BUSH AUTHORIZES MILITARY COURT TO TRY NONCITIZENS

This week President Bush signed a controversial executive order allowing him to designate noncitizens who can be tried for alleged terrorist activities by a military tribunal.  Officials were quick to point out that they viewed the order as creating the option of bringing Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda members before the tribunal in the event of their capture.  They also say that it will prevent potential jurors in the US, who could face problems after passing sentence on a terrorist, and add that the tribunals will be able to keep intelligence gathering methods secret. 

A number of liberal and conservative activists expressed concern that the new measure signals a significant expansion of government power.  Experts in military and criminal defense law say that the rights of a defendant in a military trial are substantially fewer than in a regular criminal trial.  For example, the rules of evidence are not as strict, and the standard of proof is less than a reasonable doubt.  Defending the proposal, Vice President Dick Cheney said that accused terrorists do not “deserve the same guarantees and safeguards that would be used for an American citizen.”

Under the order, Bush would be allowed to make a written certification that a noncitizen was either a member of Al Qaeda, the terrorist organization headed by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, had engaged in acts of international terrorism or had knowingly harbored a terrorist. 

Administration officials say that the trials conduced by the tribunals would most likely not be public, and that the tribunals could hold trials abroad, in, for example Pakistan and Afghanistan.  Officials said they were already investigating transferring soime detainees to military custody.

If used, it would mark the first time since World War II that people who were not servicemen were tried by a military court.  During that war, the Supreme Court ruled that German saboteurs could be tried by a military court because they were in the US to wage war against it.