Official Resigns Over Gitmo Lawyer Remarks

Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Had Urged Companies To Boycott Firms Representing Detainees

(AP)  A senior Pentagon official resigned Friday over controversial remarks in which he criticized lawyers who represent terrorism suspects, the Defense Department said.

Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Charles “Cully” Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, told him on Friday that he had made his own decision to resign and was not asked to leave by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Stimson said he was leaving because of the controversy over a radio interview in which he said he found it shocking that lawyers at many of the nation's top law firms represent detainees held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba.

“He believed it hampered his ability to be effective in this position,” Whitman said of the backlash to Stimson's comments.

Stimson drew outrage from the legal community — and a disavowal from the Defense Department — for his Jan. 11 comments, in which he also suggested some attorneys were being untruthful about doing the work free of charge and instead were “receiving moneys from who knows where.”

He also said companies might want to consider taking their legal business to other firms that do not represent suspected terrorists.

“I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms,” Stimson told Federal News Radio.

Stimson publicly apologized several days after the radio interview, saying his comments did not reflect his values and that he firmly believes in the principles of the U.S. legal system.

But it didn't completely quiet critics.

The Bar Association of San Francisco last week asked the California State Bar to investigate whether Stimson violated legal ethics by suggesting a boycott of law firms that represent Guantanamo Bay detainees.

[mdc76082]

Before you go bashing Cully, maybe you ought to think about what he is saying. Maybe these big lawfirms are representing only the detainees who's families are wealthiest. OBL's family is pretty *** rich. These detainee's families could be just as wealthy. I don't think this had anything to do with ethics. I think Cully hit a nerve with the large lawfirms, because they are tapping into a possible gold mine and he just p_issed them off. But, hey forgive me for seeing/thinking deeper than the newsprint.

[pakaal]

I don't know why anyone in the administration would disavow themselves from Stimson's remarks. Like JohnShaft4 says, he was only repeating the oversimplistic and uberpatriotic pap that we've heard from both officials and their media mouthpieces these past few years. So Stimson's out. Great, can someone let Cheney and Bush know they're just as morally bankrupt as this guy, and get them to step down too?

[sharncedar]

Levae it to Bush to turn a beautiful tourist spot like Gitmo Bay into a ugly eyesore of a torture camp. Think of the revenue if we opened a luxury hotel and resort there. Or sold condos like Miami. That would be free enterprise. But not for Bush, the big government president. That Bush, stealing our condos, stealing our free enterprise, leaving his ugly prison buildings and mangled bodies of his victims all over those nice beaches.

[pandoraboxed]

bush should be held responsible for everything that goes on there, he needs to step down as well.

[feelfree1]

According to the USA PATRIOT Act:

SEC. 802. DEFINITION OF DOMESTIC TERRORISM.

(a) DOMESTIC TERRORISM DEFINED- Section 2331 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--

(5) the term `domestic terrorism' means activities that--

(B) appear to be intended--

(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
*************************************

This jackass appears to fit this definition quite plainly.

Is there some reasonable explanation as to why this fool is not in Guantanimo being tortured?

[firststate]

antoniorego
You're right he had the right to express his beliefs as his personal opinion, but he was appearing on the radiio show in his official position and that was as wrong as Gates, in hisi role as Sec. of Def. popping off about diissent emboldening the enemy. Neither of the two get it. They can't express their own sanctimonious opinions under the color of their authority as public employees.

This idiot tried to extort the large law firms into giving up their representing people whom the government wants desperately to convict and will do anything necessary to advance their goal of somehow justifying their predetermined verdicts. They want to further stack the deck. The problem is with lawyers who are political hacks for a corrupt and incompetent administration and their alleged superiors who are the real bottom feeders. By the way, there is no such thing as a gay law firm, in San Francisco or anywhere else.


karlimhof
I'm in. We should be able to get group rate and send all the worst from their administration to Switzerland at one time. After all they'll only need one way tickets. They ship the gallows from Baghdad to make the patients' final moments memorable.


diamtool
He should represent them at either their impeachment or war crimes trials, this guy is exactly the attorney they deserve.

[bluestardad]

This corrupt person should be disbared and drummed from America

[karlimhof]

Updated: 9:18 p.m. ET Feb. 2, 2007
LAUSANNE, Switzerland - A ruling by Switzerland%u2019s highest court released Friday has opened up the possibility that people with serious mental illnesses could be helped by doctors to take their own lives.

