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 U.S. Congress Told Legislators Should Resume Oversight Responsibilities U.S. Must Not Forget its Founding Ideals says ACLU |
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Compiled by GayToday
"This order doesn't just apply to the battlefields of central Asia - it could easily be used against any one of some 20 million non-citizens within America," said Timothy Edgar, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "Congress must take the responsibility for ensuring that America not forget its founding ideals of justice and fairness, principles that could be utterly absent from one of these tribunals." The ACLU noted that the tribunals will not follow the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which provides important due process rights in ordinary courts-martial. The new military tribunals could convict and execute people on a two-thirds vote of a panel of military officers, use secret evidence and do away with the presumption of innocence. Since Bush issued the tribunal order in mid-November, the decision has provoked a firestorm of controversy both in this country and overseas. The ACLU has previously called the tribunals part of an ongoing erosion of the basic checks and balances that are "so central to our democracy." The ACLU strongly opposes the Executive Order because:
The ACLU's Memorandum: http://www.aclu.org/congress/l112901a.html |
Washington, D.C. - The United States' legislature has been called upon by
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to resume its oversight responsibilities over the Bush Administration and place a leash on the President's highly controversial military tribunal order.
