Gale Courey Toensing, writer for Indian Country Today, discusses her article “Andrew Jackson’s Actions Model Anti-Speech, Perpetual War Legislation;” admitted al-Qaeda member Ali Al-Bahlul’s conviction on material support for terrorism charges for making a YouTube video; how the prosecutors used Andrew Jackson’s 1818 invasion of Spanish Florida to round up runaway slaves (and his execution of two British men for inciting the Seminoles to “savage warfare”) as legal precedent; provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act that give the president incredibly broad powers to make war and imprison anyone, for nearly any reason, without charge or trial; and why it doesn’t make sense to charge non-Americans with treason or “aiding the enemy” charges.
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