The New American: Coalition of Patriot Groups Unite To Oppose NDAA
February 15th, 2012
The New American:
Coalition of Patriot Groups Unite To Oppose NDAA
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Read at The New American:
http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/10859-coalition-of-patriot-groups-unite-to-oppose-ndaa
Written by Joe Wolverton, II * Tuesday, 14 February 2012
The Intolerable Acts was the name used by American colonists to describe a series of oppressive measures passed by the British Parliament in 1774 relating to the amount of self-government permissible in the American colonies. The acts sparked outrage and firm resistance to the tyrannical regime of King George III throughout the 13 colonies. These arbitrary violations of the rights of the colonists — rights enjoyed by all Englishmen — resulted in the convening of the First Continental Congress in order to organize a formal denouncement of the decrees and to unite the Americans in their resistance to the Crown. Despite various attempts by several delegates to reconcile with Britain, independence was declared within two years and the American War for Independence raged until liberty was achieved in 1783.
Lately, the government of the United States of America has been passing measures masquerading as laws that are easily as arbitrary and deleterious of freedom as any of the coercive measures passed by the despotic regime of the British Empire that caused our ancestors to take up arms and reassert their freedoms. The latest and perhaps most egregious of these is the recently enacted National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA).
President Barack Obama signed the NDAA into law on New Year’s Eve 2011, granting himself absolute power to deploy the armed forces of the United States to indefinitely detain American citizens suspected (by him) of being “belligerents.”
With the President’s signing of this act, the writ of habeas corpus — a civil right so fundamental to Anglo-American common law history that it predates the Magna Carta — is voidable upon the command of the President of the United States. The Sixth Amendment right to counsel is also revocable at his will.
If the foregoing description isn’t sufficient evidence of the similarities between the autocratic acts passed in the 18th-century English Parliament and those passed by our own 21st-century Congress, further proof is found in the coalition of patriot organizations (including The John Birch Society, among others) uniting to call upon states to nullify these measures in the several state legislatures.
Toward that noble aim, these groups, under the direction of the Patriot Coalition and the Oath Keepers, have created a website that serves as both an educational portal and a repository of sample nullifying resolutions.
In a statement posted on the website explaining why the NDAA merits special attention from friends of freedom, the Patriot Coalition/Oath Keepers declared:
Our legal team has spent hundreds of hours developing the most detailed and in-depth NDAA resolutions for state legislators you will find anywhere. There are also resolutions for county sheriffs, and others in the works for other state and local governments, veteran service organizations, grassroots organizations, and more. In the coming weeks and months, “The Intolerable Acts” legal team will also produce and distribute model resolutions and legislation related to the entire spectrum of “intolerable and coercive acts” passed since 9/11/2001.
Senator Lindsey Graham is not alone in his belief that Miranda and due process should be waived because in his words, America IS the battlefield! He should read the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the rest of the U.S. Constitution. Watch the videos below to hear Senator Graham in his own words. Rather than destroy the Constitution, how about we end the VISA Waiver Program that allows foreigners to just waltz in, virtually unannounced? The VISA Waiver Program should be suspended at the very least until “the end of hostilities” since, according to Senator Graham (and others) we “are at war.” Hmm… where’s that declaration of war? Oh… don’t have one. Still leaning on an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) that Congress approved to go after those responsible for the attacks of 9/11/2001? Is this Groundhog Day, in which every day is 9/12/2001?
In a demonstration of historic awareness of the urgency of the constitutional crisis we are experiencing, the website is appropriately named theintolerableacts.org. In an interview with The New American, Richard Fry, the general counsel for the Patriot Coalition, explained the impetus behind this unique and constitutionally sound approach to defeating these latest acts of absolutism: “The federal attempts to fight the NDAA just do not get the job done. Most of the congressional proposals toward that end are nothing more than controlled opposition,” said Fry.
To their credit, the groups supporting the efforts of theintolerableacts.org are seeing success spreading through the nation.
As reported earlier, State Representative Charles Key of Oklahoma has introduced a resolution drafted by the legal team of the Patriot Coalition and the Oath Keepers, which includes Fry and Stewart Rhodes, the founder of Oath Keepers and a graduate of the Yale Law School. The bill officially requests that the U.S. Congress repeal Sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA. Furthermore, the legal effect of those two sections would be void in Oklahoma.
In a statement released concurrent with the introduction of the resolution, Rep. Key wrote:
President Barack Obama has said he would not hold citizens indefinitely; it is deplorable that he would sign into law legislation that contains clauses that would authorize him to do just that. Oklahomans have taken notice of this repugnant new law and as state lawmakers it is our duty to apply pressure to Congress and the president to undo this debacle.
