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.
If the President had followed his oath of office, used his ability to give Congress Information of the State of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he judged neccessary and expedient and asked Congress to use the power given to them in the constitution to constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme court and did not usurp the power of congress by using an EO and making up the rules of the tribunal himself, no on would have anything to say about this.
I included the section in total previously.
Do you have a source for the information you posted?
Care to speculate why an EO was needed for this matter and how you feel about it in light of seperation of powers?
He is completly within his powers as a War time president acting as CIC. The Joint Resolution gave him those powers and he is using them. Do you want a law to be passed that make the tribunals permanent? Bush can cancel that EO at any time. I wish the Patriot Act had been implemented the same way. The PA is now a permanent law that will never be repealed.
Yes I will provide the link in a later post. As to the EO, it makes these tribunals temporary. Bush can cancel the EO at any time. Congress would pass a law that would make them permanent until repealed by a future congress if ever. He is working within the authority the joint resolution gave him and if Congress does not like the EO they can challenge him on it.
I know, facts never work as a tactic with the irrational.
When the "crime" is an act of war.
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So does a sunset clause but we've seen how they can go on with funding (ESA comes to mind).
In short, I'm less concerned with Bush writing this EO than the Patriot Act. However, I'm watching him.
Someone once said, "trust but verify."
And good advice it was.
>>And so the agenda is discovered. You need to go forthwith to Switzerland.
Good eye.
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