US Senate considers enacting a law whereby: American citizens and others can be indefinitely detained without charge or trial

Yesterday, a Senate deal was announced that leaves the door wide open to American citizens and others being indefinitely detained without charge or trial, even on American soil.



The deal was brokered behind closed doors, with no hearing and no public debate, and is an effort by the Senate Armed Services Committee to jam the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the massive defense spending bill, through Congress.

If enacted, sections 1031 and 1032 of the NDAA would:

1) Explicitly authorize the federal government to indefinitely imprison without charge or trial American citizens and others picked up inside and outside the United States;

(2) Mandate military detention of some civilians who would otherwise be outside of military control, including civilians picked up within the United States itself; and

(3) Transfer to the Department of Defense core prosecutorial, investigative, law enforcement, penal, and custodial authority and responsibility now held by the Department of Justice.

These provisions in the NDAA are inconsistent with fundamental American values embodied in the Constitution. The Senate should reject the NDAA and its indefinite detention provisions.

Indefinite detention is wrong under any circumstances. And for the Senate to leave open the possibility that our own citizens and other civilians picked up at home or far from any battlefield could be thrown into prison without being charged and tried is unconscionable.

This unprecedented measure has been challenged by the White House, the Department of Defense, and by the Chairmen of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, but certain senators are intent on making it the law almost immediately.