Indefinite Detention – Now an American Reality

I find the silence about NDAA to be both eerie and ominous. There are several provisions in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up: it actually allows the government to disappear people, just like they did in Pinochet’s Chile. You are dragged off by armed thugs with no access to any sort of legal system, and they can do whatever they please.

I’m not kidding about this. This is dead serious. A handful of journalists and activists took it to court, saying that it was unconstitutional (ya’ think so?). The judge who took on the case took one look at it, and said, “Oh no. Oh hell no.” She put a temporary restraining order on the President, Congress, the military and anybody who was even thinking about enforcing this law.

So we can all breath a sigh of relief, right? Not quite. The Obama administration immediately filed an emergency stay on the judgment. One of the defendants in the lawsuit, Chris Hedges, has speculated that there are already Americans imprisoned under the law and that’s why they needed the emergency stay. They would either have to charge the people in custody or be in contempt of the ruling. The appeals court granted the stay so the law is still in effect.