February 3, 2012 has been deemed a national day of action against the newly signed National Defense Declaration Act by the hactivist group Anonymous. According to the news outlet RT, “US government is granted the powers to indefinitely detain and torture American citizens without charge, essentially creating Guantanamo Prison-style detention possibilities for anyone deemed a threat by American authorities.”
The bill clearly states, “Detention under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force.” The NDAA bill is not limited to the Taliban or al-Qaeda either, it states that “associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners” are subject to detainment.
Journalist and author Naomi Wolf stated in her book The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot that arbitrarily detaining and releasing citizens was a law that eventually led to countries becoming police states. In the NDAA, terrorism’s definition is downgraded to the term “belligerent act.” If that is the case, people who attended Anti-GMO protests, Occupy Denver, and Tea Party protesters could all be detained without trial if what they are doing is determined a “belligerent act.”
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero responded to the NDAA stating, "The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.”
Colorado representatives Cory Gardner, Doug Lamborn, Ed Perlmutter; and Colorado senators Michael Bennett and Mark Udall all voted yes on the NDAA.
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