12/6/11

Dear President Obama,

     Please veto the National Defense Authorization Act, which has been recently passed by Congress.  I am very concerned with the provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act which call for expanding mandatory, indefinite detention, with no trial, under military jurisdiction, for citizens who are SUSPECTED of acts of terrorism, or acts supporting terrorism, or association with terrorists.  I also am concerned about the provision which would repeal the executive order, now under effect, outlawing torture. I also dislike the provision which forbids transfer of prisoners from the prison at Guantanamo.

       I am very alarmed that provisions with such far reaching consequences for the future with respect to fundamental rights and due process would be voted on with so much haste and so little in the way of public hearings.  Our rights to be assumed innocent until proven guilty should not be thrown away like garbage.  We must not let hysterical fear of terrorism cause us to throw away our democracy for a police state.

      Explain to Congress that if they must continue to fund war, they must come up with a new authorization act which doesn’t contain the afore-mentioned provisions which trash the people’s fundamental due process rights.  It would be worth considering to stop funding the wars we are currently funding entirely and to bring home all of the troops immediately.  It is very difficult for a nation to maintain its freedoms in the context of unending war. Or, as Benjamin Franklin once said, “People who are willing to give up freedom for the sake of short term security deserve neither freedom not security”.

                 Respectfully yours,

                      Roger Cuthbertson

Why not write your own letter?

Roger Cuthbertson is a member of WAMM.

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