Thursday, November 19, 2009

No wonder the Attorney General is so solicitous of the jihadi

clowns: not only has he been soft on terrorists before, he's got staff who've been defending them:
One reason it has taken so long to deal with the Guantanamo cases is the number of legal challenges lodged by lawyers for the detainees, some of whom are now working on detainee matters in the Obama Justice Department. At Wednesday's Judiciary Committee hearing, amid discussion of Holder's decision to grant 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed full American constitutional rights, the issue was brought up by Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, who told the attorney general:

I want to know more about who is advising you on these decisions. There are attorneys at the Justice Department working on this issue who either represented Guantanamo detainees, or worked for groups who advocated for them. This prior representation I think creates a conflict of interest problems for these individuals.

This ought to be pretty straightforward. You'd think.

Would you provide me and members of the committee with the following information? The names of political appointees in your department who represent detainees or who work for organizations advocating on their behalf? The cases or projects that these appointees work with respect to detainee prior to joining the Justice Department? And the cases or projects relating to detainees that have worked on since joining the Justice Department? Would you please provide that information to me and the committee?

It seemed a reasonable request, but Holder appeared decidedly cool to the idea. "Yes, I will certainly consider that request," he said. "But I want to make sure that you understand that the people in the department understand their ethical obligations. And to the extent that recusals are appropriate on the basis of prior representations or prior connections, people in the department have recused themselves from specific cases."

"But I asked you for information," Grassley responded. "Will you provide it?"

"I will consider that request," Holder repeated, adding that the lawyers involved are "fine public servants" and "patriots" who have "national security uppermost in their minds."

Grassley still wanted an answer. "The very least you can give me is a list of the recusals," he said.

"I will consider that," Holder said again.
Absolute friggin' bullshit. And he knows it. So he tried to excuse himself:
When I said I would "consider," I only meant to say that I don't know if there are ethical concerns with regard to attorney-client privilege and things of that nature, and I need to consider those before I would actually be able to respond to the question. So I didn't mean to say that I was not being -- trying not to be responsive or not taking seriously a question that was posed I guess initially by Senator Grassley…I just wanted to talk to the experts back at the department about whether there was an ethical concern in responding to the question.
More absolute effing bullshit. From a clapped-out bull. The committee damn well has a- not a right, a need for that information, and Holder doesn't want to give it.

More Hopey!Changey!! from Obama's minions. With the level of ethics we expected.

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