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Yes, NDAA Does Apply to American Citizens
scottfactor.com ^ | 01/05/2012 | Gina Miller
Posted on January 5, 2012 6:31:41 AM EST by scottfactor
For a couple of months now I have been watching with dread the progress of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA). The legislation is, as usual, an extremely long, wordy piece of government legalese that takes careful reading to even get an idea of what it contains as the law of the land. The legislation has 565 pages that would take quite a long time to read and decipher.
The two specific sections which have caused great alarm across our nation and across the political spectrum from left to right are those that deal with U.S. military detention of terror suspects. You have likely heard that what we now face is the prospect of the President of the United States having full authority to detain American citizens in military custody indefinitely, without trial or representation, if the American citizen is accused of being involved with al-Qaeda, the Taliban or “related forces.”
Apologists for the law argue that the law does not apply to American citizens, but a careful reading and dissection of the wording of the two sections says the opposite. We also have the words of Barack Obama himself as he signed this piece of legislative tyranny into law on New Years Eve. In his signing statement, he said,
“Moreover, I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a Nation.”
It would break our most important “traditions” and “values” as a nation? How about the fact that it would break the laws of our nation in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, schmuck?! Further, why would he even say this if the legislation did not give him the power to detain American citizens indefinitely and without trial, a power which—by the way—he already has? Even more, since when is this traitor-in-chief a man who does not lie on a regular basis? This legislation actually expands the definition of who can be detained, as I will show.
There are plenty of analyses of this tyrannical legislation being published now, and one is by Mike Adams of the Natural News website. He takes a hard line against anyone who does not apply logical thinking when approaching the meaning of this legislation. Last Sunday, he wrote,
“In the aftermath of the signing of the NDAA by the traitorous President Obama, some citizens remain completely hoodwinked by the language of the bill, running around the internet screaming that the law ‘does not apply to American citizens.’
This is, naturally, part of the side effect of having such a dumbed-down education system where people can't even parse the English language anymore. If you read the bill and understand what it says, it clearly offers absolutely no protections of U.S. citizens. In fact, it affirms that Americans are subjected to indefinite detainment under ‘existing authorities.’
Let's parse it intelligently, shall we?”
He goes on to do just that by dissecting the wording in the law and demonstrating that it does not, in fact, exclude or protect American citizens. Later in the piece he writes,
“Get this through your heads, folks: to properly understand the NDAA (or any other bill), you have to learn to think like lawyers and tyrants.
They don't just put language right out in plain view that says, ‘Americans may never be arrested or detained without due process.’ Instead, they create a web of legalese statements that are cross-referenced, paraphrased and specifically engineered to obfuscate their intended purpose. This is designed to hide their true intentions, not to make them clear.
Furthermore, if the bill actually intended to protect Americans from the NDAA, then it should have contained language saying something like, ‘American citizens are specifically excluded from all the provisions of this bill, in its entirety.’
I'll bet anyone a thousand dollars they won't find language like that in the bill. Because it doesn't exist! And the reason it doesn't exist is because the NDAA is clearly intended to apply to American citizens.
The writers of the bill have managed to fool a lot of everyday people who seem unable to parse language and read plain English with any depth of understanding. That is as much a failure of America's public education system as anything else. I find it astonishing that today's citizens can't even read and understand the grammatical structure of sentences written in plain English. This alone is a highly disturbing subject that must be addressed another day. For now, it's enough just to realize that the NDAA really does apply to you, me, and all our neighbors and friends. In signing it, Obama has cemented his place in history as the enabler of government-sponsored mass murder of its own citizens.”
He pulls no punches, does he?
Hosea’s words from the Lord really hit home nowadays: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Of course the knowledge Hosea was speaking of is the knowledge of the Lord and through the Lord, but we can loosely apply the importance of awareness and knowledge in general when assessing the actions and motives of our budding communist dictatorship in Washington.
Each new day of this communist Democrat administration confirms our deepest suspicions about the nature of the leftist radicals who run it. Barack Obama (or whatever his name is) is a tyrant who does not give a rip about the rule of law or the limitations placed on the Executive Branch of our government. He routinely, illegally bypasses congressional authority to dictate his wishes, or the wishes of his handlers, whoever they may be. Just yesterday, he announced he will skirt the Senate and make a recess appointment of Richard Cordray to a newly created, so-called “consumer protection” bureaucracy. The creation of this new agency and the appointment of Cordray are strongly opposed by many in the government and the private sector, but that’s another story.
As for the issue at hand, yes this administration is setting the table for a feast of tyranny. You may have seen the rumor emails with links to videos and articles about the secretive FEMA camps in every state and the government’s job-recruiting ads for positions to staff the camps in the event that American citizens are “displaced” due to unspecified disasters and must be housed in these camps. Just do an Internet search for “FEMA camps US,” and your blood will run cold as you peruse the results.
Regarding NDAA, some people may say that the law only applies to members of al-Qaeda, the Taliban or other “related” people. But, if you actually look at the wording of the legislation, the definition is much broader than that and could easily be interpreted to apply to most anyone. Here is a relevant passage from the NDAA of who they are targeting,
“A person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.”
As you can see, it is not limited to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The military could argue that any number of us have committed a “belligerent act.” Heck, most of these radio blog broadcasts of mine could be considered quite belligerent by this Marxist administration!
You may also remember shortly after Obama usurped office that the manly Janet Napolitano secretly issued a law enforcement memorandum warning of the danger of so-called “rightwing extremism.” What does that include? According to the leftist loons under Napolitano, it could include pretty much any conservative. If you are against abortion, are a returning military veteran, or oppose federal government overreach, you could be considered an enemy of the state!
Mike Adams, in his column at Natural News, laid the chilling facts on the line as he wrote,
“So then, you might be wondering, 'What kinds of activities could get me accused of being involved in supporting terrorism?'
And here's the kicker, because all the following activities could cause you to be arrested, detained, interrogated and even murdered all under U.S. law, thanks to Obama:
• Criticizing the federal government.
• Using cash to purchase things.
• Storing food and medical supplies.
• Owning a firearm and storing ammunition.
• Standing still and minding your own business near a government building.
• Writing something down on a piece of paper near a government building.
• Using a pair of binoculars.
• Protesting for animal rights in front of a medical lab.
• Protesting your government (or Wall Street).
• Requesting to take more than a couple thousand dollars out of your bank account in cash.
You see, under existing authority, you could be labeled a 'terror suspect' for engaging in any of these activities, and then LEGALLY arrested, detained, interrogated or even killed by the U.S. government, all under Obama's authority (or whatever next President takes over in Washington and perhaps does far worse things with that power...)
You are already enemy combatants, folks. The NDAA does absolutely nothing to protect you from its provisions. In fact, it openly states that it does not limit existing authorities -- authorities which already claim the right to subject you to indefinite military detention merely for being 'suspected' of involvement with 'terrorism,' which could be interpreted to apply in practically any situation.”
If I wanted to be smarty-pants-glib, I could say, “Be afraid. Be very afraid,” but I know that God’s Word tells us to cast off the spirit of fear, to not give in to it. I am reporting this to you so you will be aware and informed of what we face in our nation. The fact is that we are watching our country being taken over by a stealth, communist dictatorship, and our freedoms and liberties will continue to disappear unless we can remove from power those communist Democrats and RINO Republicans who stand against the American people. The temptation to despair is a powerful one, but those of us who know the Lord understand that these last days will only grow darker as the time ticks down to the Lord’s return, and we must not lose heart but must stand firm until the end.
