Here's the text of the order on military tribunals. What has the legal eagles in a twist is the following paragraph:

• "(a) The term "individual subject to this order" shall mean any individual who is not a United States citizen with respect to whom I determine from time to time in writing that:
  (1) there is reason to believe that such individual, at the relevant times,
  (i) is or was a member of the organization known as al Qaida;
  (ii) has engaged in, aided or abetted, or conspired to commit, acts of international terrorism, or acts in preparation therefor, that have caused, threaten to cause, or have as their aim to cause, injury to or adverse effects on the United States, its citizens, national security, foreign policy, or economy; or
  (iii) has knowingly harbored one or more individuals described in subparagraphs (i) or (ii) of subsection 2(a)(1) of this order;
  and
  (2) it is in the interest of the United States that such individual be subject to this order."

So what we have here is the right of the president to try in secret any non-citizen (including resident aliens) that W and only W determines may have acted to plan something that may that had the aim of having adverse effects on the US economy. All of this is subject to extremely broad and dangerous interpretation. The point is that the order could be used to try a foreign executive who is in meetings on US soil that plan to move significant manufacturing off US soil. Kind of like a takeover and restructuring of a US company by a foreign one. Obviously this is extremely hypothetical and taking the powers of the order to the extreme, but the order made by the executive with no consultation of the legislative seeks to remove the judiciary and the legislative from the process of trying legal residents of the US. Very troubling indeed. At least the Alien and Sedition acts had the backing of Congress (though not of the citizens).


- posted by levinson @ 11/30/2001 10:38:00 AM