O’Brien produced into evidence a DHS [Department of Homeland Security] memo that sought to link US Day of Rage to their cyberterrorism initiative. The government lawyer was given a chance by Judge Forrest to dispute the memo as fraudulent and did not do so.
Kai Wargalla, co-founder of Occupy London, submitted into evidence a memo from the City of London Police Department that categorized Occupy London as a terrorist organization.
Obama lawyer: “What evidence do you have that the government has harmed you?”
Wargalla: “Other than putting my organization on a list of terrorist groups, none.”
Chris Hedges testified: “It is my belief that if Reagan officials had had the power of the NDAA to detain journalists covering conflicts in Nicaragua and El Salvador, they would have used it. “ Government lawyers made the case that nothing has changed since the FISA [Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act] law allowed electronic surveillance, and the NDAA. Hedges said that “Every investigative reporter will tell you that sources have critically dried up since six were charged under the Espionage Act.”
Hedges noted that the difference between FISA and the NDAA was “a quantum deterioration in free speech.” He also said: “NSA [National Security Agency] surveillance has far more effect on my sources than on me,” he said, but “the NDAA is about me.”
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Judge Forrest distinguished between journalist and US Day of Rage founder Alexa O’Brien, who does not spend time around people identified by the US government as terrorists, and Chris Hedges, who, as a reporter on such groups, does do so.
Judge Forrest, to the Obama attorney: “Can you say he will not subject to … solitary detention?”
Obama attorney: “I cannot say that today.”
Judge Forrest: “Well, why is [Hedges’ fear] unreasonable: if you have an individual engaged on a regular basis with interviewing, travelling with, “associated forces” [in combat with the US] – and you can’t tell us that his activities won’t subject him to 1021 – why is it [Hedges’ fear] unreasonable?”
Obama lawyer: “Given all the factors – looking at this case, looking at them as a whole, they sufficiently rebut reasonable fear at this stage.”
http://naomiwolf.org/2012/03/ndaa-hearing-notes/
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