As currently drafted H.R. 1540 gives U.S. presidents the authority to indefinitely detain citizens arrested in the U.S. without trial.
WASHINGTON, DC - The Senate voted [Nov. 29, 2011] to keep a controversial provision. It lets the military detain terrorism "suspects" on U.S. soil and hold them indefinitely without trial. White House officials reissue unlikely veto threat.
The measure, part of the massive National Defense Authorization Act, was also opposed by civil libertarians on the left and right. But 16 Democrats and an independent joined with Republicans to defeat an amendment by Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) that would have killed the provision, voting it down with 61 against, and 37 for it.
"I'm very, very, concerned about having U.S. citizens sent to Guantanamo Bay for indefinite detention," said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), one of the Senate's most conservative members.
Paul's top complaint is that a terrorism suspect would get just one hearing where the military could assert that the person is a suspected terrorist -- then that person could be locked up for life, without ever formally being charged [or tried, or heard from again]. More
