Senate Bill Would Have Allowed Americans to be Detained Even After They Had Been Found Innocent

Amendment even worse than Section 1031 narrowly defeated

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Friday, December 2, 2011

Forget guilty until proven innocent, this was a case of guilty even after proven innocent.

The Senate last night attempted to pass an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have allowed Americans to be detained even if they had been found not guilty by a trial.

Although the fact that indefinite detention without trial has now been codified into law by way of Section 1031 of the National Defense Authorization Act, an attempt was made at the last minute to fast-track an even more horrifying amendment into the NDAA bill via a voice vote.

Amendment No. 1274 would have given the federal government the power to detain U.S. citizens until Congress declared the ‘war on terror’ over, which we have been told is a never-ending multi-generational conflict. The provision also gave the feds the power to keep an American incarcerated even if they were tried and found not guilty.

Thankfully, Republican Senator Rand Paul discovered the provision and was able to request a last ditch roll call vote. The amendment was eventually defeated by a worryingly narrow final vote of 41-59.

Forget Kafkaesque, the very fact that the Senate even attempted to enact a law that would put the likes of Stalinist North Korea to shame speaks volumes about the contempt that lawmakers have for the bill of rights.

Read the full press release from Campaign For Liberty below.

• A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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SPRINGFIELD, Virginia – On Thursday night, Senator Rand Paul blocked passage of an amendment that would have allowed the government to indefinitely detain American citizens until Congress declares the War on Terror to be over. These Americans would be detained even if they were tried and found not guilty.

An attempt was made to pass Amendment No. 1274 to the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 1867) by voice vote, but Senator Paul’s objection and request for a roll call vote ultimately led to the bill’s defeat by a final vote of 41-59.

“Campaign for Liberty is proud to stand with Rand Paul as he continues to fight for our liberties against the federal government’s lust to increase its police state powers,” said Matt Hawes, Vice President of Campaign for Liberty.

“The American people should not be forced to sacrifice their fundamental values, like the right to one’s day in court and fair treatment, just so politicians can keep pretending they are making us safer.

“It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to picture how furious the Founders would be that any American, especially one who has been found innocent of the charges, could be held indefinitely by officials sworn to uphold the Constitution.”

Earlier this year, Campaign for Liberty worked with Senator Paul to combat the extension of controversial provisions of the Patriot Act and the IRTPA, and the organization will continue mobilizing its over half a million members to support such efforts to defend the American people’s civil liberties.

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