I spent quite a while thinking about this title – not long enough, some might say – but it still strikes me as a fair description of the effort by a US government official to discourage lawyers from representing Guantanamo detainees – in this case by calling into question their patriotism and calling for a boycott of their services by other clients. This case is probably more about the abject stupidity of one person than anything else, but it still strikes me as an alarming example of the power of government to deprive us of basic liberties. Update: More to my point. Update: Apology issued. Sort of.
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That is a particularly horrible instance of behaviour from a generally horrible administration.
I especially enjoyed the quote from Stimson “I think, quite honestly, when corporate C.E.O.’s see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those C.E.O.’s are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms…”
Skipping past the part about ‘terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001′, which is just too horribly backwards to go into. I would hope that the CEOs would see reputable law firms trying to defend the ideal of a just nation, which the pentagon would rather forget, and want to support that defence any way they can. But I’m neither a CEO or an American, so what would I know.
That’s exactly what I think, Patrick. There are people of courage and conscience out there – they need to speak up.