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With or without evidence, on issues of alleged terrorist connections posing national security threats, the Pentagon now supplants civilian authorities. It's well beyond its mandate.
Militaries exist to protect nations from foreign threats. Its Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) applies solely to its own personnel as authorized under the Constitution's Article I, Section 8, stating:
"The Congress shall have Power....To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval forces."
In America, state and local police, the Justice Department and FBI are responsible for criminal investigations and prosecutions. No longer on matters relating to alleged national security concerns.
Henceforth, America's military may arrest and indefinitely detain anyone anywhere, including US citizens, based on suspicions, spurious allegations, or none at all if presidents so order dictatorially.
Law Professor Jonathan Turley expressed outrage, saying:
"I am not sure which is worse: the loss of core civil liberties or the almost mocking post hoc rationalization for abandoning principle. The Congress and the President have now completed a law that would have horrified the Framers.""Indefinite detention of citizens is something (they) were intimately familiar with and expressly sought to bar in the Bill of Rights."
Other legal scholars agree about all alleged criminals having habeas, due process, and other legal rights in duly established civil courts.
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