Posted on 11/18/2001 1:30:37 PM PST by It'salmosttolate
Bush Insisted Only He Should Decide Who Should Stand Trial Before Military Court
NEW YORK, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- After he signed an order allowing the use of military tribunals in terrorist cases, President George W. Bush insisted he alone should decide who goes before such a military court, his aides tell Newsweek. The tribunal document gives the government the power to try, sentence -- and even execute -- suspected foreign terrorists in secrecy, under special rules that would deny them constitutional rights and allow no chance to appeal.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20011118/HSSA005 ) Bush's powers to form a military court came from a secret legal memorandum, which the U.S. Justice Department began drafting in the days after Sept. 11, Newsweek has learned. The memo allows Bush to invoke his broad wartime powers, since the U.S., they concluded, was in a state of "armed conflict." Bush used the memo as the legal basis for his order to bomb Afghanistan. Weeks later, the lawyers concluded that Bush would use his expanded powers to form a military court for captured terrorists. Officials envision holding the trials on aircraft carriers or desert islands, report Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff and Contributing Editor Stuart Taylor Jr. in the November 26 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, November 19).
The idea for a secret military tribunal was first presented by William Barr, a Justice Department lawyer -- and later attorney general -- under the first President Bush, as a way to handle the terrorists responsible for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The idea didn't take back then. But Barr floated it to top White House officials in the days after Sept. 11 and this time he found allies, Newsweek reports. Barr's inspiration came when he walked by a plaque outside his office commemorating the trial of Nazi saboteurs captured during World War II. The men were tried and most were executed in secret by a special military tribunal.
The US Supreme Court has already ruled that it was Constitutional.
I just get sick of the Dems being so concerned about this and that when it comes to Bush when they need to look in their dang mirror first.
Bush has the right to respond military in self defense of a threat to this country.
When someone can prove to me where Bush is in the wrong then I'll get upset.
There are not. Please specifically cite where Bush is doing something illegal in relation to his executive order.
Hey I guess you can get off FR and start working to change the Constitution if you don't like it. Good luck.
07 Mama, 07.
You have already made up your mind. There really isn't any need to discuss it with you further.
Correct, I have, and the law is well settled as well. You are wrong, I am right.
There are legitimate concerns here. It appears that many people will not blindly follow this gerrymandering, simply because a Republican is in charge now.
Yeah, you and Alan Dershowitz and even he recognises that the military tribunal is constitutional without war being declared.
I, for one, am among that number...legal scholars or no.
Soldier on! Adios.
There has to be some judicial overview in place otherwise there would no checks and balance in the system.
I think abortion should be a states right issue too but it isn't. I guess I'd have the same option I presented earlier: to work to change it.
MIssed this. The "suitably chastised" inane comment.
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