Al Franken Stands Up for Freedom and Personal Rights

 You may have heard about a controversial bill known as the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which just passed in the Senate, but received surprisingly little coverage in mainsteam media.  Last week, Al Franken wrote about why he voted against the bill, and why it’s so dangerous.  Here are a few excerpts from his explanation and you can read his full opinion at the huffingtonpost.com.

Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill that includes provisions on detention that I found simply unacceptable. These provisions are inconsistent with the liberties and freedoms that are at the core of the system our Founders established.

The bill that passed on Thursday included several problematic provisions, the worst of which could allow the military to detain Americans indefinitely, without charge or trial, even if they’re captured in the U.S.

At their core, these provisions will radically alter how we investigate, arrest, and detain individuals suspected of terrorism. What’s more, they could undermine the safety of our troops stationed abroad, and they introduce new and unnecessary uncertainty into our counterterrorism efforts.

I think it is important to recognize that September 11th irrevocably and unalterably changed our lives…But it is exactly in these difficult moments, in these periods of war, when our country is under attack, that we must be doubly vigilant about protecting what makes us Americans.

Franken recalled one of the terribly shameful moments in our history, when President Roosevelt ordered the incarceration of more than 110,000 people of Japanese origin, as well as approximately 11,000 German-Americans and 3,000 Italian-Americans.  In 1971 President Nixon signed  into law the Non-Detention Act to make sure the U.S. government would never again subject any Americans to the unnecessary and unjustifiable imprisonment.  But with this defense authorization act, Congress will, for the first time in 60 years, authorize the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charge or trial.

I think that denigrates the very foundations of this country. It denigrates the Bill of Rights. It denigrates what our Founders intended when they created a civilian, non-military justice system for trying and punishing people for crimes committed on U.S. soil. Our Founders were fearful of the military–and they purposely created a system of checks and balances to ensure we did not become a country under military rule. This bill undermines that core principle, which is why I could not support it.

You can learn more about the threats posed by the Bill  at Forbes.com.