Editorial: Military tribunal is the answer

Friday, Nov. 23, 2001 | 9:17 a.m.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network declared war on the United States. Nineteen suicide hijackers commandeered four jet planes, unleashing terrorist acts that resulted in the deaths of as many as 5,000 people. The United States has struck back militarily, and bin Laden and Afghanistan's Taliban regime, which has harbored al-Qaida, are on the run.

Anticipating the possibility that al-Qaida terrorists could be captured, President Bush earlier this month issued an executive order that said those foreign terrorists apprehended may be put on trial by military tribunals. Bush's order has drawn fire from some civil libertarians, who say that military tribunals don't offer the same due process guarantees offered by our civilian criminal justice system. But the White House notes that military tribunals have been used before, including by President Roosevelt, who during World War II put on trial German saboteurs captured in the United States.

The president was right to issue the executive order. To put it quite simply, we are at war, and our criminal justice system wasn't designed to put on trial foreign terrorists who commit atrocities against the people of the United States. This is not a robbery gone bad that ends in a murder. Sept. 11 was a well-orchestrated act of war by foreign terrorists who had been protected by the Taliban regime of Afghanistan. The United States government's mission now is to win the war against bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network. For those terrorists who continue to fight, that very well could end with their deaths. For those who are captured, a military tribunal is the appropriate legal course to administer justice.