It’s becoming clear where the pressure to award Constitutional protections to Guantanamo Bay’s jihadists came from – inside Obama’s Justice Department. While testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley demanded of Attorney General Eric Holder, “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 problem for these individuals.” Holder said he would “certainly consider that request.” Sen. Grassley continued to press, “But I asked you for information. Will you provide it?” Holder continued to stall, “I will consider that request.” Holder than described the pro-jihadist elements within the Justice Department as “patriots” -- proving that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
While at the legal firm Covington & Burling, Holder’s associate attorneys participated in the legal wrangling involving 16 detainees from Yemen. However, the list of lawyers with jihadist legal conflicts of interests is an interesting one.
The law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr provides an assortment of “patriots” fighting for jihadists. David Ogden is awaiting confirmation on his appointment as Assistant Attorney General; Justice’s chief of staff Stuart Delery, senor council Eric Columbus and council Chad Golder worked to win victory in the Boumediene v. Bush Supreme Court decision that granted jihadists a right to challenge their detention under the habeas corpus protections of the U.S. Constitution.
The firm Jenner & Block has provided Associate Attorney General nominee Thomas Perrellie whose lawyers represented six Gitmo detainees. Associate Deputy Attorney General Donald Verilli also served at the firm.
Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who represents the Obama administration before the Supreme Court, argued the Hamdan v Bush case while a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. The Hamdan decision accorded Geneva Convention protections for stateless jihadists and ruled that military commissions violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
According to the Legal Times, more than a dozen such “patriots” now work for Obama’s Justice Department, where arguments are crafted to make our legal system fit Obama's make-believe world. It’s a patriotic dream in which jihadists and U.S. citizens are part of the exciting melting pot we call America.
-- Mr. Curmudgeon
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