President Obama was never opposed to the provisions of this year’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that allow for US citizens to be detained indefinitely without due process. If passed and signed into law, anyone anywhere — including US citizens — can be imprisoned for any length of time without ever being charged with, tried, or convicted of a crime. Contrary to what his administration has said, Obama was concerned solely with imagined limitations on the executive branch with regard to the indefinite detention provisions. So, the corporate media is wrong when it reports that President Obama “backed down” yesterday under “political pressure” when he announced he would not veto the bill. He did it all his own self.
The NDAA was born of President George W. Bush’s administration’s manipulation of the nation’s fear, insecurity, and bias after the 11 September 2001 attack and provided the seed corn from which a whole collection of terrible legislation, most notably the USA PATRIOT Act, grew. It marks the slow descent of American civil liberties into a steep nosedive and is the worst case of fear-mongering politics since Joseph McCarthy. Where McCarthy saw communists and subversives; these people see terrorists. The parallels with McCarthy aren’t just vague generalizations. As Ateqah Khaki, writing for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) points out, “The last time Congress passed indefinite detention legislation was during the McCarthy era and President Truman had the courage to veto that bill.” Khaki is referring to the McCarran Act — the Internal Security Act of 1950. Truman vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode his veto.
As Glenn Greenwald, writing for Salon notes, “President Obama, needless to say, is not Harry Truman. He’s not even the Candidate Obama of 2008 who repeatedly insisted that due process and security were not mutually exclusive and who condemned indefinite detention as ‘black hole’ injustice.”
As Andrew Rosenthal, writing for the New York Times remarks, “… we got into this mess because a president thought he had the power to ignore the constitution and international law.”
If Obama had been opposed — really, in his heart, opposed — to the NDAA, it would be totally, absolutely inconsistent for this president. Remember, when he was a candidate he pledged to unequivocally support a filibuster of any proposed legislation that would grant retroactive immunity to the nation’s telephone companies with regard to the warrantless wiretapping program initiated by President George W. Bush. As soon as he had the Democrat nomination in the bag, Senator Obama not only voted against said filibuster but voted for the underlying bill. Once elected, Obama continued Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. Obama’s acceptance of this year’s NDAA means that the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay will never, ever close. No surprise; closing it was also a big Obama campaign promise.
Corporate media in the US continually misread these white-knuckle 180s as “caving to political pressure.” If only that were true. Barak Obama has failed to govern like he campaigned at just about every opportunity. The question is why. “Political pressure” is too simple — too wrapped up with a pretty bow — to explain Obama’s governing moves that are polar opposite of his campaign promises.
I try real hard not to succumb to conspiratorial thinking, but the way I see it one of two things happened. Either the Bilderbergers and Trilateralists sat him down and gave him the playbook or that’s just how Obama is and we were all duped. Take your pick.
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Again, with the fear-mongering politics was originally published by ARTS & FARCES internet on Thursday, 15 December 2011 at 6:22 PM CDT. Copyright © ARTS & FARCES LLC. All rights reserved. | ISSN: 1535-8119 | OCLC: 48219498 | Digital fingerprint: 974a89ee1284e6e92dd256bbfbef3751 (64.237.45.114)