The news this morning: Dubya has announced that six detainees at Guantanamo may face military tribunals -- in which US military officers will serve as judge, jury, and (if need be) executioner, will vet the defense lawyers, and will decide how much (if any) of the evidence the defendants, or their lawyers, will be allowed to see.

So far, the US media is not reporting the identity of the first victims of this process, but the BBC has already named two who are Britons. The father of one, himself a British Army vet of Indian descent, is deeply distressed, raising the obvious questions about fairness of the trials, saying that his kid was a teacher with no connection to the Taliban, and recounting that his letters hint at a coerced confession.

Americans once had a problem with a ruler who:

... has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

... has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

• ...
• For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.
• For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.
• ...
• For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.

Do we still?