Wednesday, 18 November 2009

• Don't Act Like You Are Shocked !

  If there is one thing that is irritating , it is feigned shock. It is a insult of peoples intellect. How could anyone say with a straight face that they are "shocked" that the Holder Justice Department would make the decision to try Guantanamo Bay Detainees in New York City?

  Why do we ask for a resume ?

  Have you ever stopped and asked yourself why people ask for a resume from a prospective key employee? Why do we have a job applicant fill out a work history and give references? We do this because past performance is the best indicator of future behavior. Note I said behavior, not success. By looking at a resume we can see how a person performed under similar circumstances and formulate a judgment if that would be what we were looking for in a candidate for the position.

  In the case of Mr. Holder we had the unusual situation that he had actually served in the capacity of Deputy Attorney General. So did anything stand out during that period of service? Glad you asked !

  1. "Holder instructed his staff at Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney to effectively replace the department's original report recommending against any commutations, which had been sent to the White House in 1996, with one that favored clemency for at least half the prisoners, according to these interviews and documents".  http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/09/nation/na-holder9
  2. "Eric Holder played a leading role in one of the most infamous events of a presidency filled with infamy: the pardon of billionaire fugitive Marc Rich". Time reported at the onset of the hearings:

     "But most see this as a source of bipartisan outrage. Republicans and Democrats alike were dumbstruck by the Rich pardon. The federal prosecutors who indicted Rich are especially livid, particularly because, by definition, Rich appears to be ineligible for a pardon: He never took responsibility for his actions or served any sentence...." Rep. Henry Waxman declared that it was a “bad precedent, an end run around the judicial process, and appeared to set a double standard for the wealthy and powerful” and that had a Republican president “presided over a pardon process that resembled the chaotic mess that seemingly characterized the final days of the Clinton administration, I would be outraged and would criticize it.”" Maureen Dowd remarked that on this one the Clintonsperverted the legal system and may have traded a constitutional power for personal benefit. … The Clintons ran a cash-and-carry White House. They were either hawking stuff or carting it off."   http://tinyurl.com/589pj2

  It is all in Eric's resume. So why are we the least bit surprised when the man changed justice department direction for FARQ, is changing it for GITMO detainees?

  But this is yet another one of the cases where our media failed to do any background investigation on Mr. Holder.  So what did Eric do after leaving the Justice Department? Again, glad you asked.  According to the New York Times Resume, Mr. Holder worked as a partner at Covington & Burling.

  If one is looking over a resume it is usual customary and reasonable to check it out. Especially if someone has gone rogue before ! So let's go check out their web site : http://www.cov.com/

  "On January 20, 2009, President Obama was inaugurated, and we said farewell to a number of our lawyers who answered his call to service.  Among them was our partner Eric Holder, who became the Attorney General of the United States almost sixty years to the day after Dean Acheson’s swearing in as Secretary of State. " http://www.cov.com/about_the_firm/firm_history/

  So we found the right firm, lets see what else is on their website.

  Guantanamo Bay Detainees
  

  • We represent sixteen men detained at the United States Naval Station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.  Most of the men have been detained for approximately seven years.  None have been charged with any crimes, and none have been accorded the protections of the Geneva Convention.  In Boumediene v. Bush, 128 S. Ct. 2229 (2008), where we were co-counsel for eleven of the detainees, the Supreme Court held that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus extends to detainees held at Guantánamo Bay.  Following that decision, we have been preparing for habeas corpus hearings to be held in federal district court Washington, DC, for eleven of our clients.
  • The firm has been involved in the Guantánamo related litigation for the last five years.  In addition to the on-going habeas corpus proceedings, our efforts have included: bringing cases for review of enemy combatant classification decisions in the D.C. Circuit under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005; challenging the destruction of CIA torture tapes in federal court; filing amicus briefs and coordinating the amicus effort in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006); filing amicus briefs in support of Supreme Court review in Moussaoui v. United States, 382 F.3d 483 (4th Cir.), cert denied, 544 U.S. 931 (2005); challenging the government’s practice of redacting information from documents given to security-cleared habeas counsel; and challenging the abusive medical and living conditions that the detainees experience at Guantánamo.

  http://www.cov.com/probonooverview/probono.aspx?show=morehighlights

  So after reviewing Eric Holder's past performance, who was unable to predict his future behavior? Who is "shocked" that a man who was a partner in a firm until January that  currently represents sixteen men at GITMO , has moved their trial to federal court? Read the section above again closely.

  I am not shocked in the least. Elections have consequences. Are you shocked? Or just plain _________ (fill in the blank) ?

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