Official Attacks Top Law Firms Over Detainees

[cal04]

The senior Pentagon official in charge of military detainees suspected of terrorism said in an interview this week that he was dismayed that lawyers at many of the nation’s top firms were representing prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and that the firms’ corporate clients should consider ending their business ties.

The comments by Charles D. Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, produced an instant torrent of anger from lawyers, legal ethics specialists and bar association officials, who said Friday that his comments were repellent and displayed an ignorance of the duties of lawyers to represent people in legal trouble.

“This is prejudicial to the administration of justice,” said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University and an authority on legal ethics. “It’s possible that lawyers willing to undertake what has been long viewed as an admirable chore will decline to do so for fear of antagonizing important clients.

(snip)
Karen J. Mathis, a Denver lawyer who is president of the American Bar Association, said: “Lawyers represent people in criminal cases to fulfill a core American value: the treatment of all people equally before the law. To impugn those who are doing this critical work — and doing it on a volunteer basis — is deeply offensive to members of the legal profession, and we hope to all Americans.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/13/washington/13gitmo.html?hp&ex=1168664400&en=fbd6524f65fde1db&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Hosnon]

1. No person that is guilty deserves a defense...oh wait...every person is innocent

until proven guilty.

Sorry, asshat.

[Robson]

2. SOP

Standard operating procedure for this administration. They consistently do the wrong and unethical thing and then threaten and intimidate those who call them on it.

[JohnnyLib2]

3. This is chilling, another attack on our basic principles.

And no, I'm not an attorney. I hear this type of comment from "regular" folks who have no grasp of the legitimate role of defense attorneys. For a person this high in the bureacracy to say it publicly is ...chilling.

[CoffeeCat]

4. That ignorant "Pentagon official"...

...should stick to his Fascist job duties within the Bush Administration, and leave the issues
of justice to the people who understand our legal system.

Does the third-rate, boneheaded thuggery ever end with the ass clowns in this administration?

[Bozita]

5. Dixie Chicking US firms doing pro bono work -- How very fucking Republican!

Despicable!

[muntrv]

6. Hey Charlie! Read the 5th and 6th Amendments! Your job is to uphold

the Constitution, despite what your boss Chimpy says.

[EFerrari]

7. This Stimson POS was on WJ this week.

He was as disgusting as possible and probably takes a Kool Aid enema every damn morning.

We are, you know, the beacon of human rights in the world. There is no torture at Gitmo. The number of innocent detainees trying to commit SUICIDE has not doubled in recent weeks. We have always been at war with Oceania.

What about the CHILDREN we're holding, you POS? What about the people that were SOLD into detention, you POS? I won't bring up our Constitution because your head might explode.

HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT?

[muntrv]

8. Repuke Monica Crowley filed a FOIA request to find the lawyers.

Crowley and the rest of her ilk have never heard of INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. Then again, banning trans fats is the greates assault on our freedoms in this piece of shit's eye.

[fairfaxvadem]

9. Sure hope he's not related to the other Stimson...

You know, Henry, the one who actually played a valuable role for the US in the 20th Century? Sheesh. I can't even believe this guy said this outloud. What a fool.

[muntrv]

10. How do the repukes feel about James Baker's law firm representing the Saudi's

in the lawsuit brought by 9/11 victims families?

[williesgirl]

11. That prick should be fired - he's never heard of the Constitution. Threatening law firms

with losing corporate clients is terrible.

[JohnnyLib2]

13. He is an attorney,

so hopefully there will be a bunch of complaints to Bar associations.

Don't think we can be on THIS administration firing him! Promotion would be more likely, eh?

[ulysses]

23. can he be disbarred for shit like this?

Fucking incredible. Baldfaced.

[no_hypocrisy]

12. This is a redux of the McCarthy Era in the 50s where actors, writers, etc.

were either threatened with imprisoned for "contempt of Congress" (refusing to name names of communists) or sponsors pressured producers not to employ certain actors, writers, etc. (and the government pressured the sponsors).

This is much more nefarious. Being able to represent any client of your choice without government or citizen punishment is essential to our judicial system. The public policy is that EVERY defendant should have access to a professional to protect his/her/its/their interests. Take that away, and you eventually have a breakdown in society as there is no inherent fairness -- or at least the illusion of it.

[Pachamama]

14. I just got chills from reading this...It's definitely a McCarthy era-like warning...

Very scary... :scared:

[gratuitous]

18. That's it exactly

All the worst features of the Bad Old Days of the 1950s into the 1960s when everyone was suspect unless they ratted out others, and anyone who dissented from this national drumhead ceremony immediately came under suspicion. Lives were ruined for nothing more than Republican pants-wetting paranoia. And Mr. Stimson appears to be ready to institute another Scoundrel Time, with the likes of Monica Crowley leading a new Rat Brigade.

And, lest anyone think that Mr. Stimson is just some tyro who maybe is just kind of naive (from the article):

Mr. Stimson, who was a Navy lawyer, graduated from George Mason University Law School. In a 2006 interview with the magazine of Kenyon College, his alma mater, Mr. Stimson said that he was learning “to choose my words carefully because I am a public figure on a very, very controversial topic.”

No, this assclown knows exactly what he's saying and doing. And he still has a job in the Bush White House. George Mason University and the Navy must be so proud.

[rodeodance]

15. gee, the WH might have to work!

[htuttle]

16. Can they just interfere with a defendant's counsel like that?

Isn't the defendant considered a witness at their own trial, and if so, wouldn't this be witness tampering?

[EFerrari]

17. Does it matter if their due process rights are being contested?

This is why there are people trying to commit suicide at Gitmo. They have no hope left.

[MasonJar]

19. Every day I think there is no way that this could get worse, and

every day it does. Stimson should be disbarred.

[saigon68]

20. It will get worse

Its time that I go underground for real

[R_M]

21. As conservatives believe, once who are charged with a crime...

you are guilty without trial. Just ask that UCLA student who was tasered by a cop (who just happens to have a criminal record).

[cal04]

22. Leahy writes Bush a letter of protest

Also Friday, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote President Bush a letter of protest, calling Stimson's remarks ''reprehensible'' and ``especially appalling . . . from a senior defense official responsible for U.S. detention policy.''

''I hope you will immediately disavow Mr. Stimson's statements and take the appropriate action against this official,'' said Leahy, a lawyer and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.




http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16449742.htm