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.
Is that what the John Birch Society is calling itself these days?
If you were a witness against Al Quaeda or bin Laden, would you like your faceand name broadcast globally? If you were a jury member, would you be concerned for your family? After all, how do you think Gotti stayed out of jail for all those years. He threatened jurors.
Do you support the opening of all borders today 11/18/01?
What in the blue bloody hell are you talking about? The EO is for NON-CITIZENS. You come and talk about it when he changes that part of the EO and I will be right beside you. Until then you are basing your argument either on a misunderstanding OR a deliberate lie.
One of us needs rest amundsen.
I trust W will do da right thang!
You've been watching too many movies.
--Washington, DC, Dec 18, 2000, during his first trip to Washington as President-Elect
Oooh ... please don't kill me with our President's sense of humor. It'll set me off to criticizing and I'll be accused of another hate-crime.
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