| Subject: "They're literally dismantling justice and the justice system as we know it." |
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Date Posted: 16:40:09 12/03/01 Mon
GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH (R-TX), PRESIDENT-ELECT:
If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0012/18/nd.01.html
"They're literally dismantling justice and the justice system as we know it."
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Military Tribunal Order Draws Fire
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By JENNIFER HOYT
Associated Press Writer
November 16, 2001, 6:24 AM EST
WASHINGTON -- Black lawmakers and some of the House's more liberal white Democrats and conservative Republicans are urging hearings into President Bush's decision to try by military tribunals foreigners charged with acts of terror.
"They're literally dismantling justice and the justice system as we know it," Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Friday. She suggested the effects could "spill over into domestic affairs."
The Justice Department has refused to disclose identities or status of more than 1,100 people arrested or detained in the weeks since the Sept. 11 attacks, and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, said their incarceration "smacks of racial profiling."
She and Waters are black.
Conservative Rep. Bob Barr, a white Republican from Georgia, said he objected to the president acting without consulting with Congress or waiting to see whether recently expanded investigative powers are sufficient to fight terrorism. Barr, a former federal prosecutor, said he was disturbed by the "fundamental changes to federal law and procedure" in the order establishing procedures for detention and trial by military courts of foreign suspects.
"The scope of this executive order takes your breath away," Barr said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked Attorney General John Ashcroft on Friday to appear before the committee Nov. 28. Jeff Lungren, a spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee, said no decision had been made as of Friday whether to hold hearings.
Bush signed an executive order Tuesday approving the tribunals, which could bring terror suspects to trial faster and in more secrecy than normal criminal courts. His order did not require congressional approval.
Under the order, Bush would decide when to use a military court. It is unclear whether the government would have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but the right to appeal a conviction or sentence would be much more limited than in civilian courts. Lawyers say the government likely would be able to use hearsay statements and evidence collected through normally unconstitutional searches or wiretaps. Conviction and sentencing would be by two-thirds of commission members present for the vote.
"These procedures belong in a Soviet state or a dictatorship, not in a free society," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who represents the Manhattan district where the World Trade Center was felled by terrorists.
Waters accused Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Ashcroft of "taking advantage of the American people."
"It appears that because of this awful, tragic attack on the United States that has taken place, that the president and his administration are using this as an opportunity to get any and everything that they ever thought they wanted," she said.
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On the Net: Bush's military-trial directive: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/11/20011113-27.html
House Judiciary Committee: http://www.house.gov/judiciary/
Senate Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.senate.gov/
Copyright (c) 2001, The Associated Press
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This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-congress-tribunals1116nov16.story
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