Bush defends tribunals, saying 'we're at war'
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush bluntly defended the use of military tribunals to try non-U.S. citizens accused of terrorism on Thursday, insisting "we must not let foreign enemies use the forms of liberty to destroy liberty itself."
"If I determine that it is in the national security interests of our great land to try by military commissions those who make war on America, then we will do so," Bush said in a speech to U.S. attorneys general.
The president recently signed an executive order permitting the tribunals, which would allow speedy, secret trials by a military panel, not a civilian jury. The prospect of tribunals, used in the Revolutionary War and following the slaying of President Abraham Lincoln, has generated considerable criticism due to a perceived decrease in defendants' rights and explicit lack of government accountability.
Bush himself will decide on a "case-by-case" basis about which suspects should face such tribunals, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said.
The United States and its coalition allies, Bush said, have arrested more than 350 members of al Qaeda -- the group, headed by Osama bin Laden, accused of planning and executing the September 11 terrorist attacks -- and other terrorists.
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