Post Editorial

The Washington Post ran a scathing editorial (“Unveiled Threats: A Bush appointee’s crude gambit on detainees’ legal rights) on January 12, 2007.  It begins like this:

MOST AMERICANS understand that legal representation for the accused is one of the core principles of the American way. Not, it seems, Cully Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs. In a repellent interview yesterday with Federal News Radio, Mr. Stimson brought up, unprompted, the number of major U.S. law firms that have helped represent detainees at Guantanamo Bay. “Actually you know I think the news story that you’re really going to start seeing in the next couple of weeks is this: As a result of a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request through a major news organization, somebody asked, ‘Who are the lawyers around this country representing detainees down there,’ and you know what, it’s shocking,” he said.

Click here for the full editorial.

The editorial proceeds to quote Stimson as suggesting that corporate law firms are representing (either pro bono or for money) many of the detainees for unknown reasons and that their corporate clients would likely object when the information became public.  What about the idea that all persons accused of wrongdoing and held in detention, deserve access to legal representation?

Postscript. The Pentagon disavowed Stimson’s remarks suggesting companies boycott law firms that represent detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Click here for the NY Times story.  Dan Kowalski wraps this story all up at (click here).