Saturday, January 13, 2007

A Lawyer's Choice?

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.

[snip]

He said, “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, and I think that is going to have major play in the next few weeks. And we want to watch that play out.”


Amazing. Simply, amazing. If there was ever any doubt that this administration's number one priority are their corporate base (not their conservative base), this attempt at extortion should make it pretty obvious.

It's all about the rights of the businesses, not the individuals. And, golly, gosh darn, if the damn lawyers don't know they're supposed to only represent the corporations, then fire the lot. Sheesh. Lawyers fighting for individual rights? No way, Jose! The only good client is a corporate client.

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