S. 1867 -- This bill seems to be surprisingly unnoticed

[Akrion]

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s1867/show

I just heard of this today and from my understanding of it the bill essentially gives the US military the power to arrest and imprison indefinitely any American citizen if they are in any way suspect of terrorist activities without any due process (essentially just arrested, deported, done). Of the various things that could be considered suspect, some seem to be as simple as having more than 7 days of food. This is getting a little maddening.

[Sigi]

A little? It is extremely insane.

[Steelclaw]

The insane part about this bill is not that it authorizes such a breach of due process, but that, according to the bill's authors, it does not change any existing law or authorization to detain suspected terrorists.

In other words, we already do this. If you're a US citizen and a suspected or accused enemy combatant, you already have no right to due process, and in fact, can be killed at any time.

Here's an interesting analysis of the motives behind the threat to veto the bill from the executive branch... Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing if the bill passed. The language may be a bit sensationalist, though the documents it links to are interesting, in particular, those hosted at .gov sites.

[GlindorOcculus]

UPDATE:
The bill passed today.

[awdz]

UPDATE:
The bill passed today.

Why am I reminded of the scene from the Star Wars saga in which the electoral assembly votes for the evil guy to take over?

[LungTien Temeraire]

Why am I reminded of the scene from the Star Wars saga in which the electoral assembly votes for the evil guy to take over?

I hope this won't be our future...