Define is. . .

The catchphrase is "Does not intend"

Especially when the administration wanted it in the first place

Politico:

Obama signs defense bill -- with objections
By: Jennifer Epstein
December 31, 2011 04:02 PM EST

HONOLULU – President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act here Saturday, but not without expressing his objections to the funding bill’s provisions on the treatment of suspected terrorists, including U.S. citizens.

The $662 billion bill, which the White House had initially threatened to veto, authorizes defense and counterterrorism spending through fiscal year 2012 and regulates the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists.

It alarmed some officials at law enforcement agencies and civil liberties groups, who argued that the attempt to clarify executive power post-9/11 could constrain the president’s authority and curb the rights of Americans caught up in terror investigations.

Obama expressed “serious reservations” about the bill but argued in a signing statement released Saturday that it does not fundamentally change executive power.

The administration does not intend to interpret one provision as granting the military authority to detain Americans indefinitely, Obama said in the statement. It also opposes sections of the bill that block the transfer of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to U.S. soil for any purpose and that restrict the government’s ability to transfer detainees to other countries.

Despite these concerns, Obama said he has signed the bill because he approves of the vast majority of the language in its 500-plus pages, “chiefly because it authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, crucial services for service members and their families, and vital national security programs that must be renewed.”

The White House opposed the versions of the bill that passed the House and Senate, but this month officials said they found acceptable the version agreed to in conference committee between the two chambers.

“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,” the White House said then, announcing that his advisers would not encourage him to veto the bill.

Still, Obama waited nearly two weeks — and came close to the Jan. 2 deadline he faced — before signing the legislation. The measures in the law on detainees take effect 60 days after it’s signed, and the administration used “the maximum amount of time to put these implementing procedures together,” a senior administration official said in a conference call with reporters.

One section of the legislation has drawn the ire of civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, that say it allows for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens.

Obama said in the signing statement that his administration “will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens … doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation.” Rather, the president said, the section reaffirms executive power that has been supported by the Supreme Court and lower courts.

Some Republican lawmakers have said the bill does not alter the treatment of Americans.

“Nothing here affects U.S. citizens,” Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said this month. “The provisions in this bill … are small steps towards having this Congress back in detention decisions. I think it is the right small step.”


But the ACLU is not satisfied, seeing Obama’s signature as a formalization of indefinite detainment. His action Saturday is “a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,” the ACLU’s executive director, Anthony Romero, said in a statement. “Any hope that the Obama administration would roll back the constitutional excesses of George Bush in the war on terror was extinguished today.”

In his signing statement, Obama also expressed opposition to “unwise funding restrictions” that extend Congress’s ban on bringing detainees at Guantanamo into the United States for any reason, which has been in place since 2009.

The measure, he said, “intrudes upon critical executive branch authority to determine when and where to prosecute Guantanamo detainees, based on the facts and the circumstances of each case and our national security interest.” The administration also believes the section would, under some circumstances, violate constitutional separation of powers.

Early in the Obama administration, Attorney General Eric Holder pushed hard for the trials of Guantanamo detainees in federal courts, since other alleged terrorists can face trial. But Holder backed down amid strong opposition and this year announced plans to try five men charged with plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in a military court.

The president said he opposes a section that contains “unwarranted” limits on the executive branch’s ability to transfer detainees to foreign countries because it “hinders the executive’s ability to carry out its military, national security and foreign relations activities.”

Obama objected to a related provision, which requires that the attorney general consult with the director of national intelligence and the defense secretary before filing terror-related criminal charges or indicting certain people.

He voiced concerns that other parts of the bill “could interfere with my constitutional foreign affairs power,” including one section that requires the president to submit a report to Congress 60 days before sharing classified ballistic missile defense information with Russia and that requires the report to include a detailed description of that classified information. While Obama intends to keep Congress informed, the statement said, he must do so “in a manner that does not interfere with the president’s constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs and avoids the undue disclosure of sensitive diplomatic communications.”

The bill also introduces new sanctions penalizing financial institutions that do business with Iran’s central bank, which is involved in oil transactions there. The sanctions don’t take effect for 180 days, giving the administration some time to determine how to implement them.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said the administration has concerns that the measure could undermine efforts to put international pressure on Iran and could potentially raise oil prices worldwide. The State Department has said it is looking for a way to impose the sanctions that would do maximum harm to Iran and minimal harm to the U.S. economy.