US Government could strip citizenship from Americans under Enemy Expatriation Act

[Tshering22]

Government could strip citizenship from Americans under Enemy Expatriation Act

When Barack Obama inked the National Defense Authorization Act on New Year's Eve, the president insisted that he wouldn't use the terrifying legislation against American citizens. Another new law, however, could easily change all of that.

If the Enemy Expatriation Act passes in its current form, the legislation will let the government strike away citizenship for anyone engaged in hostilities, or supporting hostilities, against the United States. The law itself is rather brief, but in just a few words it warrants the US government to strip nationality status from anyone they identify as a threat.

What's more, the government can decide to do so without bringing the suspected troublemaker before a court of law.

Under the legislation, "hostilities" are defined as "any conflict subject to the laws of war" and does not explicitly state that charges against suspects go to court.

When Obama signed NDAA on December 31, the president said that his administration "will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens." Added the president, "Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a Nation." But by breaking off ties between citizens — American-born or otherwise — the harsh realities of NDAA can be forced on anyone in the US if Washington decides that it is in the country's best interest.

The National Defense Authorization Act drew widespread opposition despite a lack of media cover due to the capabilities in bestows in the administration. Under NDAA, the government can indefinitely imprison anyone deemed dangerous by Washington and hold them without trial. After criticism led to massive online campaigns and protests, President Obama addressed the issue and said specifically that his administration would not understand the law as such. Instead, said Obama, "My administration will interpret section 1021 in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law."

Some are now saying that Obama's attempt at discrediting the NDAA by insisting that he would not use it against American citizens came only as a precursor to the latest Act. By adding his signing statement to the NDAA, the president insured that legislation such as the Enemy Expatriation Act would surface to strike any limitations that would have kept Americans free from military detainment. "I hope I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like this is a loophole for indefinitely detaining Americans," Stephen . Foster, Jr. writes on the AddictionInfo.org website. "Once again, you just have to be accused of supporting hostilities which could be defined any way the government sees fit. Then the government can strip your citizenship and apply the indefinite detention section of the NDAA without the benefit of a trial."

The bill, currently being passed through Congress, is sponsored by Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Charles Dent (R-PA).

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About time we start considering something like this for the likes of Suzanna Arundhati Roy, Teesta Sethalvad, Medha Patkar, Geela-ni, Yasin Malik, the Shahi Imam in Delhi etc etc.

Too many terrorist lovers and traitor scum in India and we surely won't miss these garbage once we throw them out.

 

[Param]

American law makers are going crazy.

That country is setting a bad precedent for the rest of the world.

 

[Bangalorean]

I hope American enforcement agencies are keeping tabs on the cyber-Jihadi non-resident Pakistanis who infest forums like def.pk - they should be the first to be stripped of their citizenship.

Let them go back to Pakistan and walk the talk - go and live in the society they praise so much, and fight against the "Hindu-Zionist-Crusader" alliance from within Pakistan.

Let us see them practice what they preach.

 

[Param]

LOL Americans don't even have guarantee of their own citizenship.

 

[nrj]

Justice Department will punish you if you prosecute/interrogate/torture suspected terrorists of American origin. So now what agencies will do is, strip off the citizenship of these suspects & then work on them.

 

[noob101]

One has to keep in mind that this legislation will be targeted towards known people with terror links... there is a clear distinction in US law enforcement agencies between petty criminal acts and acts of terrorism.... we on DFI should not be so dismissive of this because David Coleman Headley would the be the exact kind of people that are targeted by this!

 

[Param]

One has to keep in mind that this legislation will be targeted towards known people with terror links... there is a clear distinction in US law enforcement agencies between petty criminal acts and acts of terrorism.... we on DFI should not be so dismissive of this because David Coleman Headley would the be the exact kind of people that are targeted by this!

Stripping someone of citizenship on terror charges or whatever charges is going to far. That's the hallmark of a draconian police state.

There is no guarantee that this law will not be misused. Remember the case of that Indian guy, who is prison for suggesting something anti-Bush on his blog in the US?
That's just an example how loosely worded laws open to interpretation can be easily misused.


Those fools should have never invaded Iraq and bankrupted themselves after spawning more anti Americanism and Terrorism.

 

[anoop_mig25]

well in one stroke they would be able to throw out various mullas and others . they leaned a good lessons from england

 

[noob101]

Stripping someone of citizenship on terror charges or whatever charges is going to far. That's the hallmark of a draconian police state.

There is no guarantee that this law will not be misused. Remember the case of that Indian guy, who is prison for suggesting something anti-Bush on his blog in the US?
That's just an example how loosely worded laws open to interpretation can be easily misused.


Those fools should have never invaded Iraq and bankrupted themselves after spawning more anti Americanism and Terrorism.

I agree that these types of laws can be misused, that is why I also support a mechanism that makes the government accountable to any people that it intends to use these laws against. There should be a clear mechanism of transparency, when done in the public eye it would be a fair and effective law....
I have always said that some organization like NAACP should be given access to Gitmo so that they can make sure that all the people there are terrorists.

