PRESS RELEASE
Retired Military Officers
Oppose Obama's Police-State Measures
Oct. 24, 2011 (EIRNS)—This release was issued today by the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee.
Human Rights First, the organization that mobilized military leaders to oppose the torture policy during the Bush/Cheney regime, is now in a mobilization to call attention to an Obama police-state measure embedded in the Defense Authorization bill of 2012.
According to an Oct. 19 article in the North Carolina News & Observer, written by associates of Human Rights First, more than 20 retired U.S. Generals and Admirals have written to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and to the chairman and ranking Senator of the Armed Services Committee, to demand the removal of police-state "anti-terrorism" measures from the 2012 Defense Authorization Act. Authors J. Adam Abram and Alston Gardner write, "The 666-page National Defense Authorization Act being considered by the Senate contains at least two provisions that are simply not consistent with American values.... Section 1031 of the act permits indefinite military detention of American citizens, without charge or trial, if those citizens are accused of supporting or being members of or supporting an affiliate of al-Qaeda." Most citizens are completely unaware of the dangerous measures in the bill, especially since the committee debate in June 2011 was held behind closed doors. Now, the article warns, "a minority of senators is trying to rush the entire bill to the floor, using the excuse that we 'must fund the military.'"
Among the signers of the letter to the Senate are retired officers who also fought against the Bush/Cheney/Obama torture policy, including:
- Generals Joseph Hoar, USMC;
- Charles Krulak, USMC;
- Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, USA; and
- Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, USA.
The letter says,
"If passed, we believe these provisions would reshape our counterterrorism policies in ways that would undermine our national security and transform our armed forces into judge, jury and jailor for foreign terrorism suspects. The military's mission is to prosecute wars, not terrorists. ... It [the bill] would also authorize the indefinite detention without trial of terrorism suspects, including American citizens captured on U.S. soil — a policy that is contrary to the very American values needed to win this fight."
