Late yesterday, the Senate and House of Representatives completed their conference on the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), leaving fundamentally unchanged provisions that mandate military detention of terrorism suspects, authorize indefinite military detention and harden restrictions on transfers of terror suspects.  In the words of Major General Paul Eaton (ret), military and national security leaders "reject the militarization of the American judicial system," and this has led to unprecedented and widespread opposition from former military leaders, civil libertarians, former intelligence officials, current national security leadership, former Bush administration officials and editorial boards across the country. The growing chorus includes, today, two retired four-star generals using the pages of the New York Times to indicate that they would support a White House veto of the bill.

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Bipartisan opposition continues to mount to provisions in the defense authorization bill passed by the House and Senate and currently heading to conference. The provisions would mandate military detention and permit indefinite detention of terrorism suspects including American citizens taken in the U.S. and harden restrictions on the transfer of terror suspects. Recent weeks have seen an outpouring of support from conservatives and progressives, lawyers and security professionals, editorial boards and government officials. Adam Serwer writes, "It's official: Just about the only people who think the mandatory military detention provisions in the defense spending bill are a good idea are the congressional legislators trying to show everyone how tough on terror they are." [Mother Jones, 12/6/11]

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Bipartisan opposition continues to mount to provisions in the defense authorization bill passed by the House and Senate and currently heading to conference. The provisions would mandate military detention and permit indefinite detention of terrorism suspects including American citizens taken in the U.S. and harden restrictions on the transfer of terror suspects. Recent weeks have seen an outpouring of support from conservatives and progressives, lawyers and security professionals, editorial boards and government officials. Adam Serwer writes, "It's official: Just about the only people who think the mandatory military detention provisions in the defense spending bill are a good idea are the congressional legislators trying to show everyone how tough on terror they are."

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