[free-sklyarov] FC: President Bush says military tribunals will try civilian cases (fwd)

[Jei]

Fast, secret non-public tribuals and executions for non-americans.

Just what we need to get those annoying mp3 pirates and 
DMCA terrorists in the UK. :-)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 09:47:22 -0500
From: Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com>
To: politech at politechbot.com
Subject: FC: President Bush says military tribunals will try civilian cases

President Bush has quietly signed an executive order allowing civilians to 
be tried by military tribunals. This may be outrageous.

I say "may be" because the degree to which we should be outraged depends on 
the details of this not-yet-released executive order. Does the executive 
order apply only to non-U.S. citizens, as some news reports say? Perhaps it 
applies only abroad, to Al Qaeda saboteurs trying to blow up U.S. military 
bases? Does it apply solely to illegal immigrants? If it applies to people 
living in or visiting the U.S. legally, what happened to our Sixth 
Amendment right "to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury?"

One thing that seems apparent is that the writ of Habeas Corpus, the 
so-called Great Writ and bulwark of liberty, is in danger of disappearing. 
The Constitution says "the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus shall not 
be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public 
safety may require it." During the Civil War, President Lincoln suspended 
the writ of Habeas Corpus and ordered that suspected political criminals be 
tried before military tribunals.

Alas, and predictably, you won't see anything on the White House website. 
The staff there managed to place online an executive order creating a "task 
force on citizen prepardness" 
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/11/20011109-15.html) -- but 
somehow neglected to do the same with news that's just a tad more important.

-Declan

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/14/national/14DETA.html
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — President Bush signed an order today allowing special 
military tribunals to try foreigners charged with terrorism. A senior 
administration official said that any such trials would "not necessarily" 
be public and that the American tribunals might operate in Pakistan and 
Afghanistan.

See also:

http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/11/13/inv.military.trials/index.html
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/archives/2001/nov/13/111302554.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23716-2001Nov13.html




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