Military tribunals are for non-U.S. citizens. The president says he'll only use the tribunals for al Qaeda terrorists captured overseas. But technically, any non-citizen could be subject to a tribunal — including immigrants living in the United States.

Like some traditional criminal courts, military tribunals can impose the death sentence on a convict. And because such proceedings are held in private, it is possible that an execution could also take place behind closed doors.

The wide latitude military tribunals grant the government in the prosecutorial process has angered civil rights and civil libertarian groups. Members of Congress were also displeased that the president had taken so significant a step without their approval or even consultation.

In a December 6 statement, Ralph Neas, president of the liberal civil rights group People for the American Way, blasted the president for his executive order. "Judicial review and congressional oversight are not annoyances to be brushed aside — they are fundamental to our constitutional form of government," Neas said. "Our history demonstrates clearly that unbridled power in a time of national crisis leads to abuses and to abridgement of our civil liberties."

Concern over the use of tribunals has not been confined just to the left. Among the most vocal critics of President Bush's executive order have been some conservative members of his own party.

Republican Congressman Bob Barr, who led the successful effort to impeach President Clinton, recently told The New York Times, "These changes are so vast and fundamental, the House must hold hearings in the very near future, before we adjourn for the year." He expressed concern that the president's order "will likely set precedents that will come back to haunt us terribly."

Despite criticism from both left and right, President Bush has not backed down on the issue. During remarks delivered to a conference of U.S. federal prosecutors, he said, "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 interest of our great land to try by military commission those who make war on America, then we will do so."

The president also promised that trials will be conducted impartially. "We will act with fairness, and we will deliver justice, which is far more than the terrorists ever grant to their innocent victims," he said.

And polls show that the public largely supports the president's order. According to a Washington Post survey released on November 29, six out of 10 Americans back the move.

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An MTV News Staff report

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