Veterans Are Being Detained Around the Country for Political Speech

On August 16th, decorated former US Marine Brandon Raub, who served two tour of duties in Iraq and Afghanistan, was detained by the FBI and local authorities suspectedly for posting controversial anti-government political comments on Facebook.

According to Brandon Raub’s mother, authorities from the FBI, Secret Service and Chesterfield County PD came to their door, questioned Raub about his Facebook posts – which are critical of the official story regarding 9/11 and refer to “starting a revolution” – then handcuffed him and placed him in a Chesterfield PD squad car before taking him to John Randolph Psychiatric Hospital in Hopewell, Va.

Raub was not charged with any criminal misconduct, but was instead taken in under a Civil Commitment, a legal process through which an individual with symptoms of severe mental illness is court-ordered into treatment in a hospital or in the community.

Prominent constitutional attorney John Whitehead and founder of The Rutherford Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to the defense of civil liberties, has been representing Raub as his defense attorney. Whitehead recently made an appearance on GBTV with Glenn Beck where he made some startling claims.

Whitehead said that veterans have been contacting him from across the country claiming they too were victims of wrongful detention in psychiatric institutes like Raub. Apparently, there are civil commitment laws in other states as well, he said.

“It happens. There are about 20,000 civil commitments alone in Virginia each year,” Whitehead added.

I’m getting calls from everybody now. This is happening all across America. I think veterans are being targeted, but anybody that the government perceives as a threat can be arrested and put in a mental institution.

Further, in a surprising twist, Whitehead revealed a startling allegation that his client made regarding an incident that occurred before his release. Raub complained to his attorney that one of the psychiatrists that he was seeing threatened to “brainwash” him and force him to take medication. Something that can’t legally be done without a court order.

Whitehead comments toward the end of the interview, “Is this America? That’s the question I keep asking.”

More on this issue can be found at The Blaze.