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It authorizes domestic drone spying under provisions to test and license commercial drones by 2015. Estimates of up to 30,000 UAVs could overfly America by 2020.
Privacy issues are at stake. Much greater ones could follow. Targeted killing could be universally ordered. US communities could become as unsafe as foreign ones.
Once policies head down a slippery slope, anything can follow. Despots solidify power this way. Post-9/11 police state laws threaten Americans.
In 2010, "unlawful enemy combatants" became "unprivileged enemy belligerents." Language changed but not intent or lawlessness.
In 2011, by executive order, Obama authorized indefinite detentions and military commission trials for anyone he designated for any reason or none at all. Americans are as vulnerable as aliens.
Provisions of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) hardened executive power. They authorize military arrests and imprisonment with or without charges. Everyone, including US citizens, is vulnerable.
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) called NDAA authorization "one of the greatest expansions of executive power in our nation's history, allowing the government to lock up citizens and non-citizens without the right to fair trials."
Presidents now have unchecked authority to arrest, interrogate and indefinitely detain law-abiding citizens if accused of potentially posing a threat.
US military personnel are authorized to arrest and indefinitely detain anyone globally, including US citizens. No one's safe anywhere.
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