Email From Gabe: Ron Paul's fears of a 'police state America' being ruled by a dictatorial tyrant were confirmed Thursday when the US Senate, in a 61-37 vote gave, for the first time in history, the power to the US Military to hold citizens without charges or trial indefinitely by passing a bill that was written in secret and never openly debated. So frightening is this new law that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in the days prior to its passing warned, "The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president - and every future president - the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself."
Senate Wants the Military to Lock You Up Without Trial Wired - December 2, 2011
Here's the best thing that can be said about the new detention powers the Senate has tucked into next year's defense bill: They don't force the military to detain American citizens indefinitely without a trial. They just let the military do that. And even though the leaders of the military and the spy community have said they want no such power, the Senate is poised to pass its bill as early as tonight. There are still changes swirling around the Senate, but this looks like the basic shape of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. Someone the government says is a member of, or part of, al-Qaida or an associated force can be held in military custody without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force. Those hostilities are currently scheduled to end the Wednesday after never. The move would shut down criminal trials for terror suspects.
