Official Resigns Over Gitmo Lawyer Remarks

(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.