Arkansas Watch

What happened to 4th Amendment rights?

— Does the recently passed Defense Authorization Bill allow the indefinite detention of American citizens without trial by our military? Why, yes it does. Unlike the politicians of both parties who are trying to conceal from you the fact that they have just voted to repeal your Fourth Amendment rights, I am going to give it to you straight.

The president is allowed under the act to order the military to detain “A person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or ….”

Notice how vague it is.

What does “substantial support” for forces “associated” with al-Qaeda the Taliban mean? What is a “belligerent act”? How is it determined that this standard is met? The answer can only be that the president alone determines who is “substantially” supporting a group that he alone can determine is “associated” with “Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.”

Is blogging that America should get out of Afghanistan giving“substantial support” to the Taliban? Is passing on Taliban claims about massacres committed by American forces providing such support? Is a Tea Party protest against the “the Commander and Chief” a belligerent act?

If the president says so, it could be under this act.

That’s the whole point.

The executive branch alone gets to decide which citizens might be detained indefinitely.

There are no checks and balances. There is no judicial oversight. You don’t get a lawyer and it does not matter if the government makes a mistake. All the president has to do to make you go away is say that he decided you were giving substantial support to a group associated with the Taliban or that you committed a “belligerent act.” He does not have to present any evidence to that effect. He does not need any evidence to that effect. These powers are dictatorial in nature.

The CIA and the military itself provided substantial support (as inweapons and information) to both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban back in the 1990s when the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan.

The U.S. military provided them support. Therefore, as a veteran, I fit the definition of someone who could be detained under the act, as would the soldiers detaining me.

There have been some attempts to claim that the detention powers are not indefinite. They point to the fig leaf that says those detained will be held “until the end of hostilities.”

Please. This is a forever war. They want it to be a forever war. It’s a war against a tactic and a shadow. It’s designed to be perpetual. “The end of hostilities” is the same as indefinite, unless one of them wants to give us a definite date as to when the hostilities referred to will end, or even what criteria they will use to say that the war on “terror” has been “won” and they can rescind the Authorization to Use Military Force.

I have seen a couple of politicians use the excuse that “the bill does nothing to expand the existing powers of the president.” These claims are without value, except for their value to fool you into thinking they have not stolenyour rights away. This is an environment where the president has already assumed the power to assassinate American citizens without trial, including a 16-year-old whose only crime seems to be that he had the wrong father. How much more “expanding” does he need? And note that the provision they are citing says that this bill does nothing to limit his powers either! So just because they have only explicitly granted him the power to detain you indefinitely without trial does not mean that he doesn’t also have the authority (under this language) to assassinate you!

The claim is that American citizens will still get a trial because of section 1032. The truth is section 1032 just says that the military is not required to detain citizens indefinitely, but they are still allowed to do so under section 1031.

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Editor’s note: Mark Moore is the lead writer for an Internet blog on matters pertaining to Arkansas culture and government, Arkansas Watch, and on Tuesday nights is the host of an Internet-based radio program, Patriots on Watch. He can be reached through The Times at [email protected].

Opinion, Pages 4 on 12/07/2011