The Hill News

It’s become increasingly difficult over the years for Democrats and Republicans in Congress to get together and do something productive. Factor in an election year, and it’s down-right impossible.
 
Or is it?
 
Earlier this week, Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, announced that he will be pushing for an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would ban indefinite detention within the United States and reverse a dangerous provision of law that could force the transfer of some terrorism suspects into military custody.
 
Representative Smith, a Democrat, will be joined by Representative Justin Amash, among other Republicans, in what promises to be one of 2012’s few truly bi-partisan initiatives. What’s more â€" and this you’re not going to believe â€" it’s an initiative that makes a whole lot of policy sense.
 
Let’s take a step back to s! ee how we got here.
 
Last year, in pushing through the defense authorization bill, Congress enacted a set of provisions on detainee policy that were a fundamental affront to the rule of law and our national security. Two provisions in particular stood out.
 
First, Congress codified the authority of the military to pick up and indefinitely detain without charge or trial individuals suspected of terrorism. No probable cause. No jury trial. No guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
 
Although the government had been exercising this authority for a decade in the case of detainees held in Afghanistan and Guantanamo, some proponents of the new NDAA detainee provisions, such as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), warned of new threats among us, here at home. To these members of Congress, America is now the battlefield, and anyone determined to have substantially supported terrorism could be subject to lifetime imprisonment without ever facing charges.

Read more...