Fry indicates that the push in Oklahoma is only the beginning. He informed The New American that his group has a “commitment from State Representative Glen Bradley of North Carolina” to file a similar measure, as well as “serious interest” from state lawmakers in South Dakota.
Currently, the website offers anti-NDAA resolutions for state legislators and county commissioners in the following states:
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Florida
Illinois
Kansas
Louisiana
Minnesota
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Dakota
Utah
Virginia
The consortium of concerned patriotic partners behind theintolerableacts.org is not focusing solely on state assemblies, however.
Sheriffs are provided with a sample resolution, as well. In that document, a participating county sheriff can express his view that
all provisions of the NDAA which are unconstitutional, including as noted herein above, were and are null and void from their inception and will not be implemented, enforced, or otherwise supported in this county, and it is the express policy of the Sheriff that no officer, employee, or agent of the Sheriff’s Office may implement, enforce or otherwise support, directly or indirectly, any of the above noted unconstitutional provisions including seizure, detention, or trial by the United States Armed Forces, and/or any other agents of the United States government, both foreign and domestic, of any person, including any United States citizen and/or lawful resident within this county, and that a violation of such policy will be deemed a violation of their oath of office and/or employment, and will subject them to discipline up to and including termination and potential arrest for assault, battery, kidnapping, unlawful detention, and other unconstitutional actions under the color of law.
According to Fry, renowned constitutionalist Sheriff Richard Mack, former sheriff of Graham County, Arizona, and founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), introduced the model sheriff’s NDAA resolution.
Americans zealous to protect their Republic and the Constitution that limits the power of the government thereof are advised to contact their county and state elected representatives to encourage them to review the model resolutions provided at theintolerableacts.org and to present them for consideration to the appropriate lawmaking body.
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NDAA Sections 1021 and 1022: Scary Potential – Tenth Amendment Center
Today is the day. REPEAL the NDAA! Call any time all day long
Take Action Against the NDAA in Your Own State!
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Please donate and support Oath Keepers mission, every little bit helps!
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Awesome post!
BREAKING: Senate Schedules Hearing to Reverse NDAA, invites Gitmo Attorney to Testify http://nblo.gs/ulwSU
*Thank you for this update Tully.
BREAKING: Senate Schedules Hearing to Reverse NDAA, invites Gitmo Attorney to Testify
Thursday, February 23, 2012
http://networkedblogs.com/ulwSU
The U. S . Senate Judiciary Committee has posted notice that it will hold a hearing on the “Due Process Guarantee Act: Banning Indefinite Detention of Americans,” a bill sponsored by California Senator Dianne Feinstein. The bill aims to reverse certain provisions of the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (“NDAA”) permitting the indefinite detention of American citizens without charge or trial. This provision of the NDAA has created a social media firestorm, and support for Feinstein’s bill is bi-partisan…but one never knows when the Republican minority in the Senate will pull a filibuster.
In what can only be viewed as a positive sign that the Committee is sympathetic to Feinstein’s bill, Committee Chair Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has issued a direct invitation to renowned civil liberties attorney Stewart “Buz” Eisenberg to offer testimony on the bill.
Under Section 1021 of the NDAA, the President is authorized to permit the military to detain any person “who was 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,” and anyone who commits a “belligerent act” against the U.S. or its coalition allies in aid of such enemy forces, under the law of war, “without trial, until the end of the hostilities.” The law further authorizes trial by military tribunal or transfer of the detainee to “any other foreign country, or any other foreign entity.”
Before NDAA was passed, Americans took to social media, opposing this wholesale destruction of almost all of the provisions of the U.S. Bill of Rights addressing criminal procedure, particularly the 6th Amendment, which states,
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”
The provisions were included in a bill that was primarily meant to fund the military, so some legislators voted for the bill while expressing misgivings about the indefinite detention provision. In response, the Due Process Guarantee Act of 2011 was introduced as S.2003 in the Senate on December 15, 2011, and referred to the Judiciary Committee. (It has since also been introduced in the House where it is known as H.R. 3702, where it has already garnered 50 co-sponsors.) The bill specifically prohibits the indefinite detention of American citizens as permitted under NDAA.
