Obama expanded Bush-era indefinite detention and execution powers to US citizens

Evidence

Obama went further than Bush in several ways. He secured for the president the power to execute US citizens suspected of ties to terrorism without so much as a trial or the apparently unnecessary burden of proof; the cleric and US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki was summarily executed in 2011. The Bush administration’s practice of indefinite detention had stripped non-citizens of their habeas corpus rights. Obama, the lawyer, did not repudiate this practice. In fact, he signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that not only institutionalized this process but also expanded its use to include US citizens. Although this is both unconstitutional and illegal, according to the ACLU, and even though this process has torn Muslim families apart, Obama adopted Bush’s policies and codified them into law. The NDAA also legitimated the dissemination of propaganda to US citizens. As journalist Naomi Wolf wrote, the NDAA “legalizes something that has been illegal for decades: the direct funding of pro-government or pro-military messaging in media, without disclosure, aimed at American citizens.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 613

Domestically, Obama furthered Bush’s policies and the racialized Muslim continued to be targeted by the state. Obama went further than Bush in several ways. He secured for the president the power to execute US citizens suspected of ties to terrorism without so much as a trial or the apparently unnecessary burden of proof; the cleric and US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki was summarily executed in 2011. The Bush administration’s practice of indefinite detention had stripped non-citizens of their habeas corpus rights. Obama, the lawyer, did not repudiate this practice. In fact, he signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that not only institutionalized this process but also expanded its use to include US citizens. Although this is both unconstitutional and illegal, according to the ACLU, and even though this process has torn Muslim families apart, Obama adopted Bush’s policies and codified them into law. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 613

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s standing interest in how liberal administrations sustain and formalize repressive state apparatuses begun by predecessors. — connects to: Obama’s NDAA extended indefinite detention and extrajudicial execution to US citizens; Obama extended and codified Bush’s counterterrorism powers over US citizens — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 581; The NDAA legally expanded indefinite detention to include US citizens
• SEED: An essay angle on how ‘softer’ liberal governance institutionalizes and expands what ‘hard’ conservative governance pioneered.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 613

Broader Connections

• Obama’s NDAA extended indefinite detention and extrajudicial execution to US citizens #corroborates (0.95)
• The NDAA legally expanded indefinite detention to include US citizens #corroborates (0.92)
• Obama extended and codified Bush’s counterterrorism powers over US citizens #expands (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 581