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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E. T. who wrote (205667)	11/29/2001 7:48:40 PM
From: E. T.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Bush Defends Investigation Tactics By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent dailynews.yahoo.com WASHINGTON (AP) - Brushing aside criticism, President Bush defended his authorization of military tribunals and the questioning of Middle Easterners in the United States. ``We're an open society, but we're at war,'' the president said Thursday. ``We will act with fairness and we will deliver justice, which is far more than terrorists ever grant to their innocent victims,'' the president told federal prosecutors visiting the White House. The speech was Bush's most forceful defense of the administration's investigation tactics after the Sept. 11 attacks. The tactics include authorization of military courts to try non-citizen suspects, interviews with hundreds of people of Middle Eastern descent, secret detentions and the monitoring of jailhouse conversations between lawyers and clients. Military tribunals can hold closed-door trials and afford fewer rights for the accused than civilian U.S. courts. For example, two-thirds of a jury can convict in a military court, as opposed to the unanimous civilian court verdicts. Bush, citing precedent from World War II and the Civil War, signed an order to authorize the courts and give himself power to decide who would be tried before them. Aides say it could be weeks or months before the first tribunal is formed, if ever. Some lawmakers, including Republicans, and civil liberties groups have questioned whether the military courts would violate due process rights. Bush's response: ``Non-U.S. citizens who plan and/or commit mass murder are more than criminal suspects. They are unlawful combatants who seek to destroy our country and our way of life. And if I determine that it is in the national security interests of our great land to try by military commission those who make war on America, then we will do so.'' Applause filled the theater where prosecutors gathered, across a private street from the West Wing. White House lawyers say military trials, which can be conducted overseas or aboard ships, might be needed to protect jurors, ensure safe trials and keep confidential intelligence from becoming public. ``We're an open society, but we're at war. The enemies declared war on us,'' Bush said. ``We must not let foreign enemies use those forms of liberty to destroy liberty itself. Foreign terrorists and agents must never again be allowed to use our freedoms against us.'' A majority of Americans - six in 10 - supported holding military trials for suspected non-citizen terrorists, according to a recent poll. About nine in 10 said they support the detentions of more than 600 people in the terrorism investigation. Bush defended the Justice Department's attempt to interview American residents of Middle Eastern descent, including those with no known connection to the attacks. ``We're interviewing people on a voluntary basis. We're saying, `Welcome to America. You come to our country, why don't you help make us safe? Why don't you share information with us? Why don't you help protect innocent people, women and children? Why don't you help us value life? As you enjoy the freedoms of our country help us protect those freedoms,''' Bush said. Critics of the practice say the administration is snagging innocent people in a dragnet. In Afghanistan, the president said, troops are routing the Taliban and have al-Qaida terrorists on the run. ``We will patiently, diligently pursue them until they are brought to justice,'' he said. Bush reminded the attorneys that catching and prosecuting terrorists is not their only job. They also must fight street crime, including gun violations. ``We must help people claim their neighborhoods and their streets,'' he said.

To: E. T. who wrote (205667)	11/29/2001 7:57:10 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Respond to of 769670

This is America, they have the right to do it or not. But if Americans die and those who did it are in any way connected with someone in area, I would not like to be the newly nominated America's Pig Vomit by 90% acclaim. I believe this is stupid of them based upon principle not the extreme risk they are taking. In the big picture it means very little if anything. Even in America there has to be places where a critical mass of stupid people are in charge. tom watson tosiwmee