I'll split the cost with anyone else for Bush/Cheney travel arranements to Switzerland. Are we on?

[johnshaft4]

This twerp is nothing more then a punk who actually got caught telling the 'truth' about the Bush/Gonzales/Chertoff agenda...

[truth_hurts2]

It is so easy to lawyer bash but those who do are ignorant fools.

Have you ever heard of lawyer Thurgood Marshall (Brown v Board of Education), and the incredible things he did for this country? How about lawyer John Frank (Miranda v Arizona). If it was not for lawyer Ralph Nader years ago, you might have very well died in a car crash. Then there are the lawyers you never hear of who spend their days helpng those who have no voice, often for little or no pay. Wake up and open you eyes-it is easy to jumpo on the lawyer bashing bandwagon because a few bad apples do some bad things, but look around you and most of the good in this country is the result of lawyers being the voice for those who need them!!!!

I am glad my tax dollars aro longer paying the salary of Chuck 'step on the Constitution' Stimson.

[diamtool]

with any luck this clown will soon be defending Bush at his impeachment!

[middleman8]

Bush will see he is well rewarded with a gold plated position. Another "Heck of a job".

[firststate]

This idiot should be disbarred for seeking to get corporate clients to drop firms doing pro bono work. He seems to have missed the day in law school when they mentioned that accusation does not prove guilt, especially as generous as this administration is with its accusations. He should have been fired on the next business day after his neo-fascist comments. The fact that he was still there after all this time speaks volumes. It shows that the last thing they are concerned with is justice. They don't want their accused enemy combatants represented by someone with the resources to actually support the attorney. A real attorney might embarrasingly point out that there was no justification for holding a prisoner for years on only the word of some Afghani bounty hunter. Especially a bounty hunter who had turned in 3 other neighbors whose land he has appropriated as his own and quintupled his poppy production. They want good ol' boy attorneys who will play along with their little "dog and pony show trials."

[book54552134]

No sensible person is opposed to the detention of terrorists. However, they should be provided the same rights as any individual accused of a serious crime including the right to be treated humanly in accordance with the Geneva Conventions & without fear of torture.
They should be allowed a proper trial before a proper court. If they are found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, they should remain in detention for life or as long as the court so determines.
But if they are found innocent, they should be released & compensated if they were held for an inordinate amount of time. And if they were tortured they should be allowed proper recompense from all involved in such war crimes.

[gabulldog66]

Perhaps he did know what he was saying. I for one would consider it a conflict of interest if my corporate attourney's firm represented a client who would like to see the economy I survive under destroyed.

Show me one lawyer who does not consider himself number 1.

[bildooreilly]

If they're guilty there shouldn't be any problems convicting them in a regular court of law with adequate represntation would there?

If you don't have a case ship them back to their sandpit. Sh it or get off the pot! This war on terror *** is even faker than the phony drug war!

[exusmcsgt]

Is ashame someone who speaks the truth is forced out. The real enemies of the US are within our own country....
Posted by rmsdm4 at 09:04 PM : Feb 02, 2007

After reading your comment, I couldn't agree more about where the enemies are....

And obviously, some of them are only semi-literate.

[exusmcsgt]

%u201CHe believed it hampered his ability to be effective in this position,%u201D Whitman said of the backlash to Stimson's comments.

Yeah. Like all he heard around the water cooler were whispered comments like "can you believe that dum a$$?"...

[tuckerndfw]

Mr. Stimson is unqualified to be an attorney and should be disbarred.

Having said that, his attitude is in perfect accord with the Bush administration and Bozo's supporters.

Anyone who claims defendants are not entitled to legal representation are clearly enemies of the US Constitution, the US as a nation and our troops.

All soldiers and public officials take an oath to support the US Constitution. And, the US Constitution is the vehicle this bozo is claiming he opposed.

Bush & supporters are a greater menace to the US & world than OBL & al qaida.

================

Bozo & supporters are incapable of discerning or telling the truth. Bozo & supporters thrive on telling and hearing lies. They do nothing other than lie. It's some kind of pathological disorder.

[rmsdm4]

Is ashame someone who speaks the truth is forced out. The real enemies of the US are within our own country, trying to make a buck off of liberal bedwetting sympathy.