History Repeats: NDAA vs Espionage Act of 1917

Knowing the future doesn't require the help of a fortune teller, you simply need to know the past.  Human nature leaves us destined to repeat the same patterns of behavior throughout history.  Only by learning about our past and acknowledging our successes and failures can we do better in the future. 

Let's compare a past event and a recent event in order to see similarities

ESPIONAGE ACT OF 1917

In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson passed the Espionage Act.  From it's title you would think it was about spying.  However, it had a clause that provided penalties up to twenty years in prison for "Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the US."

The act was used to imprison Americans who spoke or wrote against the war.  In 1917 Charles Schenck spent 6 months in jail for printing and distributing 15,000 leaflets that denounced the draft and the war.  In 1918 Eugene Debs, a great orator, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for giving speeches against the war.  Poet E.E. Cummings spend 3 and a half months in jail for speaking about his lack of hatred for the Germans in WWI.  In 1953, communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed under section 2 of the Espionage Act, for apparently passing information about the atomic bomb.  The case against them has been controversial for it's lack of evidence.  In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo were arrested for publishing the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the truth about the Vietnam War.  More recently in 2010, Bradley Manning is currently being held for violations of the Espionage Act for releasing diplomatic cables and military video.

NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2011 (NDAA)

On December 31st 2011, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act.  Who doesn't like national defense?  The bill will allow the government to lock up any American Citizens that dissent against the government, indefinitely and without trial.  While it states that it only pertains to those associated with Al-Qaeda and terrorism, without a fair and speedy trial, you have no way of defending yourself if you are innocent.

What do you predict will come next?