John D. Altenburg, Jr., a retired two-star general, has been chosen to oversee the Guantanamo military tribunals. He will also be responsible for approving charges.

President Bush has designated six detainees for military tribunals, including Australian David Hicks and Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen. Altenburg will make the final decision on bringing charges and holding trials. Altenburg retired in 2002. He was then an assistant judge advocate general for the Department of the Army.

One of the most unfair aspects of the tribunals is that there is no federal court review. Bush today named a review panel to hear tribunal appeals. The members will serve for two years and be commissioned as Army major generals. They are:

• Griffin B. Bell, the former U.S. attorney general in the Carter administration and former U.S. circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Griffin currently is a partner at the law firm of King & Spalding.

• Edward G. Biester, who has served since 1980 as judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County, Pa., Seventh Judicial District. He was Pennsylvania attorney general from 1979 to 1980 and served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1977.

• William T. Coleman, Jr., a senior partner and the senior counselor in the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers. He was U.S. secretary of transportation from 1975 to 1977 in the Ford administration.

• Frank Williams, chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. He served as a captain in the Army during the Vietnam War.

Also released today was Military Commission Instruction No. 9 (pdf), which spells out the rules for the tribunals. Apparently, all steps are now in place for them to begin. The military's website on the tribunals is here.