African-Americans in the cotton fields in the South were forced to borrow during the agricultural season from their white landlords for their seed and farm equipment, creating a life of perpetual debt. It soon becomes impossible to escape the mounting interest rates that necessitate new borrowing.

Debt peonage is a familiar form of political control. And today it is used by banks and corporate financiers to enslave not only individuals but also cities, municipalities, states and the federal government. As the economist Michael Hudson points out, the steady rise in interest rates, coupled with declining public revenues, has become a way to extract the last bits of capital from citizens as well as government. Once individuals, or states or federal agencies, cannot pay their bills—and for many Americans this often means medical bills—assets are sold to corporations or seized. Public land, property and infrastructure, along with pension plans, are privatized. Individuals are pushed out of their homes and into financial and personal distress.

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Dave Hodges ~ Insiders Warn Of More False Flags To Confiscate Guns

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Activist Post | December 28 2012 | Thanks, A.L.

There is a chill that is settling in over the country. In my years on the planet, I have never seen such a foreboding of collective dread and doom. The re-election of Obama has seemingly brought these feelings of extreme apprehension to the forefront. My sources, retired ex-feds, tell me that America is in much more danger than just a looming and catastrophic depression, resulting food riots and extreme government suppression of civil disobedience.

Soon, if my sources are correct, nobody will be safe, not even the politicians. I would add that my sources, as revealed in part one of this series, are voting with their feet as they are joining other ex-federal official and several hundred Wall Street bankers by going into hiding in order to escape what they believe is coming.

Why the NDAA? 

The NDAA allows the government to play Gestapo with the population. In fact many of us in alternative media have been fearful of the NDAA because we are concerned that it will be used against us if we ever uncover a story which is too sensitive, and that we will just be “disappeared.” However, my sources, ex-feds from FEMA and DHS, tell me that the reason that the NDAA was passed was to frighten federal would-be whistleblowers into silence. The forces behind gun confiscation want to come like a thief in the night with little or no warning so as not to stir up any more opposition than need be. Some ex-feds continue to talk behind the scenes because they do not agree with what is being planned and implemented, but I believe that they do so at their own peril because of the threat of the NDAA.

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Chris Hedges ~ The Final Battle

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TruthDig | December 23 2012

Over the past year I and other plaintiffs including Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg have pressed a lawsuit in the federal courts to nullify Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This egregious section, which permits the government to use the military to detain U.S. citizens, strip them of due process and hold them indefinitely in military detention centers, could have been easily fixed by Congress. The Senate and House had the opportunity this month to include in the 2013 version of the NDAA an unequivocal statement that all U.S. citizens would be exempt from 1021(b)(2), leaving the section to apply only to foreigners. But restoring due process for citizens was something the Republicans and the Democrats, along with the White House, refused to do. The fate of some of our most basic and important rights—ones enshrined in the Bill of Rights as well as the Fourth and Fifth amendments of the Constitution—will be decided in the next few months in the courts. If the courts fail us, a gulag state will be cemented into place.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, pushed through the Senate an amendment to the 2013 version of the NDAA. The amendment, although deeply flawed, at least made a symbolic attempt to restore the right to due process and trial by jury. A House-Senate conference committee led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., however, removed the amendment from the bill last week.

“I was saddened and disappointed that we could not take a step forward to ensure at the very least American citizens and legal residents could not be held in detention without charge or trial,” Feinstein said in a statement issued by her office. “To me that was a no-brainer.”

The House approved the $633 billion NDAA for 2013 in a 315-107 vote late Thursday night. It will now go before the Senate. Several opponents of the NDAA in the House, including Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., cited Congress’ refusal to guarantee due process and trial by jury to all citizens as his reason for voting against the bill. He wrote in a statement after the vote that “American citizens may fear being arrested and indefinitely detained by the military without knowing what they have done wrong.”

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William Dean A. Garner ~ The Reptilian-Jesuits’ Five-Step Program For Destroying A Country

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William Garner | December 23 2012

Get Dean’s excellent book Who Really Owns Your Gold. It’s definitely worth the read ~ G

The Reptilian-Jesuits have a tried-and-true five-step program for destroying a country from within. It’s worked in every single country they’ve controlled and ultimately destroyed.

One would think that We The People would’ve gotten wind of this Five-Stepper by now:

Demoralizing a public with depressing news in the mainstream media, plunging the nation into serious debt using controlled and manipulated recessions and depressions, low-income jobs and high unemployment, evermore controlling new laws and regulations that are increasingly intrusive to all citizens.

Destabilizing a population by pitting groups against each other, i.e. Democrats vs. Republicans or pro-choice vs. anti-abortion or gun owners vs. anti-gun citizens, in pitched battle. And when they can’t corral those elusive holdouts who subscribe to no party or religion or group, The Reptilian-Jesuits create even further “false and controlled opposition,” i.e. those people and groups who purport to be friends of We The People and who allegedly oppose the Reptilian-Jesuits Axis, echoing their pro-We The People sentiments in high public places. The grim reality is that those final holdouts among We The People are cleverly being pulled into a black hole of false security by all the false and controlled opposition.

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Greg Hunter ~ Weekly News Wrap Up December 21 2012 [Video]

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USA Watchdog

Don’t expect a debt deal Christmas present.  It ain’t going to happen.  This is a political football. It is also about putting blame on the other party and getting a deal that hurts the other party’s base the worst.  Solving this debt crisis problem will involve real pain and sacrifice if we ever want to balance the budget.  Even the so-called Erskine-Bowles plan only meant a total of $4 trillion to the budget over the next decade.  That plan slowed the growth of government, forget about actually cutting it.  What Congress and the President should be doing is a full court press on the economy.  Instead, the Fed is propping up the banks and the government to the tune of $85 billion a month.  And there is not a single word about that enormous pink elephant in the room.  The economy is headed into a tailspin, and inflation is going to crush the middle class.

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Dennis Kucinich ~ Throw Out The NDAA, End The Wars And Start Nation Building At Home

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Nation Of Change | December 14 2012

“Today, this House will send the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to conference. Contrary to its title, the bill does not provide for the protection of the American people. It expands war. It further indebts our nation. It encroaches on basic rights with regards to indefinite detention. It eliminates the basic tenet that due process rights apply to everyone in this country – not just American citizens.

“The legislation also includes additional sanctions against Iran despite numerous reports that our sanctions are affecting the ability of ordinary Iranians to obtain medicine and offer basic goods. Sanctions have thus far not served to solve the impasse or bring Iran to the negotiating table. More sanctions are not the answer and do not bring us closer to a diplomatic solution.

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