After Terror, a Secret Rewriting of Military Law

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/international/worldspecial2/24gitmo.html?ex=1256270400&en=f44aff040a0217ce&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt

By TIM GOLDEN

Published: October 24, 2004


ASHINGTON - In early November 2001, with Americans still staggered by the Sept. 11 attacks, a small group of White House officials worked in great secrecy to devise a new system of justice for the new war they had declared on terrorism.

Determined to deal aggressively with the terrorists they expected to capture, the officials bypassed the federal courts and their constitutional guarantees, giving the military the authority to detain foreign suspects indefinitely and prosecute them in tribunals not used since World War II.

The plan was considered so sensitive that senior White House officials kept its final details hidden from the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and the secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, officials said. It was so urgent, some of those involved said, that they hardly thought of consulting Congress.


freedom is burning

[freedomburns]

The people who think that it is ok to treat any human being in an inhumane way are on the pathway to becoming pure evil, as evil as the terrorists are.  If we lose our morality, we have sunk to their level and we invite our enemies to treat us as we treat them.

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