Jon Stewart tangles with Marc Thiessen on the `al Qaeda 7' - Justice Department Lawyers who represented Guantanamo Detainees

In the wake of the controversy over Liz Cheney's web attack ad on Justice Department lawyers who once represented  Guantanamo detainees Jon Stewart invited a defender - Marc Thiessen -and as charged, barely let Thiessen get in a word.  So the extended interview is posted on the web.  Thiessen defends not only Cheney's notorious attack ad, but also Charles Grasley and the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee who started the fight.

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Conservative Lawyers Push Back against Lynne Cheney Smear on Lawyers for Detainees

images: Liz Cheney, `Keep America Safe' still
Lynne Cheney's attack video labeling as the "al Qaeda 7" Justice Department lawyers who represented Guantanamo detainees has backfired.  Prominent conservative lawyers, including Clinton nemesis Kenneth Starr, have defended as honorable the defense of the unpopular.  The letter, reported on Politico, begins

The American tradition of zealous representation of unpopular clients is at least as old as John Adams’s representation of the British soldiers charged in the Boston massacre. People come to serve in the Justice Department with a diverse array of prior private clients; that is one of the department’s strengths. The War on Terror raised any number of novel legal questions, which collectively created a significant role in judicial, executive and legislative forums alike for honorable advocacy on behalf of detainees. In several key cases, detainee advocates prevailed before the Supreme Court. 

To suggest that the Justice Department should not employ talented lawyers who have advocated on behalf of detainees maligns the patriotism of people who have taken honorable positions on contested questions and demands a uniformity of background and view in government service from which no administration would benefit. 

The full report is HERE.  A broad summary of critical response to  the video by TPM is HERE.

ABA denounces Cheney "al Qaeda 7" attack on lawyers for Gitmo detainees

Liz Cheney denies that the video her outfit produced challenges anyone's loyalty.  But the still above shows that to be utterly hypocritical.  Doubt that?  Watch the video.  And then ask "have you, Maa'm, no shame?"   


Fortunately American Bar Association President  Carolyn Lamm was unequivocal in her denunciation of Cheney's attack.  Cheney labeled as the Al Quaeda 7 lawyers now at the U.S. Department of Justice who represented  men detained indefinitely without charge at Guantanamo  during the Bush-Cheney version of the "war on terror".  Her statement follows:

"A fundamental tenet of our justice system is that any one who faces loss of liberty has a right to legal counsel. Lawyers have an ethical obligation to uphold that principle and provide representation to people who otherwise would stand alone against the power and resources of the government--even to those accused of heinous crimes against this nation in the name of causes that evoke our contempt.

The American people understand this obligation, and the corollary principle that representing a client is a commitment to a legal system that requires justice, not to any one client's political, economic, social or moral views or activities. Impugning the character of lawyers who have sought to protect the fundamental rights of unpopular clients is a divisive and diversionary tactic."