Thanks to Obama the US is Back to a 9/10 Mentality
President Obama’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Civil Division is “American Taliban” lawyer
While reading a piece from Lileks screedblog about the plea bargain of the “American Taliban”, John Walker Lindh, I noticed at the end of the post a very interesting piece of news that I’d missed… Lindh’s attorney C. Anthony West is President Obama’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Civil Division!!!
As Lileks points out “If you want to know how far we are past 9/11, there’s your answer: John Walker Lindh’s defense attorney is going to work for Justice. I’m not saying he wouldn’t do a perfectly competent job. It just seems like one of those things that might have stuck out, once upon a time. “
Exactly, and according to Josh Richman of the Bay Area News Group, Tony West enjoyed a Smooth confirmation hearing
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday on whether to confirm Oakland attorney Tony West as assistant attorney general in charge of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Division.West, 43, is a partner at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco, representing people and companies in civil and criminal matters since 2001. He once lived in San Jose and ran for city council, but lost to Cindy Chavez.
Answering U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., West said Tuesday he would try to improve the Civil Division’s operations by respecting the judgment of its career attorneys as well as by keeping clear communications with other division chiefs and Attorney General Eric Holder. Two other assistant attorney general nominees also being considered for confirmation — Lanny Breuer for the Criminal Division, and Christine Varney for the Antitrust Division — fielded most questions at Tuesday’s relatively low-key, 77-minute hearing.
Rusty from Jawa adds there might be some quid pro quo going on here seeing that Tony West also, conveniently enough, helped raise $65 million for Obama in California as a state finance co-chair during the campaign.:
Thanks to Obama the US is Back to a 9/10 Mentality this as news comes that Taliban ops chief once held at Gitmo
Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, formerly Guantanamo prisoner No. 008, was among 13 Afghan prisoners released to the Afghan government in December 2007.He is now known as Mullah Abdullah Zakir, a nom de guerre that Pentagon and intelligence officials say is used by a Taliban leader who is in charge of operations against U.S. and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan.
Rasoul is the latest example of a freed detainee who took a militant leadership role and a potential complication for the Obama administration’s efforts to close the prison.
U.S. authorities handed over Rasoul to the Afghan government, which in turn released him, according to Pentagon and CIA officials.
Obama, making America venerable one bad decision at a time!