The Committee has scheduled its first hearing for Wednesday, February 29 at 10:00 am in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. As is typical of Committee hearings, various experts have been invited to testify at the hearing; the invitation of Attorney Stewart “Buz” Eisenberg suggests that the Committee is willing to listen to the horrors of indefinite detention. Eisenberg is Of Counsel to Weinberg & Garber, P.C. of Northampton, MA, serves as President of the International Justice Network, and is a Professor of Civil Liberties at Greenfield Community College. Since 2004 he has provided direct representation to four detainees at Guantánamo Bay.
A March 22, 2008 article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette entitled “Mission: Guantanamo Justice (‘Hell’s Lobby’)” by Kristen Palpini describes Eisenberg’s work with the people indefinitely detained in Guantanamo:
“ ‘There is torture at Guantanamo Bay’, said Eisenberg.
He claims to have seen the results – a crippled hand, men walking with permanent limps, others with physical disfigurements and mental scars.
‘There is little access to doctors for detainees,’ said Eisenberg.
One of his clients has a skin disease. Eisenberg suspects it is pellagra, a disease often associated with a lack of niacin or protein in a person’s diet. The man’s skin flakes off into small piles on the desk as Eisenberg talks with him.
There is no human contact for detainees beyond orders from soldiers, said Eisenberg. Detainees are kept in isolated cells almost 24 hours a day. Captives’ cells are staggered so men are not within speaking distance of someone who would understand their language.
There is no rest at Guantanamo, said Eisenberg. The buzzing bulbs that light detainee cells and prison halls are never turned off.
This is hell’s waiting room, as Eisenberg sees it, and he wants it shut down for good.
‘The best way to close Guantanamo is to open Guantanamo,’ said Eisenberg, who often speaks at colleges and forums about his Guantanamo Bay experience. ‘Americans don’t want this done in their name.’”
A year later, while still representing these clients, Eisenberg wrote an article for the Spring 2009 edition of the Northeastern Law Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, entitled “Guantanamo Bay: Redefining Cruel and Unusual”
He writes,
“Representing Guantánamo detainee Mohammed Abd Al Al Qadir (Guantánamo Internee Security Number 284) has been an experience unlike any other of my legal career. While serving as counsel for Mr. Al Qadir (also known as Tarari Mohammed), …I encountered numerous obstacles unique to Guantánamo cases. Convoluted administrative procedures, allegedly implemented to protect national security, made representation difficult for lawyer and client alike.
In 2004, the U.S. Department of Defense issued procedures to assess the need to continue detaining enemy combatant detainees. Three years later, Tarari Mohammed was cleared for release or transfer. Nevertheless, he was still detained in Guantánamo Bay’s Camp 6 as of our March 20, 2008 visit. …[W]e saw our client shackled to the floor, as always, and immediately noticed he was wearing a white respirator on his face. The respirator was of the sort a contractor wears when working with toxic materials.”
Eisenberg continues to write about how Tarari had met with a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross three weeks earlier, who brought a letter from his sister.
“The letter was the first and only communication our client received from any member of his family in over six years of detention. In the letter, Tarari’s sister informed him of their mother’s death…[she] had been distraught over her son’s detainment…At the conclusion of their meeting, the [Red Cross] representative told Tarari that his family had not received any letters from him. Tarari explained he had written and sent many letters during his detainment. The military never forwarded the letters.”
Cut off from his family and the outside world, Guantanamo guards accused him of spitting (a charge denied by Tarari), and then made him change from his white clothing (signaling a compliant prisoner) to an orange suit (signaling non-compliance) and forced him to wear the respirator as punishment for the supposed act of spitting.
Such is the nature of 7 years in detention, without charge, without trial, without access to the outside world.
This is the fate that could await any American citizen, at the hands of its own government, under the provisions of NDAA. And this is why the Due Process Guarantee Act is so critical to pass.
Call the Judiciary Committee Members. Insist that they pass DPGA.
“Due Process Guarantee Act”
Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [Chairman] 202-224-4242
Herb Kohl (D-WI) 202-224-5653
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) 202-224-3841
Charles E. (Chuck) Schumer (D-NY) 202-224-6542
Dick Durbin (D-IL) 202-224-2152
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)202-224-2921
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) 202-224-3244
Al Franken (D-MN) 202-224-5641
Christopher Coons (D-DE) 202-224-5042
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) 202-224-2823
Chuck Grassley (R-IA) 202-224-3744
Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT) 202-224-5251
Jon Kyl (R-AZ) 202-224-4521
Jeff Sessions (R-AL) 202-224-4124
Lindsey Graham (R-SC) 202-224-5972
John Cornyn (R-TX) 202-224-2934
Mike Lee (R-UT) 202-224-5444