Congress passes the National Defense Authorization Act for 2013; highlights include lots of money for other countries, a continuation of indefinite detention, Christmas gifts given to Northrup Grumman and other campaign contributors, and rules will finally apply to defense contracting. All that and more in this summary of 2013's NDAA… National Defense Authorization for Fiscal Year 2013 The Bad Money to Other Countries - (Section 222) $211 million to Israel for IRON SHEILD, their missile defense system - (Section 1211) $508 million for Iraq. - (Section 1219) $350 million for infrastructure in Afghanistan. - (Section 1222) $250 million for equipment ("excess defense articles") in Afghanistan, no caps in 2013 and 2014. - (Section 1227) Authorizes up to $1.2 billion in payments to Pakistan, but they get no money for time when they close supply routes into Afghanistan to the US military. Pakistan also needs to hunt al Qaeda and try to stop IEDs to get money. All limitations can be waived if the Defense Secretary says in writing that they need to be. - (Section 1203) Gives Defense Secretary authority to use $75 million for equipment, supplies, training, and minor military construction in Yemen to fight al Qaeda and al Qaeda affiliates and another $75 million for the same thing in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. - (Section 1010) Continuation of drug war in Columbia. No amount given. Drones - (Section 527) REPORT: due in 6 months, reasons drone operators have "persistently lower average education, training, and promotion rates" and how to improve those rates. Nuclear Weapons - (Section 211) Requirement that next-generation aircraft be able to transport and use nuclear weapons within 2 years of the aircraft's completion. Indefinite Detention Rep. Jerold Nadler of Colorado: As a Nation, no matter what adversity we have faced we have done so as Americans. We have united behind the values and freedoms that gave birth to this Nation and that have made it a moral force in the world. In the last decade, however, we have begun to let go of our freedoms bit by bit, with each new Executive order, each new court decision, and yes, each new act of Congress. We have begun giving away our right to privacy, our right to our day in court when the government harms us, and with this legislation we are continuing down the path of destroying the right to be free from imprisonment without due process of law. The conference report states that: Nothing in the Authorization for Use of Military Force or the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2012 shall be construed to deny the availability of the writ of habeas corpus or to deny any constitutional rights in a court ordained or established by or under Article III of the Constitution to any person inside the United States who would be entitled to the availability of such writ or to such rights in the absence of such laws. This language simply continues the flawed policies established in the 2011 defense authorization bill. First, it applies only to ‘‘any person inside the United States.'' That is important, but most of the debate on indefinite detention without charge and on the lack of due process has to do with people held by our government outside our borders—including, potentially, U.S. citizens. The language in this bill, combined with the prohibitions against moving these detainees into the United States, guarantees that we will continue holding people indefinitely without charge—contrary to our traditions of due process and civil rights. Second, this text continues the claimed authority of the United States Government to hold even U.S. persons captured on United States soil indefinitely and without charge. Some people may take comfort in the provision that states that those of us entitled to certain rights prior to the passage of the AUMF and of last year's defense authorization bill continue to have the same rights afterwards. But this bill does not say who among us are fortunate