[FYI] (Fwd) FC: NYT's William Safire says Bush has seized "dictatorial power"

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Thu, 15 Nov 2001 01:52:23 -0500
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
Subject:        	FC: NYT's William Safire says Bush has seized "dictatorial power"
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

Previous article:

"Text of Bush's order creating military tribunals for civilians"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02797.html

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http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=95001468
"Predictably, the American Civil Liberties Union has rushed to decry
this logical exercise of war powers as 'deeply disturbing,' and in
contravention of ideas 'central to our democracy.' In fact, the
president's order is well-grounded in constitutional text, statute and
past practice, and is more likely to preserve civil liberty than
undermine it."

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http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/15/opinion/15SAFI.html

November 15, 2001
Seizing Dictatorial Power
By WILLIAM SAFIRE

WASHINGTON -- Misadvised by a frustrated and panic-stricken attorney
general, a president of the United States has just assumed what
amounts to dictatorial power to jail or execute aliens. Intimidated by
terrorists and inflamed by a passion for rough justice, we are letting
George W. Bush get away with the replacement of the American rule of
law with military kangaroo courts.

In his infamous emergency order, Bush admits to dismissing "the
principles of law and the rules of evidence" that undergird America's
system of justice. He seizes the power to circumvent the courts and
set up his own drumhead tribunals — panels of officers who will sit in
judgment of non-citizens who the president need only claim "reason to
believe" are members of terrorist organizations.

Not content with his previous decision to permit police to eavesdrop
on a suspect's conversations with an attorney, Bush now strips the
alien accused of even the limited rights afforded by a court-martial.

His kangaroo court can conceal evidence by citing national security,
make up its own rules, find a defendant guilty even if a third of the
officers disagree, and execute the alien with no review by any
civilian court.

No longer does the judicial branch and an independent jury stand
between the government and the accused. In lieu of those checks and
balances central to our legal system, non-citizens face an executive
that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and jailer or
executioner. In an Orwellian twist, Bush's order calls this
Soviet-style abomination "a full and fair trial."

[...]



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