In Hedges v. Obama, journalists and academics including Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, et al. are battling against the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes provisions granting the power to indefinitely detain individuals, including US citizens, suspected of allying with or supporting “terrorists.”
Late last year, Judge Katherine B. Forrest blocked the government from enforcing those particular statutes on grounds that they violate Constitutionally guaranteed rights to due process. In response, the Obama administration immediately appealed Forrest’s ruling, asking for an “immediate stay,” or suspension of the case’s proceedings. When Forrest denied the request, the government went to the Second US Court of Appeals in Manhattan and asked another judge for an emergency stay, which Judge Raymond J. Lohier granted. The latest appeals court extended the stay, undermining Judge Forrest’s ruling that the government should be barred from enforcing the law.
Consider how panicked the government’s response here was. Following Forrest’s decision, they scrambled to get a hold of Lohier at 9:00 AM the following day, and overrule the injunction. Chris Hedges, the lead plaintiff in the case, speculates that this is an indication that the Obama administration is already depriving citizens of due process under the NDAA provisions. The hurried response to Forrest’s decision was done, he says, because the US government might otherwise have been in contempt of court.
Here’s Hedges writing at Truthdig about the stakes of the case:
If we lose in Hedges v. Obama—and it seems certain that no matter the outcome of the appeal this case will reach the Supreme Court—electoral politics and our rights as citizens will be as empty as those of Nero’s Rome. If we lose, the power of the military to detain citizens, strip them of due process and hold them indefinitely in military prisons will become a terrifying reality. Democrat or Republican. Occupy activist or libertarian. Socialist or tea party stalwart. It does not matter. This is not a partisan fight. Once the state seizes this unchecked power, it will inevitably create a secret, lawless world of indiscriminate violence, terror and gulags. I lived under several military dictatorships during the two decades I was a foreign correspondent. I know the beast.
The right to due process is one of the most essential devices to check state power, going back to the Magna Carta in 1215. The King of England almost 800 years ago didn’t have the arbitrary power to detain citizens that Obama is trying to claim.
See NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake speak eloquently about the case:
I'm sure the public will be outraged when this makes ABC evening news, or CBS, or CNN. When it's the front page of the New York Times or Washington Post. The government will really feel the public backlash then all right. Yea that'll fix 'em.
Because in America we have a free press.
will never make the news…
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…#@*% we do………………..
REVOLUTION!
What revolution? Sheep don't revolt.
For me is not interesting that americans are in illegal prison but we are all under american prison.
History will never forgive although dead will never come back but this is a record illegal killing through CIA and their security agencies. This is divine law if you start one illegal thing will continue to do so and ultimate result is that they are indirectly or directly killing their people e.g. 9/11 is best example. They can hide and lie but the truth is that they did it.
Funny how Chris mentions the 'Beast'… i too have seen the beast… and it goes something like this:
The Beast
It’s very difficult to recognize the beast
for he is usually dressed in a wrap-around flag seemingly righteous shining brightly & quite glorious
he sparkles brilliantly studded with seemingly flawless justice & untarnished virtue, proclaiming protection for the helpless & mercy for one and all
so very honorable & is most humbly pious boasting of his merciful means
good intentions that the complacent churches proclaim as well-blessed
for his glorious constitution is the pinnacle of principles & probity at a master freemason level
Ah, but you see the devil is wrapped in deception for his core is corruption
many names does he go by for he is quite exceptional
numerous laws does he develop for he is above them all
all worship & adore him so he believes is the best that’s ever been
Clichés & simple minded maxims he spews forth aplenty
for he supports the troops as he demands that you do & of course it is a faultless force for good as he wars for peace by total terror
all are in wonder &awe shocked by his militarized magnificence
who can dare stand against him in war or peace
Swollen with pride & self-worship he is quite comfortable with his xenophobic vanity on steroids
above all reproach & criticism none care to complain or subject to rendition
the best before & the greatest that will ever be for he is above all, quite incomparable
who would dare not acknowledge such grandeur or criticize his ever cracking whip
Born of fire but such a noble birth
none have ever seen the like or ever will to match its pinnacle of pride
for this path is golden & soars as an eagle above any & all that's even been or ever will be
carved by the gods into perfection from global girth a whole continent cannot contain this hunger
No stranger to violence, terrorism nor war
a day has not gone by that was absent of the three
the city on the hill calls for peace as it wars against friend & foe alike
e'er with patriotism & nationalism his hubris jingoism
When your the biggest, baddest & bawdiest kid on the block anything goes
who could stand up to you when you will bribe, hector or instill regime change anytime anywhere
Your desire is absolute domination & utter global subjugation
as you swallow your youth by indoctrinated brainwashing & turn them into war hoes to tour the foreign sites with a gun in your hand & elitist ego as your demeanor
Freedom is a eves-dropping cage while bravery is propaganda fear
a totalitarian police state of democracy you've'e built on the sheeple’s back into a plutocracy
a house of cards shaped into a tiger roaring rabid rants of diatribes & rage
but one day coming soon the emperor will be shown to have no clothes…
As the eagle has morphed into a vulture
the united states of sparta is a land of mammonistic locust whose ethos is to consume it all
and though no man is no island i have heard
what was once grandiose and manifested to be destined
is now to perfidy to become Easter island as it then consumes itself…
Funny how they got a canadian [appointed by Chuck Schumer] to stay Judge Forrest.
Hey……….just sayin.
Obama not only is bad for America and the world, but also for BLACKS. Some of them have raised their voices against his and warn other blacks:
Blacks make no demands and receive no concessions. We are brainwashed idiots as a whole for falling for blackface. I knew it would work. It always does which is why they keep using it on us.
It's a wrap, we're completely screwed and by the time Obama leaves office not only will Black America be in the pits, so will Black Africa. Black folks in America and abroad have been brainwashed to the point that they are virtual slaves.
Obama is black is white….does it matter what color the boot is that stands on our throats? Let us be Americans first my brother. Were all being lied to by the media the politicians..the NWO pulls the strings. Poisened our bodies with chemicals in our food. Poisen our souls with so called entertainment on Tv. Lust. Greed. Hats. Deceit. Selfishness. We have been programmed to be divided. When will we stand together? Now? Later? Never?
lack folks in America and abroad have been brainwashed to the point that they are virtual slaves.
Chris Hedges made a slight mistake in comparing BO to Nero. There was before Nero a much greator dictator and killer of all opposition-his name was Caligula. It is said he suffered from insanity. As a retired MIT aerospace engineer and student of graphoanalysis it is shocking that BO's handwriting/signature show such inflated huge capital letters as to suggest egomania–ego gone wild. It is an insult to BO to be praised as the second coming of anyone, this severe hyper egomania is in its mind the first and greatest coming. This is a condition that cannot be reasoned with or legislated with as the entire universe revolves around this mania much like Caligula in AD 40. We are in vewry deep trouble!
Heads up "scholars";
Empire, Oil, and the Reshaping of the Middle East After World War I | T. Hunt Tooley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IPnl6w7dZ0
This also can fill in LOTS & LOTS of puzzle pieces.
Not that Frank Vanderlip wasn't 100% a Rockefeller agent.
IIRC, it was also he that spilled the Jekyll Island FED fraud party beans in Harper's decades after the crime.
What I have been afraid to blog about: The ESF and Its History_Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ssrcD5GdPQ
Ahemmm……..
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the US public believes is false."
-William J. Casey, CIA 1981
We are there now.
For me is not interesting that americans are in illegal prison but we are all under american prison.