Obama signs in new controversial defense bill

This afternoon, the President had signed a new defense bill into law, while at the same time expressed misgivings about several provisions of a sweeping bill he signed. The $662 billion National Defense Authorization Act provides funding for 2012 at $27 billion less than Obama‘s request and $43 billion less than Congress authorized in 2011.

The bill also contains several detainee provisions that civil liberties groups and human rights advocates have strongly opposed, arguing that they would allow the military greater authority to detain and interrogate citizens and non-citizens and deny them legal rights protected by the Constitution.

The bill would mean that the President would be pledging to various rights groups that his administration would use broad discretion in interpreting the measure’s legal requirements to ensure that US citizens suspected of terrorism are not detained indefinitely by the military.

Obama initially had threatened to veto the legislation. In a signing statement released by the White House on Saturday, Obama said he still does not agree with everything contained in the legislation. However, with military funding due to expire Monday, Obama signed the bill after Congress made last-minute revisions at the request of the White House before approving it two weeks ago.

(아주경제 앤드류 이 기자)

AJP