Bush Defends War Tribunals as Necessary

President Bush on Thursday defended his controversial plans to let military tribunals try suspected terrorists and let law enforcement officials question thousands of foreigners in the United States, characterizing them as necessary steps during war.

Each is a centerpiece of the government’s attack on terrorism, and each has drawn criticism--from the left and the right--as a violation of civil liberties.

Presenting his first detailed defense of the measures, Bush said at an annual meeting of U.S. attorneys: “We’re an open society. But we’re at war.

“We must not let foreign enemies use the forums of liberty to destroy liberty itself. Foreign terrorists and agents must never again be allowed to use our freedoms against us.”

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, meanwhile, announced a plan to let foreigners extend their stays in the United States--and possibly ease their way toward U.S. citizenship--if they provide investigators with “critical and reliable” information about terrorists or planned terrorist attacks.

He outlined the Responsible Cooperators Program during appearances on morning television shows as part of an administration effort to counter growing criticism of both the proposal to use the military tribunals and the plan for interviewing foreigners.

Under that plan, law enforcement agencies across the country are seeking to interview 5,000 men, largely within Arab American and Islamic communities, who have entered the country in the last two years.

In Michigan, federal authorities are “inviting” the men to call to schedule interviews, trying to lend a less coercive air to the meetings.

Bush, in his speech, declared that, as authorities move ahead with investigations, laws will be “enforced fairly.”

He said the interview program will be conducted “on a voluntary basis.”

He added: “We’re saying, ‘Welcome to America. You have come to our country; why don’t you help make us safe? Why don’t you share information with us? Why don’t you help us protect innocent people, women and children and men? Why don’t you help us value life? As you enjoy the freedoms of our country, help us protect those freedoms.’ ”

Ashcroft presented his new initiative to encourage would-be citizens to produce information to investigators about terrorism in part as a response to offers of help from the Muslim community.

Under it, the Justice Department would reward noncitizens who offer information that helps the FBI apprehend terrorists or thwart attacks by assisting them in obtaining what are known as S visas.

Holders of these visas may remain in the United States for up to three years.

During that period, Ashcroft said, they may apply to become permanent residents and ultimately citizens.

Scores of Informers Over Last Three Years

Noncitizens who provide useful and reliable information but are not eligible for S visas would receive assistance in seeking either “parole” or “deferred action” status, which allows them to reside legally within the United States.

They may then apply for permission to seek jobs, permanent residence and eventual citizenship.

The initiative builds on a program in which 177 people and 172 of their family members were granted the visas during the last three years.

They often gained the documents because information they provided to authorities about crime or terrorism endangered their lives, Justice Department officials said.

A top official of the American Civil Liberties Union quickly criticized Ashcroft’s initiative, saying it could still leave immigrants who volunteer information subject to arrest.

“The attorney general’s statement is misleading immigrants into thinking they will not be arrested when in fact [an] INS memo states that visa violators will be arrested and jailed,” said Lucas Guttentag, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.

Bush, in his remarks to the U.S. attorneys, used forceful language to defend the possible use of military tribunals to try foreigners suspected of terrorism, such as Osama bin Laden.

Polls Show Public Supports Tribunal Plan

This system would permit convictions by less-than-unanimous military panels.

“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,” he said.

“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 said to sustained applause from the prosecutors.

The president’s military tribunal plan, announced Nov. 13, has drawn support in U.S. opinion polls. On Thursday, a poll by the Washington Post and ABC News found that 59% of those surveyed thought non-U.S. citizens charged with terrorism should be tried by military panels, rather than in the U.S. court system.

Seven in 10 said the government was doing enough to protect the civil rights of suspected terrorists.

Under the military tribunals, two-thirds of a jury could convict a defendant; Bush’s order established the right to use them if he chooses.

He has said that such panels would protect potential civilian jurors, keep trials--which would be held on ships or military bases far from U.S. shores--safe from attack and protect the secrecy of intelligence information.

But the tribunal plan has been met by sharp questioning from some in the legal community, as well as objections from overseas.

Spanish officials have said they may ignore any U.S. extradition request for eight suspected members of Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network detained in Spain if they would face trial by the military.

350 Al Qaeda Members Being Held, Bush Says

The president told the prosecutors that more than 350 Al Qaeda members and others suspected of terrorist ties have been arrested around the world.

He made no reference to the more than 1,100 people who have been detained in the United States in the sweeps that have been conducted since the Sept. 11 attacks, another controversial part of the administration’s counter-terrorism effort.

Ashcroft has become the lightning rod for criticism that the administration has gone too far in its crackdown.

But Bush made a point of praising the attorney general in his speech, saying he has shown “leadership that is good for America.”

Ashcroft, on NBC-TV’s “Today” show, said the Justice Department is striving to conduct an aggressive terrorism investigation while not violating the civil rights and liberties of citizens.

“We have the opportunity to both protect and respect, to protect lives and respect the Constitution,” Ashcroft said.

“I just think that it’s pretty clear, if we had been trampling rights, someone would be bringing that to our attention.”

Another potentially thorny legal issue for the Bush administration was broached Thursday by a British official visiting Los Angeles.

Christopher Meyer, the British ambassador to the United States, said that, while the alliance fighting the Taliban regime and Al Qaeda members in Afghanistan had not yet decided what would happen to prisoners captured there, European leaders could be expected to resist extraditing prisoners to the United States if they would be subject to the death penalty.

“There is a common [European Union] policy against the death penalty, so I think any attempt to extradite to the United States somebody who might get the death penalty would cause some problems, and we’d have to work this through,” Meyer said during an interview at The Times.

“We haven’t yet worked all the issues through,” he added. “This is one of them.”

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Times staff writer Matea Gold in Los Angeles contributed to this report.