Story of the Week: The National Defense Authorization Act

After threatening to veto it, President Obama said he would reluctantly sign the National Defense Authorization Act. The bill, which authorizes $662 billion for defense spending also contains language that essentially makes it illegal to close Guantanamo, gives the President power to detain without trial anyone who supported or aided a terrorist group, including U.S. citizens, and requires non-citizen terrorism suspects to be detained by the military instead of according to civilian law. That final element of the law can be waived by the President, but according to Human Rights Watch, "President Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in U.S. law."Dec. 17, 2011