TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

President Obama will sign a bill into law which will allow the U.S. military to detain U.S. citizens indefinitely. Let that sink in: the military will be able to detain U.S. citizens indefinitely. No trial, much less one in a civilian court. Just a nice, secluded U.S. military cell guarded by U.S. soldiers.

Support came from both Democrats and Republicans. Senator Lindsey Graham said:

“It is not unfair to make an American citizen account for the fact that they decided to help Al Qaeda to kill us all and hold them as long as it takes to find intelligence about what may be coming next,” he said. “And when they say, ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them, ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer.’”

The White House initially opposed the bill, but not because Obama objected to detaining Americans—but rather because the bill did not provide enough executive power. Glenn Greenwald writes:

The White House’s complaint was that Congress had no business tying the hands of the President when deciding who should go into military detention, who should be denied a trial, which agencies should interrogate suspects (the FBI or the CIA). Such decisions, insisted the White House, are for the President, not Congress, to make. In other words, his veto threat was not grounded in the premise that indefinite military detention is wrong; it was grounded in the premise that it should be the President who decides who goes into military detention and why, not Congress.

In fact, Obama insisted that the bill include a provision allowing American citizens to be detained. Greenwald continues:

The proof of that — the definitive, conclusive proof — is that Sen. Carl Levin has several times disclosed that it was the White House which demanded removal of a provision in his original draft that would have exempted U.S. citizens from military detention (see the clip of Levin explaining this in the video below). In other words, this was an example of the White House demanding greater detention powers in the bill by insisting on the removal of one of its few constraints (the prohibition on military detention for Americans captured on U.S. soil).

Of course, this isn’t exactly new; Jose Padilla was declared an enemy combatant by President Bush and transferred to military custody in 2002, where he was held for three and a half years. But what this does do, is it codifies it into law. After President Obama signs it, detention of American citizens by the U.S. military, on U.S. soil, will be legal.

Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer. I’ll avoid the partisan needling, because there’s really nothing gained by anyone here. Democrats and Republicans have worked together better than they have in years to put flame to the Bill of Rights.