Thursday, December 15, 2011

Did the NDAA really allow for detaining US citizens?

There are plenty of hyperventilating pundits bemoaning about how buried deep in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 there is allegedly a provision that grants authority to the US military to permanently detain American citizens for whatever they feel like.  All the usual bloviators  are piping up in condemnation.

I recommend that people actually read the bill for themselves and not just rely on other people to tell them what to think.  Here is the bill in pdf form.   The part in question about detainee maters starts at page 418.  You will see that there is nothing in this bill that authorizes the military any new powers to detain American citizens.  The entire reaction to this bill is just more proof that to convince the American contrarians you don't need to be correct, you just need to be loud. 

 The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012











1 comment:

  1. The language about it "not pertaining to US citizens" was removed from the final bill at the administrations request. This is an older copy of the bill, not the final copy that passed.

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