by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
August 13, 2012
Image by Shrieking Tree via Flickr
I was on the 15th floor of the Southern U.S. District Court in New York in the courtroom of Judge Katherine Forrest on Tuesday. It was the final hearing in the lawsuit I brought in January against President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. I filed the suit, along with lawyers Carl J. Mayer and Bruce I. Afran, over Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). We were late joined by six co-plaintiffs including Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg.
This section of the NDAA, signed into law by Obama on Dec. 31, 2011, obliterates some of our most important constitutional protections. It authorizes the executive branch to order the military to seize U.S. citizens deemed to be terrorists or associated with terrorists. Those taken into custody by the military, which becomes under the NDAA a domestic law enforcement agency, can be denied due process and habeas corpus and held indefinitely in military facilities.
[…]
via Truthdig
Chris Hedges spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. His latest books are Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, Death of the Liberal Class, and The World as It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress.
Copyright © 2012 Truthdig
From the archives:
Chris Hedges: When Empires Emplode + Update on the NDAA Lawsuit
NDAA unconstitutional: Federal judge bans Obama from indefinitely detaining
NDAA: A Victory for All of Us by Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges Hails “Monumental” Ruling Blocking NDAA Indefinite Detention
Dandelion Salad 
Pingback: State of Fear by Chris Hedges « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Chris Hedges: The Assault on Civil Liberties Under Obama More Egregious Than Under Bush « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: White House Appeals NDAA Indefinite Detention Ruling « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Federal Court In New York Just Ruled Indefinite Detention Unconstitutional and Issued A Permanent Injunction Against Use Of That Law « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Chris Hedges: NDAA Allows For Indefinite Detention, Which In An Age Of Permanent War Is A Very Long Time « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Naomi Wolf: U.S. instigating violent crackdown on whistleblowers, dissent « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: NDAA on trial: Obama Administration fights ban on indefinite detention of Americans « Dandelion Salad
You say “American citizens”, I say either Middle Easterners who live here or a few crackpot Americans born here but somehow have confused which side of the nationalistic bread the butter is on. It’s a bit like when the UK press (or ours, for that matter) reports on “Britons” abroad who’ve been arrested or implicated in some terrorist activity. These people are not Britons or Americans and these laws are not about hunting down Joe Neighborhood.
Actually, the main reason for the lawsuit is to protect journalists covering issues that may also contain info directly from opposition forces. See some of the previous articles on this topic listed below this post.
Chris hedges exemplifies the real Fourth Estate as it should be.
Direct challenge to abuses of power at every level of society is a writers direct action route.
Challenge directly and identify the decision makers who never have to justify these inhumane activities.
A country’s constitution must be protected as the property of the people.
Human and civil and legal rights are being eroded by out of control bureaucrats and power mad politicians.
The ancient practice of tame Q&A press conferences has had its day.
Journalists and authors might demand debate and explanation and not accept the PR …c**p …spewed out at such meetings of favoured media hacks.
Another succinct and accurate portrayal of the realities and implications for our common Future, Mr. Hedges.
This writing, in my view, confirms even more so, a recent comment I made in my own blog.
“I think Chris Hedges is Today’s preeminent Prophet of Social Conscience.”
If I were a US citizen, I’d boycott this schizophrenic masked “charade of junk politics” (apt turn of phrase) go for broke and go totally Green by supporting Jill Stein http://www.jillstein.org/
Unfortunately the Green Party ticket is not on all the states’ ballots this November which only reduces the chances for third party gains.
You are very much correct; it is a charade. Two puppets with not much difference on the issues, both owned by the corporations that fund their races. Most citizens will vote against the “other” party instead of enthusiastically voting “for” one of the 2. Both parties are really one party: The Capitalist Party.
It really is a sad “state of affairs…”
It certainly is. But more and more people are learning and resisting.