Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2001 20:53:11 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <200111190153.UAA12299@mattababy.mit.edu>
From: belmonte@mit.edu (Matthew Belmonte)
To: president@whitehouse.gov
Subject: violations of due process in the name of national security

This past week you issued an executive order that would allow special military
tribunals to try non-citizens who have been charged with terrorism.
(Ironically, during the Clinton Administration this same procedure of trial of
non-citizens by military tribunal was the subject of a strong diplomatic
protest lodged by the US against Peru.)  This latest curtailment of due process
comes on the heels of a new regulation, issued just twelve days earlier, that
gives the government the power to monitor any conversation between such a
suspect and his or her attorney.  I hope that you will rescind these misguided
policies, which are eroding the very freedoms that you claim to defend.  You
have not demonstrated how a trial by jury and a defence by counsel would not
suffice to deter and to punish people who commit acts of terrorism.

Sincerely,
Matthew Belmonte