WASHINGTON — Michigan’s two senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, both Democrats, were among those who helped pass the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1867) in the Senate last week. The bill contains two provisions, 1031 and 1032,  which many civil rights advocates fear would allow U.S. citizens to be detained indefinitely and without charge by  the military if they are deemed to be suspected terrorists. 

Civil liberties and rights organizations such as Amnesty International, the ACLU, and many others are among those who strongly oppose the bill, which they fear could be one of the biggest offenses against civil liberties America has yet seen if it is reconciled with a passing vote in the House of Representatives and is not vetoed by President Barack Obama, as he has said he will likely do if needed. 

Stabenow

Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, co-authored the bill, part of a $662 billion defense package, along with Senator John McCain (R-AZ) while Stabenow voted to support it despite verbal opposition from Obama and several high-ranking military and intelligence leaders.

Some senators who have supported the bill have been the targets of “Occupy” protesters and civil rights groups have called for citizens to oppose the measures.

Levin defended the language of the bill in a statement on November 17 after it unanimously passed the Armed Services Committee, saying that the media had misrepresented the powers it granted. 

“Contrary to some statements that I have seen in the press, the detainee provisions in our bill do not include new authority for the ‘permanent detention’ of suspected terrorists.  Rather, the bill uses language provided by the administration to codify existing authority that was adopted by both the Bush administration and the Obama administration and that has been upheld in the federal courts.”  

He again defended it in a floor statement on Dec. 1. 

“That authority is if an American citizen joins a hostile army against us, takes up arms against us, that that person can be determined to be a combat, an enemy combatant. That is not me saying (that), that’s the Constitution. That is the Supreme Court of the United States in the Hamdi case, and I quote, ‘there is no bar to this nation’s holding one of its own citizens as an enemy combatant.'”

“Senator McCain, Senator (Lindsey) Graham, and I have argued on this floor that there’s nothing in our bill, nothing, which changes the rights of United States citizens. There was no intent to do it, we did not do it.”

Levin

Stabenow also released a statement in response to her support of the bill through spokesperson Matt Williams in Washington, D.C., saying that the bill actually includes a provision giving extra protection for American citizens. 

“The bipartisan Defense Reauthorization Bill written by Senator Levin and Senator McCain, which funds America’s military, passed the Senate overwhelmingly by 93 to 7.  This section regarding detainees applies to suspected terrorists who are members of Al Qaeda and who commit an act of war against the United States,” she said.

“While this continues current policy put in place after 9/11, for the first time it also puts in place important protections into the law for American  citizens, ensuring the right to a hearing before a judge with a lawyer present to determine whether the detainee was legally held. Senator Stabenow is committed to keeping the people of our country safe, while protecting the fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution.”

Despite Levin and Stabenow’s support, along with the other Senators who passed it by a margin of 93-7, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the FBI and the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division have all said that the indefinite detention provisions in the NDAA are harmful and counterproductive according to a post on the ACLU’s website. 

The ACLU also said that the provisions– which were negotiated by a small group of members of Congress, in secret, and without proper congressional review – are inconsistent with fundamental American values embodied in the Constitution. 

“Fundamental American values and fundamental freedoms are on the line,” the organization said. 

The ACLU is urging the House of Representatives to vote against any and all efforts to send indefinite detention legislation or “unlimited worldwide war authority,” which they fear the bill could authorize, to the White House. They also urged Obama to follow through on his expressed intentions to veto the bill if it gets that far. 

Amnesty International echoed many of the same sentiments, taking issue in particular with the vague language in the bill that says that a U.S. citizen can be killed on U.S. soil by the military if they “believe” that person to be a “terrorist” affiliated with Al Queda or its allies.

“The key word in that last sentence in ‘believes,’” Amnesty wrote on its website. 

“In the past ten years ouf intelligence hasn’t been that good…The threshold for what is considered terrorist activity by the U.S. government – and thus can be engaged militarily – is also somewhat lower than you might imagine. The new Authorization for the Use of Military Force pegs that threshold at providing ‘substantial support’ to Al Qaeda and its allies.

Such support can be charged in surprising cases, Amnesty argues. 

“In the past ten years the ‘substantial support’ test has encompassed buying rain gear, allowing a suspect to make a call on a personal cellphone and writing an opinion piece critical of the U.S. government for the liberal British newspaper, The Guardian,” the organization wrote on its website.