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Seizing Dictatorial Power

Date: November 15, 2001
Author: William Safire
QUOTE: ...a president of the United States has just assumed what amounts to dictatorial power to jail or execute aliens....we are letting George W. Bush get away with the replacement of the American rule of law with military kangaroo courts.

ABSTRACT: Safire's message: The short-term terrorist threat may justify some extraordinary measures (e.g. wiretaps and ethnic profiling), but does not whatsoever justify the draconian steps taken by the Bush administration that deny accused terrorists basic guarantees of a fair trial. Safire doesn't just disagree, he is indignant at and contemptuous of actions he finds appallingly contrary to fundamental American values. That's the first half of the column... oddly, the second half veers into musings about how to justly handle the possible capture or surrender of bin Laden and other members of Al Qaeda.

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