Welcome to #MintCasts, our Mint Press podcast series. In this segment we interview the founder of People Against the National Defense Authorization Act (PANDA) to talk about their grassroots effort to bar the NDAA on a local level.
Thanks again for joining today’s conversation where we will be discussing the annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, or better known as the NDAA. This piece of legislation, which most Americans don’t know exists, consists of vague language first seen in the 2012 NDAA that allows the US government to unlawfully and indefinitely detain and even assassinate US citizens including journalists who “associate or substantially support” enemies of the US such as al-qaeda.
While indefinite detention and targeted assassinations of American citizens is nothing new, nor is allocating billions of dollars to the defense budget, 2011 was the first year where we saw the US government legalize their ability to commit these crimes.
Many in the journalism and civil liberties community have heard about the NDAA after a group of activists and journalists including Noam Chomsky and Chris Hedges sued the Obama administration for that very vague language I mentioned. Unfortunately, the Supreme court has said it won’t hear the case. But, the effort to bar the NDAA is far from over.
And pioneering an effort to bring attention to this legislation who is joining us today is founder of People Against the NDAA, or PANDA, Dan Johnson, who is working on a hyperlocal level to pass legislation that would bar the US government from detaining or assassinating American citizens in local communities across the nation.
Follow us on Twitter:
Mnar Muhawesh: @mnarmuh
Dan Johnson: @PandaUnite
You can find this podcast through our Mint Press Itunes channel and on our website. Tweet at us using hashtag #mintcasts, and tell us what you think about the NDAA and PANDA. You can also post on our Facebook page in our comments section to our pinned post featuring this podcast. Make sure to also like this video on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
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