

www.democracynow.org - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges
has filed suit against President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon
Panetta to challenge the legality of the National Defense Authorization
Act, which includes controversial provisions authorizing the military to
jail anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world,
without charge or trial. Sections of the bill are written so broadly
that critics say they could encompass journalists who report on
terror-related issues, such as Hedges, for supporting enemy forces. "It
is clearly unconstitutional," Hedges says of the bill. "It is a huge and
egregious assault against our democracy. It overturns over 200 years of
law, which has kept the military out of domestic policing." We speak
with Hedges, now a senior fellow at the Nation Institute, and former New
York Times foreign correspondent who was part of a team of reporters
that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for the paper's coverage of
global terrorism. We are also joined by Hedges' attorney Carl Mayer, who
filed the litigation on his behalf in the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York.