Testimony from Icelandic MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir was read aloud by author Naomi Wolf during a court case challenging the National Defense Authorization Bill (NDAA) as being a threat to freedom of speech and human rights.
The legal challenge, being made in a Manhattan court, is being filed by numerous journalists and activists who contend that the language of the bill is too vague. While the bill itself is supposedly aimed at terrorists and their supporters, the plaintiffs contend that the definition of “supporters of terrorism” is broad enough to include peaceful activist groups, and could intimidate journalists into not getting anywhere near someone the NDAA could define as a terrorist or terrorist supporter.
The Guardian reports that testimony from Icelandic MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir, who has been a vocal supporter of freedom of speech and has been subject to an investigation due to the work she has done with WikiLeaks, was read aloud by Naomi Wolf at the trial.
“[The NDAA] provisions create a greater sense of fear since now the federal government will have a tool with which to incarcerate me outside of the normal requirements of the criminal law. Because of this change in the legal situation, I am now no longer able to travel to the US for fear of being taken into custody as as having ‘substantially supported’ groups that are considered as either terrorist groups or their associates,” Birgitta’s statement read in part.
Lawyers for US President Barack Obama, who signed the NDAA late last year, have not provided statements of their own and will call no witnesses. However, they have cross-examined the plaintiffs, pointing out that at no time has the US government threatened any of them with arrest under the NDAA.
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