National Defense Authorization Act

Obama Administration Pushes Back On Liberal Criticism Over NDAA's 'Indefinite Detention'

Ryan J. Reilly | January 6, 2012, 9:30AM

The Obama administration thinks many in the liberal blogosphere are mistaken in their belief that the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed by the president on New Year's Eve authorizes the indefinite detention of citizens captured on U.S. soil.

Many progressive and libertarians have argued that the NDAA codifies the president's ability to detain a U.S. citizen captured on American soil until the war on terrorism is declared over. The administration believes that the NDAA doesn't specifically allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens, but concedes that it doesn't specifically ban the practice either.

A senior administration official maintained in an interview with TPM that the NDAA "changes nothing" about the legal question of whether the government could allow for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens captured in the United States.

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Topics: Barack Obama, Carl Levin, Counterterrorism, FBI, Guantanamo, Indefinite Detentions, Justice Department, National Defense Authorization Act, Obama Administration

FBI

Obama To Basically Ignore Congress' Terrorists-In-Military-Custody Mandate

Ryan J. Reilly | January 5, 2012, 5:44AM

Federal law enforcement officials had been worried about the "uncertainty" that a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would create for agents dealing with a terrorist attack because of the plethora of qualifiers that would send a terrorist suspect into military custody. But the signing statement issued by President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve appears to indicate that it should be business as usual as the administration develops implementation rules for the new provisions over the next 60 days.

Officials like FBI Director Robert Mueller had worried that Section 1022 of the NDAA "lacks clarity" about how law enforcement officials should handle a suspected terrorist at the time of arrest. That section required individuals who weren't citizens or lawful U.S. residents who have had ties to al-Qaeda, the Taliban or "associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners" to be placed into the military system -- facts that could be difficult to determine right off the bat ("They don't wear al-Qaeda hats," one law enforcement official official told TPM.)

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Topics: Barack Obama, FBI, Justice Department, National Defense Authorization Act, Obama Administration