More William Safire goodness. I didn’t link to his first column denouncing Bush’s plan to use military tribunals, but I can’t resist linking to this one. The whole column is worth reading, but here’s the key paragraph:

Military attorneys are silently seething because they know that to be untrue. The U.C.M.J. demands a public trial, proof beyond reasonable doubt, an accused’s voice in the selection of juries and right to choose counsel, unanimity in death sentencing and above all appellate review by civilians confirmed by the Senate. Not one of those fundamental rights can be found in Bush’s military order setting up kangaroo courts for people he designates before “trial” to be terrorists. Bush’s fiat turns back the clock on all advances in military justice, through three wars, in the past half-century.

The “that” in the first sentence refers to the assertion that the military tribunals are implementations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.