NDAA FAQ: A Guide for the Perplexed

[JDPriestly]

8. Problem is that by signing this law, Obama will be ratifying

the already existing vague, uncertain, bad law.

The Bush/Cheney cabal left a time bomb ready to blow up under some future president who lacks the calm and understanding of a guy like Obama.

The concept of the prison at Guantanamo is bad for our country. The Patriot Act is in many respects also badly written law however well intentioned it may or may not have been.

The fundamental question is just what is terrorism? Who is a terrorist? Who is not?

Is terrorism sort of like art? Something the president and the military know when they see it? Is the definition of terrorism to be determined by the eye of the beholder?

Is it a separate, specific crime, or is it really a crime or crimes already prohibited in our law? Is a street gang member who wants to harm a county prosecutor (elected to his office and therefore political) a terrorist? If not, why not?

Giving a president and the military and intelligence apparatus the authority to decide who is or is not a terrorist is no less dangerous just because it is arguably existing law. And unlimited detention for people arrested for vaguely defined conduct?

As for the right to counsel, will those who are accused of terrorism also have the right to confidentiality in their communications with their counsel? Will they have the right to confront witnesses against them? Will they have the right to know all the evidence against them?

This new law further calcifies the confusion in current law on this topic. That is tragic. In signing it, Obama passes up an opportunity to insist on certainty with regard to these issues which are very important to our nation.