Detaining US citizens: How did we get here?

"So the executive branch is already defending the idea of the world as a battlefield."

And when this psychopathological worldview is rooted in law then then it gives such people carte blanche to do as they please with even more impunity.  Which was of course, the point.

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Al Jazeera

Aziz Rana, professor of constitutional law at Cornell University, explains the significance of provisions in the 2012 National Defense Authorisation Act that define the entire world as a battlefield, allowing for open-ended detainment of US citizens, without a trial.

Rana tells Al Jazeera that these provisions are merely the latest round in a long battle between Congress, the executive branch, and rights activists.

On the executive branch versus civil liberties: 

"One of the positions in the legal community, for example, around the assassination of [Anwar] Al Awlaki, is that this is a constitutional violation.

A new US law will declare the world a battlefield, making virtually anyone vulnerable to indefinite military detention. Read more

But the executive branch has pretty systematically defended this - not that it can, under the Constitution - but it has systematically defended its ability to pursue a variety of different practices.

For example, various officials in speeches and statements have implied that the battlefield extends beyond Afghanistan or Iraq and indeed may be global. If an individual is suspected of engaging in terrorism but is in a friendly or non-hostile country - such as Yemen - that still would count as the battlefield.

So the executive branch is already defending the idea of the world as a battlefield.

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