By Michelle Malkin • January 23, 2009 02:41 PM
A good friend writes: [A]s nearly 100 of the remaining detainees are Yemenis, reflecting that country’s refusal to assure security for repatriated Yemenis, note that AG nominee Eric Holder is a senior partner with Covington & Burling, a prestigious Washington, D.C. law firm, which represents 17 Yemenis currently held at Gitmo. From the C & B website:
The firm represents 17 Yemeni nationals and one Pakistani citizen held at Guantánamo Bay. The Supreme Court will soon review the D.C. Circuit’s ruling that ordered the dismissal of a number of habeas petitions filed by Guantánamo detainees; some of our clients are petitioners in the Supreme Court case. We expect to play a substantial role in the briefing. We also plan to petition the Supreme Court to hear our Pakistani client’s appeal from the D.C. Circuit’s order dismissing his case. Further, we are pursuing relief in the D.C. Circuit under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 for all of our clients. On a separate front, we filed amicus briefs and coordinated the amicus effort in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in which the Supreme Court in the summer of 2006 invalidated President Bush’s military commissions and in which we have obtained favorable rulings that our clients have rights under the Fifth Amendment and the Geneva Conventions.
Covington & Burling’s Gitmo bar roster has included some of the most radical detainee advocates; see David Remes, who peeled down to his underwear at a press conference in Yemen to draw attention to his clients’ plight and Marc Falkoff, who published a book of detainee poetry and who, in the book’s intro, compared their heroic struggle to the Jews held in concentration camps and Japanese Americans held in internment camps during WWII. [One of Falkoff's "gentle, thoughtful" young poets--a Kuwaiti "cleared for release" and repatriated in 2005--blew himself up in a truck bomb in Mosul last March, killing 13 Iraqi army soldiers and wounding 42 others.]
The fact that Mr. Holder, while Deputy Attorney General, pushed for the release of 16 violent FALN terrorists against the advice of the FBI, the US Attorneys who prosecuted them and the NYPD officers who were maimed by them, suggests that he was perfectly willing to put politics before the national security interests of the country. He is not suited for the job of attorney general, which is central to the issues surrounding the disposition of war on terror detainees.
Transparency... ugh.
Is Obama intentionally trying to make Bush's cabinet decisions look good?
Panetta
Holder
Geithner
Richardson
Browner
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Fight Organized Crime... next election, elect no one. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"It was often pointed out during the election that Obama lacked management experience. While having a president with no experience is bad, it's not nearly as bad as having a president with experience as a community organizer."
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"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm."
- James Madison, Federalist No. 10
Holder will be approved. Wide discretion is given to Presidents on Cabinet appointees.
The issue isn't whether or not he'll be approved. The issue is if Obama is making good choices in who he appoints to his cabinet. Clinton looked like a goon to take so long to start even thinking about his cabinet. History may say that Obama rushed through the process without proper consideration to who he was choosing. Time will tell.
__________________ Ever shall I stand tall in remembrance of the sacrifice of those who came before, in the spirit of freedom not solemn but proud; that this nation has labored and secured the blessings of freedom. Vigilant I stand in action and purpose for posterity such that the spoils of our labors shall be preserved and not squandered on the prospect of equality through oppression. Such is the burden and the reward of a patriot.
The issue isn't whether or not he'll be approved. The issue is if Obama is making good choices in who he appoints to his cabinet. Clinton looked like a goon to take so long to start even thinking about his cabinet. History may say that Obama rushed through the process without proper consideration to who he was choosing. Time will tell.
I am concerned about Geithner and Holder, but I don't think Obama has rushed anything. I think he's a very deliberate person.
I am concerned about Geithner and Holder, but I don't think Obama has rushed anything. I think he's a very deliberate person.
Like I said, time will tell.
__________________ Ever shall I stand tall in remembrance of the sacrifice of those who came before, in the spirit of freedom not solemn but proud; that this nation has labored and secured the blessings of freedom. Vigilant I stand in action and purpose for posterity such that the spoils of our labors shall be preserved and not squandered on the prospect of equality through oppression. Such is the burden and the reward of a patriot.
Isaiah 54:17 NLT
But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the LORD; their vindication will come from me. I, the LORD, have spoken!
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