Libs I will dig on all of them first Wald
http://www.innsofcourt.org/Content/Default.aspx?Id=321
Upon her retirement, Judge Wald accepted an appointment to serve on the 14 member panel of judges of the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, where she spent the next two years hearing cases on wartime atrocities in the former Yugoslavia. It was arduous work for Judge Wald. The trials in the Tribunal lasted, on average, fifteen months, many much longer. There was the obstacle of language and no uniform set of rules for the judges to apply. It was a grueling process for all involved. Judge Wald became a leader of the Tribunal and established a standard for fairness and the rule of law. As a result of her dedication to those principles, the lessons learned will vastly improve future international courts.
Judge Wald now serves as Chair of the Open Society Institute’s Criminal Justice Initiative.
This one helped write the act was a Bush Asst Ag, more elite incest.
http://abovethelaw.com/2007/07/why-did-the-prom-queen-leave-the-party/
Okay, working at the U.S. Department of Justice may not be a party these days. But the recently announced, imminent departure of Assistant Attorney General Rachel L. Brand — her last day at the DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy is July 9 — had nothing to do with recent controversies (contrary to some insinuations).
As tout le monde in D.C. legal circles knows, the fabulous Brand — known to some as the Prom Queen — was planning to step down for some time. The reason? She and her husband, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Cohn, are expecting a baby boy next month.
The lede of this Reuters report, while technically accurate, is therefore misleading. Thankfully, the Washington Post was more accurate:
[T]he Justice Department announced that Rachel Brand, assistant attorney general for legal policy, is resigning….
Justice officials said she plans to leave July 9 and stay at home with her first child, due this summer.
Brand, who worked on the renewal of the USA Patriot Act last year and the confirmation of two Supreme Court justices in 2005, is not known to have played a direct role in the U.S. attorneys’ removal.
“[N]ot known to have played a direct role” — maybe because she didn’t? If she had, rest assured that Chuck & Friends would have invited her over to Capitol Hill for a televised chat.
[D]epartment officials have said that Gonzales’s former chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, asked her whether she might want to replace a Michigan prosecutor who was forced out. Though interested at first, Brand did not apply for the job.
Yes, Brand shrewdly did not throw her hat into that ring. As we previously noted:
In declining to be considered, Rachel Brand showed the excellent judgment that has taken her so far, so fast. Had Rachel Brand replaced Margaret Chiara, she would have been the victim of a mainstream media pile-on. The New York Times editorial board would have derided her as a Bush Administration political hack with no prosecutorial experience (albeit a hack with impeccable academic credentials, including Harvard Law School and a Supreme Court clerkship with Justice Kennedy).
So what’s next for Rachel Brand (in addition to a bouncing baby boy)? She’s rumored to be meeting with various private law firms — and any of them would be lucky to snag this young legal superstar.
Brand has devoted the past six and a half years of her career to government service. She leaves the Bush Administration even more highly esteemed, on both sides of the aisle, than when she came in. This is no small feat, given the controversies that have shaken the DOJ, as well as the highly partisan atmosphere currently prevailing here in Washington.
June 21, 2013
Obama to talk to sham privacy board about NSA snooping
Rick Moran
The Hill has the background on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), a group that was created 8 years ago and just last month sawit’s 5th and final member confirmed.
Does this sound like a sham to you?
The panel was first suggested in the 2004 report by the 9/11 Commission, and was first launched that year. In 2007, the group was granted independent powers, but both Presidents George W. Bush and Obama resisted nominating members for years.
The panel operated without offices or staff for years, and the fifth and final member — Chairman David Medine — was only confirmed last month, by a narrow 53-45 party line vote.
The board still lacks a website, and until Medine’s appointment, had only two federal staffers pulled from other government agencies. It had held only two meetings before a briefing earlier this week, the first since the top-secret NSA programs were revealed by 29-year old defense contractor Edward Snowden.
Still, the White House believes that meeting with the panel can help assuage privacy concerns voiced since the revelation of the NSA programs. The senior administration official said the board’s functions included “ensuring that the need for such actions is balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties.”
In an interview with the Associated Press, Medine said senior officials at the NSA, FBI, and Justice Department explained how some of the NSA programs functioned in a meeting with the five panelists Wednesday.
“Based on what we’ve learned so far, further questions are warranted,” he told the wire service.
Medine also said the group plans a public meeting on July 9, and will publish a report that includes analysis of and recommendations for the NSA programs. By law, the board is required to report to Congress not less than semiannually.
This is a crock. ...
(snip)
http://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=45784
May 7, 2013
Grassley Statement on David Medine to be Chairman, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board