Source: Prison PlanetPaul Joseph Watson
Journalist Chris Hedges has filed a class action lawsuit against
President Barack Obama over his signing of the National Defense
Authorization Act, claiming that the ‘indefinite detention’ provision of
the bill could see him sent to Guantanamo Bay simply for doing his job.
The controversial legislation, signed into law by Obama
on New Years Eve, allows American citizens to be abducted and held in a
detention camp anywhere in the world without trial under section 1031.
“Plaintiff Christopher Hedges is a journalist whose
profession requires, in part: 1) that he have communication with and
personal and direct intercourse with persons who are likely to be deemed
engaged in hostilities with the United States under the AUMF
[Authorization for Use of Military Force, Public Law 107-40] and the
Homeland Battlefield Bill; 2) that he travel to see and meet with such
persons; 3) that he report on the activities and beliefs of such
persons; and 4) through his journalistic endeavors to convey their
philosophy and belief systems to the public at large,” states the complaint.
Hedges points to an article he wrote which seeks to
understand why Muslims are turning to radical Islamists such as the
Palestinian Hamas and the Shiite Hezbollah as an example of how he could
be accused of supporting parties who are engaged in hostilities against
the United States, characterized as a terrorist sympathizer, and carted
off to a detention camp.
Hedges is demanding the law be declared null and void
because it directly violates the 1st and 5th Amendments to the US
Constitution, and constitutional rights on access to civilian courts.
Hedges’ case will be heard by Obama appointee U.S. District Judge
Katherine B. Forrest and he is being represented by Princeton,
N.J.-based attorneys Carl J. Mayer and Bruce I. Afran.
Although President Obama indicated in a signing
statement attached to the bill that he would not use it to indefinitely
detain American citizens without trial, it was the Obama administration
itself which requested that the provision be worded so it would apply to
US citizens.
As the bill’s co-sponsor Senator Carl Levin said during a speech on the floor last month,
it was the Obama administration that demanded the removal of language
that would have precluded Americans from being subject to indefinite
detention.
“The language which precluded the application of Section 1031 to
American citizens was in the bill that we originally approved…and the
administration asked us to remove the language which says that U.S.
citizens and lawful residents would not be subject to this section,”
said Levin, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
“I spent many years in countries where the military had the power to arrest and detain citizens without charge,” Hedges wrote
in an article published yesterday. “I have been in some of these jails.
I have friends and colleagues who have ‘disappeared’ into military
gulags. I know the consequences of granting sweeping and unrestricted
policing power to the armed forces of any nation. And while my battle
may be quixotic, it is one that has to be fought if we are to have any
hope of pulling this country back from corporate fascism.”
The subject of the National Defense Authorization Act cropped up during last night’s Republican debate
in South Carolina. Despite admitting he was not up to speed on the law,
GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney said he would have signed the bill.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com.
He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular
fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.
