The Conservative Party USA vigorously opposes the enactment of Senate Bill 1867. It’s an egregious and obvious violation of the civil rights and protections afforded American citizens in the Bill of Rights.
Sections 1031 and 1032 of the Defense Authorization Bill create a state of martial law, give the government the right to conduct unlimited searches and violate the principle of Habeas Corpus. They also give the U.S. Military the right to indefinitely detain any American worldwide without access to legal counsel if they are simply “deemed” to be potential threats by the President.
Those are clear and unambiguous violations of the Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Amendments of the Constitution. The general purpose of the Constitution is to LIMIT the power of government. The trajectory of SB 1867, however, points to a grand power grab by the Federal government and the abject loss of civil liberties for American citizens.
The U.S. Military does not need nor does it want to employ such sweeping powers. The President can deploy a broad range of current laws and established federal agencies against suspected terrorists without asking the Marines to violate their sworn oaths. America should not use machine guns to kill flies.
The FBI, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security supplemented by local and state police are the proper tools to use against domestic threats. While not perfect, The Patriot Act is a powerful tool that has served America well considering the circumstances under which it was enacted.
The CIA, DIA, FBI and security forces of our allies can certainly manage to find, capture/kill and process suspected terrorists abroad. That’s what they’ve been doing with some success for the past 10 years. While U.S. Military assets (planes, drones, satellites, Seal Teams, etc.) can be used to support combat operations against terrorists – outside our borders – the military must not be used to detain terrorists indefinitely, especially suspects who are American citizens.
SB 1867 must be recast and stripped of the unconstitutional language outlined in Sections 1031 and 1032. Congress should just stick to its knitting and fund military operations. Period.
Perhaps Congress can play its patriot games AFTER it learns to balance the budget and reduce the national debt.
