Public forum on the NDAA, April 26th in Takoma Park

WHEN: Thursday, April 26, 2012, 7:30 p.m. (click to join, share the Facebook event)
WHERE: Azalea Room, Takoma Park Community Center, 7500 Maple Avenue (map)
WHO: Heather Hurlburt, executive director, National Security Network
WHO: Shahid Buttar, executive director, Bill of Rights Defense Committee
WHY:

Congress couldn’t be bothered to hold hearings on ratifying the indefinite military detention provisions of the recent National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). So on April 26th, Takoma Park will.

Pass the NDAA resolution!
Sign the petition!

On December 31, 2011, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), codifying indefinite military detention without charge or trial into law for the first time in American history. The NDAA’s dangerous detention provisions would authorize the president — and all future presidents — to order the military to pick up and indefinitely imprison people captured anywhere in the world, far from any battlefield. Including in America.

• What do the detention provisions mean for our country?
• What do they mean for the residents of Takoma Park?
• What can the city council do to push the debate and protect our constitutional rights?
• What are other jurisdictions doing to resist this law?

We’re very fortunate to be joined by the executive director of the National Security Network — and Takoma Park resident — Heather Hurlburt, and by Shahid Buttar, executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

This won’t be the first time they’ve met to discuss the nexus between national security and civil liberties; Hurlburt and Buttar discussed the growing trend to ‘preemptive prosecutions’ and selective pursuit and prosecutions of Muslim Americans in 2010 on a “bloggingheads.tv” and New York Times video segment titled “Free Speech or Fighting?”

Hurlburt, Buttar on bloggingheads.tv, Oct. 2010, "Free Speech or Fighting?"

Please join us on Thursday, April 26th for what should be an fascinating, important evening about the direction our country is taking — and what we can do to change that.

Bios (from organization web sites):

Heather Hurlburt, executive director, National Security Network

From 1995-2001, Ms. Hurlburt served in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant and Speechwriter to the President, speechwriter for Secretaries of State Albright and Christopher, and member of the State Department’s Policy Planning staff. She has also worked for the International Crisis Group, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Congressional Helsinki Commission. Her work has been published by the New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Guardian, POLITICO, New Republic and other outlets. Hurlburt holds a BA from Brown University, magna cum laude, and an MA from the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.

Shahid Buttar, exec. director, Bill of Rights Defense Committee

Previously director of a national program to combat racial and religious profiling by federal authorities, Shahid Buttar was also an associate director of the American Constitution Society for Law & Policy. Before pursuing public interest litigation in private practice, Buttar received his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2003, where he served as executive editor of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and a teaching assistant for Constitutional Law. Shahid’s comments have been featured by news outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, al-Jazeera, FOX News, Agence-France Presse, Huffington Post, Truthout, Democracy Now!, and many others, including dozens of radio stations around the country. He frequently addresses public audiences, including elected bodies, colleges, and law schools, including Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, the University of Chicago, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, and Georgetown.