Last night the US Senate approved the National Defense Appropriations Act (NDAA) by a vote of 93-7. The bill contains a controversial provision that requires the US military to take custody of all defendants accused of terrorism and allows for the indefinite detention of US citizens, even if they have not been charged with a crime. The bill must still be reconciled with the House version of the legislation. President Obama has threatened to veto the bill if it contains the detention provision. However, it now looks like there are enough votes in the Senate to override the veto.
The provisions in the NDAA are a sweeping expansion of military powers and would be a fundamental shift in the relationship between the military and American civilians. Terrorism suspects would be detained indefinitely by the US military, even if they are US citizens on US soil. Senators Mark Udall (D-Co.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) introduced separate measures to remove the provisions, but both were voted down.
Interestingly both FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper oppose the bill, claiming it will introduce confusion into terrorism investigations. However, the Senate included the provision anyway. The American Civil Liberties Union has raised the alarm about the bill, calling it a “…historic threat to American citizens and others because it expands and makes permanent the authority of the president to order the military to imprison without charge or trial American citizens.”
You can contact your Congressional reps here or the White House here, about the NDAA.
Image via The US Department of Defense.
