I wish those who make claims one way another about the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2012 and that it may allow the U.S. military to detain U.S. citizens in the U.S. would provide links to the relevant text.
Trying to find such text is a real challenge. I may have found it at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c112:14:./temp/~c112xQZz8t:e551744: It is labeled "Passed Senate". This explicitly exempts U.S. citizens: "The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States."
There seem to be two knee-jerk reactions to this bill. 1) How dare the government arbitrarily arrest citizens? 2) Of course the government should detain suspected terrorists wherever.
To the first, please check your sources before you protest.
To the second, be careful what you ask for. You may be considered a terrorist by somebody somewhere. Also, if the government cannot run a postal service or determine environmental protection regulation, then how can that same government be sure it is detaining actual terrorists? Remember that fubar and snafu are soldier slang for things not going right. Also remember that Congress has the power to call out the militia to put down insurrections.
What really concerns me about this and so many other bills is that too many in Congress do not read the whole bill. When the first Patriot Act was proposed somebody challenged congress member to read the complete bill. I think only one Senator took up the challenge and when he had read the complete bill, voted against it.
Another concern is that if we are free to put terrorism suspects under military detention in other countries, what's to stop other countries from passing laws that allow them to put terrorism suspects under military detention in the U.S.?
