Friday, April 8, 2011

The Department of Injustice

The Department of Justice under the Bush Administration was under attack by the left on a daily basis. From the Patriot Act legislation that "shredded" the Constitution, the Waterboarding of 3 tier one Al-Qaida members, which incidentally stopped multiple future attacks that were in the Al-Qaida pipeline, and the creation of Guantanamo Bay detention camp. What's astonishing is that President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have kept in place almost everything that many on the left say the Bush administration should be jailed for. A big part of Barack Obama's campaign was based on these supposed injustices. He told the world that the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay according to Obama was contrary to our Constitution and our American values, was  a recruiting tool for future terrorists, and lowered our moral standing with the world's democracies. He said Guantanamo would be closed within the first 100 days in office, well we're working on almost 2 and a half years and Guantanamo is nowhere close to being closed. He  extended the Patriot Act with no changes, he still uses Rendition, a CIA practice of moving prisoners overseas from one secret prison to another secret prison. The policy wasn't even created by the Bush administration but the Clinton administration. Now after telling the country and the world we will prosecute the "Mastermind" of 9/11 Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in New York City just blocks away from the site of the most horrific day in our country's history, because it would show the world how transparent and just our civilian courts are. Now AG Eric Holder has reversed course and said KSM will be tried in a military tribunal. Do you think the Bush administration will ever recieve an apology?

We should have seen this coming from a mile away. Attorney General Eric Holder has never been a man of priciple or honesty. He's a man who plays both sides of the fence, the corporate side and the government side. He has made millions working for the firm Covington & Burling facilitating big settlements for companies like Purdue Pharma which liberals would consider under the evil umbrella of "Big Pharma," Chiquita Brands International, and helping Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich in a casino licensing stuggle because the developer had mob ties. There are more corporate shinanigans but none compare to what he did as Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration.

During his tenure as Deputy AG, which ran from June 13, 1997 to Jan. 20, 2001 he lobbied and signed off on two of the most egregious pardons in the history of the presidency. I'm sure some of you remember the last minute pardons president Clinton handed out his last day in office, 176 to be exact.

The FALN was a marxist terrorist group that wanted the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States. In the process of their attempted revolution they set off an estimated 120 bombs in the Chicago and New York areas, targeting law enforcement and government agencies. Sound familiar? (Weather Underground). 16 members were convicted of illegal bomb making, conspiracy to commit robbery, and sedition. The group was also responsible for the murders of 6 individuals and the maiming of countless others. Sentances ranged from 35-105 years in prison. Deputy Attorney General Holder ignored repeated dissaproval by career Justice Department lawyers Roger Adams and Margaret Colgate Love. Their strong opposition to any clemency was revealed in many internal memos and a draft report recommending denial. The FBI, US attorney's office, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the Fraternal order of Police all opposed the pardons. Holder disregarded their opposition and didn't tell the victims families until after the prisoners were released.

Marc Rich wasn't responsible for any murders that we know of but was convicted of 51 counts of tax fraud, tax evasion, and was a conspirator in the Iraqi Oil for Food scandal. Rich was an international Oil commodities broker who and along with his wife were major donors to the Clintons. Rich had fled the country and was on the FBI's ten most wanted list and had been on the lamb for sometime before Holder took office. Jack Quinn former White House Counsel to President Clinton was hired by Rich at the suggestion of  Holder so he could have a direct line to the White House. Deputy AG Holder was looking for an endorsement to get promoted to Attorney General by Quinn so Deputy Holder made the commutation happen. How he secured the pardon was to withhold information of the pardon from career prosecutors in the DOJ and went to Quinn who we assume had the ear of President Clinton. The pardon was granted. But after the pardon Holder was brought before congress and was grilled by two congressional committees. He played dumb stating he didn't know the particulars of the case, but the facts bore out that he suggested Jack Quinn as an attorney for Rich, had repeated conversations with Quinn on strategies to go around the DOJ, and finally a phone call to President Clinton suggesting the approval of the pardon.

In recent events as Attorney General he has dismissed a voter intimidation case involving The New Black Panther Party. Two members of the New Black Panther Party were standing in front of a polling station in Philadelphia wearing full para-military garb, brandishing nightsticks, and threatening white voters trying to enter the polling station, calling them "White Devils," telling them that they are going to be "ruled by the black man now," and blocking voters entrance. This was caught on tape by witnesses with cell phone cameras and by a Fox News team. Civil rights attorney Bartle Bull who worked for Robert Kennedy and other democratic leaders was also witness to the event. He witnessed the Panthers carrying nightsticks and calling white voters "crackers." When interviewed the lifetime civil rights lawyer said that the incident was the most serious act of voter intimidation he had ever witnessed. The case was brought to the DOJs voting division and was handled by 5 career attorneys. They won the case when the Black Panthers charged in the case failed to show up for court and ignored all communications from the DOJ. The case was won under the Bush administration but in the time the case was won to the actually sentencing and penalty phase Barack Obama had won the presidency and Eric Holder was appointed Attorney General. Within weeks the case was dismissed.

The case went under the radar until J. Christian Adams a attorney that prosecuted the case resigned his position at the DOJ and told the story behind the dissmisal of the case in an op-ed for the Washington Times and an interview on Meghan Kelly's show America Live. Adams said that the case was the easiest he had ever prosecuted in his time at the DOJ. They had video tape and witness testimony that showed that the Panthers were intimidating voters at the Philadelphia polling station. It was a "slam dunk" as he explained it. Chris Coates one of the most respected laywers in voting rights history and was lead prosecutor in the case had no doubt in the validity of the case. Adam's has stated that Obama appointees Steve Rosenbaum and Lorretta King originally told the lawyers to drop the case, a case that had already been won. Adams has also testified to the U.S. commission on Civil Rights that the DOJ has a new mandate that voter intimidation cases against minorites will not be pursed. He has been told by collegues it's "payback time," and the Deputy Assistant Attorney on Civil Rights Julie Fernandes said that no voting-rights cases of any kind would be brought against minorities during this administration, by the Civil Rights Division. All of this tetimony can be found on youtube, Chris Coates went against DOJ orders to ignore subpoenas by the U.S. commision on Civil Rights and his testimony is astonishing.

All of this makes total sense when you listen to the statements of Eric Holder himself. In a address to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month he said, "Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic meeting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards." Wow. Holder told hundreds of Justice Department employees gathered for the event that they have a special responsibility to advance racial understanding. When responding to criticism about the dismissal of the Black Panther case by Bartle Bull Holder he said this, "When you compare what people endured in the south in the 60s to try to get the right to vote for African Americans, and to compare what people were subjected to there to what happened in Philadelphia-which was inappropriate, certainly that...to describe it in those terms I think it does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line, who risked all, for MY PEOPLE." My emphisis on my people. It is clear that our new Attorney General has a major chip on his shoulder and is using the Justice Department to settle supposed unresolved racial issues he feels our country has yet to address. What he is doing is the antithisis of what the Justice Department is charged to do. He is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States and is responsible for giving the president legal advice and protecting all Americans in matters of law equally without bias to race, religion, or creed.

In his most recent racially motivated action he has sued the state of Arizona for passing an immigration law that was carefully crafted and would have protected Arizona taxpayers from bearing the cost of illegal immigrants and would have allowed local law enforcement to hand over illegal immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

This use of the Justice Department only fosters more resentment and racial tension, it does nothing to protect the citizens of America from real injustices and mistreatment under the Constitution.

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