Remember: Obama approved the NDAA

Business Insider:

Despite his promise to veto amendments within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) President Obama said Wednesday he will approve the law allowing the U.S. military to arrest and hold anyone it deems a terrorist, even on American soil.

Phil Hirschkorn of CBS News reports the Obama administration abandoned its veto saying the final version of the bill had been "softened." The minor adjustments to the wording now give the President power to issue a waiver of the military detention requirement and allow the White House to use its own judgment in putting the controls into place.

A White House statement says, "We have concluded that the language does not challenge or constrain the President's ability to collect intelligence, incapacitate dangerous terrorists, and protect the American people, and the President's senior advisors will not recommend a veto."

Executive Director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth told CBS, "By signing this defense spending bill, President Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in U.S. law. In the past, Obama has lauded the importance of being on the right side of history, but today he is definitely on the wrong side."

The ACLU agrees. "If President Obama signs this bill, it will damage both his legacy and American's reputation for upholding the rule of law," Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office says. "The last time Congress passed indefinite detention legislation was during the McCarthy era, and President Truman had the courage to veto that bill."