SEC. 401. END STRENGTHS FOR ACTIVE FORCES.

The Armed Forces are authorized strengths for active duty personnel as of September 30, 2012, as follows:
(1) The Army, 562,000.
(2) The Navy, 325,700.
(3) The Marine Corps, 202,100.
(4) The Air Force, 332,800.

...

SEC. 421. MILITARY PERSONNEL.

(a) Authorization of Appropriations- There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for military personnel for fiscal year 2012 a total of $142,347,648,000.
(b) Construction of Authorization- The authorization of appropriations in subsection (a) supersedes any other authorization of appropriations (definite or indefinite) for such purpose for fiscal year 2012.

This is the same bill that allows the military to detain people in the US right?

(b) Applicability to United States Citizens and Lawful Resident Aliens-
(1) UNITED STATES CITIZENS- The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.
(2) LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS- The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to a lawful resident alien of the United States on the basis of conduct taking place within the United States, except to the extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States.

The protections of the US Constitution apply to all citizens and those under her jurisdiction (including illegal aliens and terrorists).

Defense bill will allow President to indefinitely detain American citizens
David Kopel • November 30, 2011 4:11 pm

H.R. 1540, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, has already passed the House, and is currently before the Senate. One section of the bill gives the President the authority to detain indefinitely American citizens, picked up on American soil, because they are allegedly supporting the enemy:

SEC. 1034. AFFIRMATION OF ARMED CONFLICT WITH AL QAEDA, THE TALIBAN, AND ASSOCIATED FORCES.
Congress affirms that—
(1) the United States is engaged in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces and that those entities continue to pose a threat to the United States and its citizens, both domestically and abroad;
(2) the President has the authority to use all necessary and appropriate force during the current armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 23 1541 note);
(3) the current armed conflict includes nations, organization, and persons who—
(A) are part of, or are substantially supporting, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners; or
(B) have engaged in hostilities or have directly supported hostilities in aid of a nation, organization, or person described in subparagraph (A); and
(4) the President’s authority pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 11 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note) includes the authority to detain belligerents, including persons described in paragraph (3), until the termination of hostilities.

Yesterday the Senate rejected an amendment by Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo.) that would have stricken the detention provisions, and required the Executive branch to submit a report (within 90 days) on the the legal and practical issues involving detention, and required Congress to hold hearings on the detention within the next 45 days after receipt of the report.

The bill also includes provisions to prevent civilian trials of prisoners currently held at Guantanamo. The Obama administration is threatening to veto the bill, although the objections appear to involve Guantanamo-type issues, and not the expansion of the executive’s detention powers. [Note: The bill version quoted above is the version as passed by the House and sent to the Senate. It is the latest version available on Thomas. The numbering for some sections may be different in earlier versions of the bill.] Kudos to Senator Udall, one of the few genuine civil libertarians in Congress, for taking the lead on this issue.

UPDATE: A commenter points out that, according to Senator Carl Levin, it was the Obama administration which told Congress to remove the language in the original bill which exempted American citizens and lawful residents from the detention power. See the C-Span video of the debate on the floor of the Senate, at 4:43:29. This is not the Obama I caucused for in Feb. 2008.

The DOD training manual states that protesting the government is a form of low-level terrorism.

We can't know if it ever happened DE. They would be vanished. That is rather the scary part.

We can't know if it ever happened DE. They would be vanished. That is rather the scary part.

There is no such thing as the "DOD training manual".

As for the rest, it still does not allow the military to detain citizens domestically and if their detained when taken in arms in foreign countries.. how the **** else are people like John Walker Lindh supposed to be captured?

We were hearing 6 years ago about how the PResident could supposedly just declare anyone he didn't like an "illegal combatant" and.. it never happened. Cynicism about the government is becoming its own caricature.

We can't know if it ever happened DE. They would be vanished. That is rather the scary part.

http://www.nocvenezuela.org/detail/697/ ... llery.html

If a harsh dictatorship couldn't hide it, why the hell would you think the USG could?