American Lawyers Helping The Enemy

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You gotta love Lawyers:

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.

“We have a senior government official suggesting that representing these people somehow compromises American interests, and he even names the firms, giving a target to corporate America.”

[…]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.”

There is one small problem in Ms. Mathis’s argument.  These are NOT friggin criminals Einstein.  These are terrorists detained while attacking us during a time of war.   Legal trouble is when someone is caught stealing a case of beer or drunk driving.  The detainee’s are being held at Gitmo for acts of war dammit.

Those held are Gitmo should have no legal rights, they are being detained until all hostilities cease and then they can be repatriated back to their home countries.  Period. 

For those who wish to yell about the Geneva Conventions I have a few points.  The Conventions were designed to encourage countries and combatants to follow the rules of war by offering them protections if they go along.  If a combatant wishes to wage war not in accordance with the rules of war they are unlawful combatants and do not have single right of a POW.  They should be executed or held until all hostilities cease.

They certainly DO NOT have the standing of a accused American criminal and any client of one of these firms certainly do have a right to know that the company they do business with is aiding and abetting men waging war on this country.

Can we force these firms to stop doing business with terrorists?  I’m not sure, but I do know everyone has the right to know WHO is doing business with them.

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