Arrogant Obama “Warns” Congress
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 (NDAA) is making its
way through Congress, and if it is in any way different from last year’s
unconstitutional onslaught against the American public, it is only for
the worse.
Last year, Congress overwhelmingly passed and Barack Hussein Obama
signed into law the most egregious assault on due process rights in the
nation’s history. The NDAA of 2012 gave Obama unlimited authority to
have members of the U.S. military detain any American citizen he
suspected of posing a potential threat to the United States. According
to the Act, such citizens face an indefinite period of imprisonment with
no right of habeas corpus, no right to trial, no right to present proof
of innocence, and no method of appeal.
In his
signing statement,
Obama made a point of offering false and cynical protestations against
this indefinite detention language, claiming his administration
“…[would] not authorize without trial the indefinite military detention
of American citizens.” Of course, those concerns were no more than
verbal crocodile tears as Senator Carl Levin
later revealed it was Obama himself who demanded the detention powers be part of the Act.
In mid-May, Obama issued an 8 page Statement of Administration Policy
expressing his views on the existing 2013 version of the NDAA. In it,
Obama makes no mention whatever of the controversial “revocation of due
process” section. In fact, the closest he comes to speaking of that
particular threat to the American public is in a brief, final paragraph
entitled “Constitutional Concerns.” And what are the President’s
constitutional concerns? Why, Congressional “…encroachment on the
President’s exclusive authorities related to international
negotiations,” of course!
It seems Obama has decided that the only unacceptable, constitutional
abuse of federal power contained in the Act involves an assault on HIS
“exclusive authority.” And Obama repeats this concern throughout the
Statement,
chiding Congress for its obvious lack of respect for what he apparently
believes an unlimited power to make treaties or “retire, dismantle or
eliminate” the nation’s nuclear and conventional arsenals, indeed for
“…the Executive branch’s ability to carry out its military, national
security and foreign relations activities…” More than once, the petulant
President threatens a veto of the Act should Congress not come to its
collective senses and allow him full exercise of the dictatorial
authority that he apparently believes to have come with the job.
Obama undoubtedly considers such a display of arrogance quite safe,
even in an election year as the majority of Republicans have shown
themselves just as eager to pass this dictatorial authority on to the
President in 2013 as they had been a year earlier. Chairman of the Armed
Services Committee, GOP Congressman Buck McKeon, has even
written
a new provision into the Act, claiming American citizens would have
full availability of a writ of habeas corpus “…in a court ordained or
established by or under Article III of the Constitution for any person
who is detained in the United States pursuant to the Authorization for
the Use of Military Force.”
Unfortunately, just like the fraudulent assurances that were made part of the 2012 Act, McKeon’s
language
“…does nothing to prevent the indefinite detention of American under
the 2013 NDAA” itself! Nor does it include any guarantee of habeas
corpus rights before military courts or tribunals, the actual venue for
federal actions against Obama’s detainees! In short, McKeon’s cynical
efforts simply provide meaningless cover for Barack Obama’s future
abuses of power, nothing more.
Should he be re-elected, Barack Obama will have the power to kill off
political enemies via the Patient Protection Act and imprison those who
happen to survive! November is shaping up as the most important month
in the past 200 years!
