Deborah Dupre
Human Rights Examiner
12/13/2012
NDAA would ‘expand the battlefield to include United States and hand Osama bin Laden an unearned victory long after his well-earned demise’
In last moment opposition to the nation’s leaders’ greatest assault on basic huan rights, the National Defense Authorization bill that President Barack Obama insisted include Americans on U.S. soil for military arrest without charge and indefinite detention, retired military leaders Tuesday resorted to publicly confronting the president in the New York Times in their continued speaking out against provisions in the bill as released Monday night from the congressional conference committee.
“In his inaugural address, President Obama called on us to ‘reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.’ We agree,” stated the retired military leaders in their New York Times piece Tuesday…
…Retired four-star Marine generals Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar have warned against provisions in the bill that would serious impact U.S. counterterrorism policy in today’s New York Times…
…Krulak and Hoar argue that if this bill becomes a law, “due process would be a thing of the past.”…
Read the complete article at the Examiner.
Related: OBAMA SIGNS NDAA, CLIFF DEAL
The president yesterday approved both the FY13 NDAA and the fiscal-cliff agreement, authorizing $633 billion in defense spending and enacting a two-month sequester delay. Obama’s NDAA signature, though, came with major reservations that echoed earlier veto threats. “Restrictions on the Defense Department’s ability to retire unneeded ships and aircraft will divert scarce resources needed for readiness and result in future unfunded liabilities,” he said in a statement (http://politico.pro/130t8ZB).
In addition, the president blasted Congress for blocking his ability to transfer Gitmo detainees to the United States, vowing to implement the measure in a way that avoids any constitutional conflicts. “Congress designed these sections, and has here renewed them once more, in order to foreclose my ability to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” Obama said. “I continue to believe that operating the facility weakens our national security by wasting resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and strengthening our enemies.”