There are many questions about real terrorists in America that are not covered by the spectrum of law... for example what about people like the blind cleric, he came to America on the false pretenses and was later proved to be very instrumental in the first world trade center bombings, Anwar-al-awlaki? should people like that be allowed to operate in the country when they are known terrorists? It was a lack of laws like this that allowed him to escape freely from America after 9/11.... The best way to implement this law would be to allow the government to take these kind of actions against more high profile and suspects with overwhelming evidence against them, if there are more than 10 people that are stripped of their citizenship because of this law then I would say that there is an abuse of power as there is likely to be at least 1 amongst those 10 to be innocent. But this kind of law should be there for the real scum bags thats my intention.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Somewhat related, I think US citizens should be denied holding citizenship in another country. This "dual citizenship" status is offensive to me personally and is unneccessary for normal people. One should know where his allegience lies.

Then again, our post-American President claims to be a Citizen of the World.

 

[The Messiah]

Somewhat related, I think US citizens should be denied holding citizenship in another country. This "dual citizenship" status is offensive to me personally and is unneccessary for normal people. One should know where his allegience lies.

Then again, our post-American President claims to be a Citizen of the World.

I am of the same opinion.

Luckily India does not have dual citizenship.

 

[noob101]

Somewhat related, I think US citizens should be denied holding citizenship in another country. This "dual citizenship" status is offensive to me personally and is unneccessary for normal people. One should know where his allegience lies.

Then again, our post-American President claims to be a Citizen of the World.

A lot people that take dual citizenship do it for the ease with immigration, as they wont have to apply for visas to enter their birth country everytime they come to visit

 

[Tshering22]

I am of the same opinion.

Luckily India does not have dual citizenship.

I think in some cases it does. Like for example, Jewish businessmen have some privileges to have a dual with India and Israel. But there is a specific class of businessmen granted this. I got this piece of info from a Jewish friend of mine when I was in Kochi. Don't know how accurate it is but Jews keep a track of such info with pinpoint accuracy.

Another exemption is that the holder of dual must be half-Indian origin (with some special countries like Nepal, Switzerland etc).

 

[Tshering22]

American law makers are going crazy.

That country is setting a bad precedent for the rest of the world.

Why what is wrong? We have a bunch of terrorist lovers and traitors in our country as well that do more damage covertly than just blabbing their opinions on TV shows. If you're thinking that the likes of Roy and Patkar are simply blabbing on TV and doing nothing behind our backs, you're mistaken. These treacherous two-timers have full contacts with terrorists and separatists and become their "political lobbying" image in the already over-spoilt media.

This law by US is a hats off initiative that will remind any wannabe terror-lover non-American origin Americans not to screw around.

We need this law too. Perhaps a few Arundhati type scums stripped off Indian citizenship and exiled would teach the rest a lesson they will never forget.

 

[The Messiah]

I think in some cases it does. Like for example, Jewish businessmen have some privileges to have a dual with India and Israel. But there is a specific class of businessmen granted this. I got this piece of info from a Jewish friend of mine when I was in Kochi. Don't know how accurate it is but Jews keep a track of such info with pinpoint accuracy.

Another exemption is that the holder of dual must be half-Indian origin (with some special countries like Nepal, Switzerland etc).

That is still not dual citizenship. OIC & PIO are different than citizenship.

If person is of Indian origin and citizen of another country then he can enter India without visa or anything but cannot vote or stand in elections.

 

[Param]

Why what is wrong? We have a bunch of terrorist lovers and traitors in our country as well that do more damage covertly than just blabbing their opinions on TV shows. If you're thinking that the likes of Roy and Patkar are simply blabbing on TV and doing nothing behind our backs, you're mistaken. These treacherous two-timers have full contacts with terrorists and separatists and become their "political lobbying" image in the already over-spoilt media.

This law by US is a hats off initiative that will remind any wannabe terror-lover non-American origin Americans not to screw around.

We need this law too. Perhaps a few Arundhati type scums stripped off Indian citizenship and exiled would teach the rest a lesson they will never forget.

I support a law that says any one found guilty of treason or waging war against the state should be executed.

But stripping of citizenship is totally unconstitutional and will be misused. 200%, particularly for political vendetta.

 

[The Messiah]

I could care less what usa does internally.

However in Indian context this stripping of citizenship means nothing because half the country doesn't even have papers to prove there citizenship.

We need hard laws on terrorism but problem arises due to ineptness of police. Lets not kid ourselves! our police gets hold of innocent people more times than the real culprit and it is because of this reason only our lawmakers dont bring in harsh laws because more often than not culprit will escape while innocent gets punished.

 

[noob101]

That is still not dual citizenship. OIC & PIO are different than citizenship.

If person is of Indian origin and citizen of another country then he can enter India without visa or anything but cannot vote or stand in elections.

Effectively they are all the same, most all people do it for pure immigration reasons and some other business reasons if you were to ask these people what nationality they are they would say one or the other rarely does one identify oneself as a dual citizen

 

[The Messiah]

Effectively they are all the same, most all people do it for pure immigration reasons and some other business reasons if you were to ask these people what nationality they are they would say one or the other rarely does one identify oneself as a dual citizen

They are not the same.

Most important right of Indian citizen is that they can vote and stand in election but people with oic and pio cant. So how are they same ?

 

[Bangalorean]

An interesting question is, if an Indian is 'stripped of his citizenship', where does he "go"?

If the US strips citizenship of say, a non-resident Pakistani, then the Paki will be forced to go back to Pakistan and Pakistan will have to accept him due to his Paki origin. However, if an Indian born citizen is stripped of citizenship, where does he/she go? No country will be willing to take him/her!