The 'al-Qaeda seven' and selective McCarthyism

washingtonpost.com ^ | March 8, 2010 | Marc A. Thiessen

[Free ThinkerNY]

Would most Americans want to know if the Justice Department had hired a bunch of mob lawyers and put them in charge of mob cases? Or a group of drug cartel lawyers and put them in charge of drug cases? Would they want their elected representatives to find out who these lawyers were, which mob bosses and drug lords they had worked for, and what roles they were now playing at the Justice Department? Of course they would -- and rightly so.

Yet Attorney General Eric Holder hired former al-Qaeda lawyers to serve in the Justice Department and resisted providing Congress this basic information. In November, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent Holder a letter requesting that he identify officials who represented terrorists or worked for organizations advocating on their behalf, the cases and projects they worked on before coming to the Justice Department, the cases and projects they've worked on since joining the administration, and a list of officials who have recused themselves because of prior work on behalf of terrorist detainees.

Holder stonewalled for nearly three months. Finally, two weeks ago, he admitted that nine political appointees in the Justice Department had represented or advocated for terrorist detainees, but he failed to identify seven whose names were not publicly known or to directly answer other questions the senators posed. So Keep America Safe, a group headed by Liz Cheney, posted a Web ad demanding that Holder identify the "al-Qaeda seven," and a subsequent Fox News investigation unearthed the names. Only under this public pressure did the Justice Department confirm their identities -- but Holder still refuses to disclose their roles in detention policy.

[BARLF]

I had to double check........Yep, it says Washington Post.

[Jerrybob]

I never thought I’d live to see the day when I’d call the Clinton years “the good old days”....

[nc28205]

On a list of lawyers in recent government service who have served alleged terrorists, the first name might be Michael Chertoff’s. Chertoff served as counsel to Magdy El-Amir, a man identified as a leading Al Qaeda fundraiser in North America. Chertoff went on to head the criminal division at Justice and then to become secretary of Homeland Security. The list would also include Michael Mukasey, Bush’s last attorney general, whose law firm had an active pro bono program writing appeals briefs in support of the Guantánamo inmates on constitutional issues, and Rudy Giuliani, whose firm was and is also engaged in representing Gitmo prisoners.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

Marc Thiessen , former speechwriter for GW and Rumsfeld has written an excellent book-
“ Courting Disaster : How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting The Next Attack . “
Ken Starr aka Elmer Fudd was on Olbermann trashing Liz Cheney and defending the Department of Jihad.

[BARLF]

http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/chertoff_protect_terror_ring.htm

Is this what you are referring to?

[nc28205]

Yes. See also:
http://daredevil92103.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/michael-chertoff-defended-accused-terrorist-financer-dr-magdy-elamir/

[HardStarboard]

>>>Is this what you are referring to? <<<

Few of us thought Chertoff was a good pick for Homeland Security.

But that doesn't mean we have to put up with even more egregious "terrorism sympathies" on the part of Holder.

Two wrongs don't add up to a fair balance - it adds up to a big risk for America.

Keep America Safe and Liz Cheney are stalwart patriots - very few in the current Administration, including Holder, have their priorities straight in the WOT.....[excuse me, "man caused disasters" and "overseas contingency operations", to be explicit if not cogent!]

[Coleus]

bttt