Le
recours à des tribunaux militaires pour juger les terroristes !
November
20, 2001
THE
PRESIDENT Bush Offers Public Defense of Military Tribunals Order.
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 — President Bush today
vigorously defended his order creating special military tribunals to try foreigners charged
with terrorism, saying he needed the option "should we ever bring one of
these Al Qaeda members in alive."
Mr. Bush said the times demanded unusual measures.
"The option to use a military tribunal in the time of war makes a
lot of sense," he said, adding that the nation was fighting "against
the most evil kinds of people, and I need to have that extraordinary option at
my fingertips."
The president's remarks, made at the end of a cabinet meeting, were his
first public statement on the order, which he signed quietly on his way out of
Washington last Tuesday. Since then, the plan has been criticized by some civil
liberties advocates, who say that it undermines basic rights and the core of
the American criminal justice system.
"To the critics," Mr. Bush said, "I say I made the
absolute right decision."
On his first full day back at the White House since meeting with
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Tex., the
president also signed into law an airport security bill, pardoned a
Thanksgiving turkey in the Rose Garden and marked the end of the daily Ramadan
fast with a dinner with Muslim leaders at the White House.
Mr. Bush signed the airport security bill in a symbolic setting, Ronald
Reagan National Airport, which because of its proximity to the White House and
other national monuments stayed closed longer than any other airport after the
Sept. 11 attacks. The bill, a compromise worked out by the
House and Senate last week that represented substantial concessions by
the White House, gives the federal
government one year to hire 28,000 airport screeners, replacing often
ill-trained and underpaid
employees of private companies.
The bill also calls for the inspection of all checked baggage, an
increase in the number of sky marshals and the reinforcement of cockpit doors. Although
most of the measures will not be in place during the holiday travel season this
year, administration officials said they wanted the president's signature on a
bill before the holidays as an important signal to Americans.
"The broad support for this bill shows that our country is united in
this crisis," Mr. Bush said. "We have our political differences, but
we're united to defend our country."
Later in the day, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell spoke to a group of
150 American and Muslim leaders about the inclusion of women in any future
coalition Afghan government.
"The rights of the women of Afghanistan will not be
negotiable," Mr. Powell told a group in the Eisenhower Executive Office
Building that included members of Congress, leaders of women's advocacy groups
and Christie Whitman, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator.
The United States, Mr. Powell added, "is committed to working to
ensure not only that the women of Afghanistan regain their place in the sun,
but they have a place in their future government, as well."
Mr. Powell's remarks were part of a continuing campaign by the White
House to publicize the brutality suffered by Afghan women under the Taliban,
and to insist that women have a role in the future of the country. Mr. Powell's
remarks were met with strong applause.
"This could have been Hillary Clinton or Madeleine Albright
talking," said one American woman who attended the Powell speech but who
spoke on condition of anonymity. Senator Clinton and former Secretary of State Albright have tried to make
women's rights an important issue in American foreign policy.
In the evening, Mr. Bush presided over a dinner for Muslim leaders that
included Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington. Guests
ate pomegranate- glazed rack of lamb and biriyani rice with roasted garlic
sauce.
Earlier, in the Rose Garden, turkeys were in the spotlight. Mr. Bush
said he was in fact allowing not one but two of the birds — the one in
the Rose Garden and an alternate — to live out their days at a petting
zoo. The alternate was not present for the pardon ceremony, Mr. Bush said in a sly reference to Vice President Dick
Cheney, "because he's in a secure and undisclosed location."