activistpost.com / by Eric Blair / December 9, 2014
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) seems to be the catalyst each year for passing tyrannical laws that couldn’t stand on their own without its cover of “defense.”
Previous NDAAs gave us an open declaration of war on US citizens, indefinite detention without due process, and funding for the domestic spy grid and police militarization.
Buried deep in this year’s 1600-page NDAA (likely that not one lawmaker even read) is a massive federal land grab for special interests.
The LA Times reports:
The measure includes about 70 public lands projects, including the first national monument status for ice age fossil beds in Nevada, protection for about 275,000 acres of Montana’s rugged Rocky Mountain Front and a land swap that clears the way for a controversial southeastern Arizona copper mine.
Meant to be a compromise between environmental groups and business interests, the package would designate 245,000 acres as wilderness while simultaneously conveying more than 110,000 acres out of federal ownership for economic development, including mining, timber production and infrastructure improvements.
Some of the trade-offs drew the ire of environmentalists, who criticized what they viewed as federal give-aways to oil, gas and mining interests, particularly an underground copper mine on Arizona land prized by Native Americans. Others opposed expanded livestock grazing that could harm the habitat for the sage grouse and other sensitive species.
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