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Strong Language on the NDAA from Amnesty International →

kohenari:

Amnesty International has issued a short statement about President Obama’s decision to sign the National Defense Authorization Act:

“Despite expressing serious reservations, the Obama administration has paved the way for legislation that will authorize indefinite detention. The bill places enormous power in the hands of future Presidents, and the only answer the President has is to say “trust me.”

“Once any government has the authority to hold people indefinitely, the risk is that it can be almost impossible to rein such power in. President Obama has failed to take the one action – a veto – that would have blocked the dangerous provisions in the NDAA. In so doing, he has allowed human rights to be further undermined and given Al Qaeda a propaganda victory.”

While I’m not entirely sure that we still need to be referencing Al Qaeda and the whole “If you do X, then the terrorists win” thing at this point, Amnesty’s statement is very much in line with my own thoughts on the subject of the NDAA. At bottom, Amnesty is right about one very important point: The U.S. government, under both the Bush and Obama administrations, has weakened the concept of human rights even as both presidents have used the language of human rights to make a case for a variety of policies (some of which have actually respected human rights and some of which have had a deleterious effect).

We’re getting precariously close to the point where the language of human rights loses its meaning entirely.

The bolded portion is my emphasis.

Notes

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