Torture and The NDAA

What shocks me most about the release of the CIA torture report is how accepting the American public is in regards to it. Where's the outrage? Instead a lot of people seem okay with torture. That truly surprises me. Holding officials accountable for crimes against humanity in no way supports acts of terror. You can punish terrorists with law. What happened to liberty and justice for all? We have bombed Iraq, Afghanistan, killed Saddam and Osama; our drones kill daily on foreign soil. Our bombs kill innocent people in our war on terror all over the world. There has got to be a better way! Since when do two wrongs make a right? Isn't that what we teach our children? Isn't that why we have a court of law? Isn't that what makes us a great country, the blind eyes of justice, a fair trial? Law does not act based on emotions or retaliation. Law acts on the facts. Our system is not perfect. But isn't brutality worse? How is torture ever justified?  An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Mahatma Gandhi,

Here is something to ponder. When we allow for this egregious abuse of power, for crimes of terror and torture to be committed in secrecy by public officials, behind closed doors, we are no longer the democratic society we claim to be. We have become the culture of see something say something, fear and paranoia. I see something, and I am saying something. Torture is wrong. I see a democracy headed to ruin, to be ruled by a violent oligarch. Are you aware of the National Defense Association Act aka the NDAA? Do you know what secret policies mean for democracy, the rules of law, and our fundamental rights as a free and civilized society? The NDAA strips all Americans of their constitutional rights protected under law, Habeas Corpus, due process, Miranda rights, and privacy.

Here's the part where you should be really concerned. I know you have nothing to hide you're not a terrorist. You feel good knowing the government's got your back. Well think again. Terror is loosely defined in the NDAA and suspicion alone is cause to strip you of your rights. Just being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, could send you away. You could be online researching terror and inadvertently raise a red flag to one of the Internet spies, or you and could just be accused by someone who doesn't like you, or maybe you're a reporter covering a controversial story and your interviewee is a suspected terrorist. You no longer have rights under the NDAA, they have been stripped as though we had no Constitution or Bill of Rights. Not only that, the NDAA can claim any land or property it wants. You could be scooped up and NO ONE in your immediate circle will know what happened to you. Under the NDAA you have no right to a phone call, a lawyer, NOTHING! You could be shipped to a secret prison overseas. Left to languish in a cell... I know you’re not a terrorist, so why should you care? Because we have a Constitution, a Bill of Rights, and laws to combat terror. We do not need a government who uses torture as a means to justice with the right to lock us up indefinitely while committing crimes against humanity behind closed doors to have this kind of power!!! Please see articles bellow. And remember, if we turn a blind eye to the persecution of others thinking they deserve it for whatever reason and that torture trumps law, we have slumped into the darkest of ages.

Here's link to an article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/national-defense-authorization-act/

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/itemchris_hedges_responds_to_ndaa_defeat_20130717