‘McCarthyite’ provision in defense bill targets ACLU lawyers

Source: RawStory.com

The defense appropriations bill currently moving through the House of Representatives includes a measure which directs the Defense Department's inspector general to investigate attorneys who may have "interfered with operations of the Department of Defense" while representing detainees at Guantanamo Bay and report back to Congress.

That measure has civil libertarians up in arms. Salon's Glenn Greenwald, for example, described the "truly vile provision" as a "McCarthyite attack on detainee lawyers" and identified it as "the brainchild of GOP Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida, who has labeled efforts to represent detainees ... a 'treacherous enterprise" and smeared those lawyers as 'disloyal.'"

According to ABC News, Rep. Miller "proposed the language to the bill because he was outraged by the allegations behind the Department of Justice investigation that is being led by U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Miller said it's important to subject detainee defense lawyers to greater scrutiny in order to 'identify any policy violations,' that, he said, could compromise national security."

The allegations cited by Miller became public knowledge last March, when it was revealed that the Justice Department had secretly been investigating whether lawyers involved with the ACLU's John Adams Project had broken any laws in their attempts to to have detainees identify CIA interrogators who might have been involved in torture. When it appeared that the Justice Department was about to conclude that no crimes had been committed, the CIA complained and the department brought Fitzgerald in to resolve the dispute. Since Fitzgerald's investigation remains ongoing, Miller's measure would seem to be intended primarily to drag the issue into the political arena and make it the subject of Congressional hearings during the period immediately prior to next fall's elections.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0527/defense-bill-includes-mccarthyite-provision-targeting-aclu-lawyers/

Ass holes

Congress would magically stop acting like assholes?

Obama isnt GOD.

use of the Patriot Act and has personally authorized the EXECUTION of an American Citizen Abroad.

You bet, President Obama isn't God - but I'd settle for a President with a sound moral compass - especially when it concerns protection of our Bill of Rights.

Why can't our "leaders" who control BOTH HOUSES of Congress strip out this provision?!?

WTH good does it do to have a majority in Congress when they don't uphold our Constitution?

or he IS leading and is getting exactly what he wanted. It's one or the other.

Have you already forgotten that Dubya rammed through EVERY FUCKING THING that he wanted, and got OUR DEMS to vote for a good bit of it. When Obama wants something he pushes for it, like that corporate bailout known as "health care reform". The congress is controlled by OUR PARTY and he is the leader of the party. He's either not leading, or he's getting just what he wants. One or the other. There is no other excuse.

They'll do anything to hang on to their agenda.

That's some trick.

:kick:

afford one, one will be appointed for you.


Fine print:

We reserve the right to intimidate attorneys so that they will self-censor, instead of representinhg you (and your Constitutional rights) vigorously, as the ethics of their profession require.

So much for your frickin' Constitutional right to counsel, asshat.

Not the least bit surprising.