General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Chris Hedges: Why I’m Suing Barack Obama [View all]BrendaBrick
(1,296 posts)are either vague and/or non-existent?
The article (in part) states:
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Section 1031 of the bill defines a covered personone subject to detentionas a person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.
The bill, however, does not define the terms substantially supported, directly supported or associated forces.
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The definition of a terrorist is already so amorphous under the Patriot Act that there are probably a few million Americans who qualify to be investigated if not locked up.
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This demented war on terror is as undefined and vague as such a conflict is in any totalitarian state.
It is very interesting (and timely) to couple Hedges comments on this vague/non existent language of definitions with that of Gene Sharp during an interview in November of last year on a YouTube video entitled: "We The People - Dr. Gene Sharp at Zeitgeist Americas 2011" (little over 30 minutes):
You'll note that around 13:00 or so Sharp mentions that in the US Dept of Defense dictionary, "it does not contain a definition of either "Defense" or of "National Defense", its whatever people want to call defense, even though its aggression."
In fact, Dr. Sharp has recently released a new book: "Sharp's Dictionary of Power & Struggle -Language of Civil Resistance & Conflict" published 11-1-11.
The amazon.com link here: http://www.amazon.com/Sharps-Dictionary-Power-Struggle-...
Would seem to me that some real clarification is definitely in order here!!! I don't know if a lawsuit is necessarily the way to go on this? Maybe so, but in any event...surely there must be something that can be done to flesh out this *language*!!!!!
Lastly, for anyone who is interested in Chris Hedges, you may want to watch this recent C-SPAN "In-Depth with Chris Hedges" interview which aired 1-1-12. (Note, it's about 3 hours long...hence, the 'In-Depth' part...)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ChrisHed