JethricOne passed on this link to a Yahoo! News story titled Alleged Enemy Combatant Can See Lawyers -Judge. It’s about the final ruling on whether an American citizen being held as an enemy combatant has a right to see his lawyers. The news item has one of the scariest quotes I’ve ever heard and shows you just why the Bush administration doesn’t want enemy combatants to talk to lawyers:
Government officials also say that the presence of defense attorneys interferes with the interrogation process.
Well duh. Yeah, I’d imagine having a third party on hand to remind a defendant of his various rights would make interrogation a wee-bit more difficult. Probably limits their ability to just haul off and smack the guy a few times as well. The judge laid a little smack down on the prosecutors over this little misadventure that makes me rather proud to be an American.
“Absent agreement, the court will impose conditions. Lest any confusion remain, this is not a suggestion or a request that Padilla be permitted to consult with counsel, and it is certainly not an invitation to conduct a further dialog about whether he will be permitted to do so.”
Damn straight.
Yes, it is heartening to find a judge who is not a Bush sycophant, willing to let Bush make the court-system an adjunct to his oval office.
Packing the court with True Believers is Bush strategy for letting him become a modern Julius Caesar to swagger, strut and smirk. It takes guts to go counter to the Bush administration. After all, Bush’s lawyers assured him that he is exempt from ordinary law because he operates with God’s Law.