Do you remeber when AG Eric Holder gave his speech and called America a "Nation of Cowards" on the issue of race? Do you remember that his firm is representing detainees at Gitmo? There is a saying. Don't spit into the air. You never know when the wind will change direction.
According to The American Lawyer Yolanda Young, a former staff attorney at Covington & Burling who wrote a controversial column for the Huffington Post almost a year ago on racial segregation at large law firms, filed a discrimination suit on Tuesday in Superior Court for the District of Columbia against her former firm.
Yolanda wrote an article about Eric Holder titled "What Eric Holder's Tenure at Covington & Burling Says About Blacks and BigLaw". She writes This week, Attorney General nominee, Eric Holder Jr., will probably be confirmed by the Senate. It is a historic moment and one that Holder has seemingly been working towards for much of his career. He has served as a US Attorney for the District of Columbia and a Deputy Attorney General--the first African American, incidentally, in either position. Simply stated, I am proud of him. My admiration, although sincere, is not without its complexity.
About her lawsuit she writes "Whether Covington's treatment of staff attorneys as a minority class is illegal will soon be taken up by the courts. It is an issue that appears ripe for review by the next US Attorney General. How ironic."
Covington and Burling representative deny the charges according to the article.
Showing posts with label Eric Holder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eric Holder. Show all posts
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Eric Holder's Law Firm Represents Gitmo Detainees
In today's emails I received the following "Washington Recap" so I decided to check its authenticity:
The American people elect a President with a total of 42 days experience as a U S Senator from the most politically corrupt state in America whose Governor is ousted from office. The President's first official act is to close Gitmo and make sure Terrorists civil rights are not violated.
The U.S. Congress rushes to confirm an Attorney General, Eric Holder, whose law firm we later find out represents seventeen Gitmo Terrorists.
Michelle Malkin brings us this news, Pay attention to Eric Holder’s law firm and Gitmo detainees.
[A]s nearly 100 of the remaining detainees are Yemenis, reflecting that country’s refusal to assure security for repatriated Yemenis, note that AG nominee Eric Holder is a senior partner with Covington & Burling, a prestigious Washington, D.C. law firm, which represents 17 Yemenis currently held at Gitmo. From the C & B website:
Human Rights
The firm represents 17 Yemeni nationals and one Pakistani citizen held at Guantánamo Bay. The Supreme Court will soon review the D.C. Circuit’s ruling that ordered the dismissal of a number of habeas petitions filed by Guantánamo detainees; some of our clients are petitioners in the Supreme Court case. We expect to play a substantial role in the briefing. We also plan to petition the Supreme Court to hear our Pakistani client’s appeal from the D.C. Circuit’s order dismissing his case. Further, we are pursuing relief in the D.C. Circuit under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 for all of our clients. On a separate front, we filed amicus briefs and coordinated the amicus effort in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in which the Supreme Court in the summer of 2006 invalidated President Bush’s military commissions and in which we have obtained favorable rulings that our clients have rights under the Fifth Amendment and the Geneva Conventions.
From the Times in the U.K.
Even before he got to work yesterday, the new Administration had halted all military trials of terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. Mr Obama is expected to sign an executive order today that will close the camp within a year “to further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice”. Judges have agreed to stop the trials of five Guantánamo detainees who have been charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks.
So let me get this straight. The President of our United States halted military trials of suspected terrorist detainees who will now be represented by the firm where the Attorney General of the United States is a senior partner. Seems to be self-styled lobbying to me.
I have to ask this question. Are they pro bono, meaning the detainees not being prosecuted at all is good for the firm, or is the government going to pay the legal bills of the detainees.
The fact that Mr. Holder, while Deputy Attorney General, pushed for the release of 16 violent FALN terrorists against the advice of the FBI, the US Attorneys who prosecuted them and the NYPD officers who were maimed by them, suggests that he was perfectly willing to put politics before the national security interests of this country. He is not suited for the job of attorney general, which is central to the issues surrounding the disposition of war on terror detainees.
Read this one son's account of the loss of his father at the hands of the FALN in a vicious, cold-blooded attack on Jan. 24, 1975, the lunchtime bombing at New York City’s historic Fraunces Tavern.
In a September 1999 letter to House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde, FBI Director Louis Freeh explained that “the FBI has consistently advised the DOJ in writing that the FBI was opposed to any such pardon and or commutation of sentences for any of these individuals.” Freeh said clemency “would likely return committed, experienced, sophisticated and hardened terrorists to the clandestine movement.” Mr. Freeh emphasized “the FBI was unequivocally opposed to the release of these terrorists under any circumstances and had so advised the DOJ.” Moreover, in a letter to me dated Jan. 6, 1998, (more than a year before the pardons) a senior official from Holder’s own Justice Department expressly referred to the FALN members as “terrorists.”
Yet, according to Edward Lewine of the New York Daily News, despite this opposition, “Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department official most involved with this issue, reportedly supported clemency.” Indeed, rather than consult with attack victims and their families, Mr. Holder instead met privately with members of Congress and recommended what the FALN members should do to facilitate a grant of presidential clemency.
“What an opportunity we have to change this country,” he said, as he reminded them of the vast crowd “as far as the eye could see” that had watched his inauguration on Tuesday. Blame the American public for not asking the definition of "change."
The American people elect a President with a total of 42 days experience as a U S Senator from the most politically corrupt state in America whose Governor is ousted from office. The President's first official act is to close Gitmo and make sure Terrorists civil rights are not violated.
The U.S. Congress rushes to confirm an Attorney General, Eric Holder, whose law firm we later find out represents seventeen Gitmo Terrorists.
Michelle Malkin brings us this news, Pay attention to Eric Holder’s law firm and Gitmo detainees.
[A]s nearly 100 of the remaining detainees are Yemenis, reflecting that country’s refusal to assure security for repatriated Yemenis, note that AG nominee Eric Holder is a senior partner with Covington & Burling, a prestigious Washington, D.C. law firm, which represents 17 Yemenis currently held at Gitmo. From the C & B website:
Human Rights
The firm represents 17 Yemeni nationals and one Pakistani citizen held at Guantánamo Bay. The Supreme Court will soon review the D.C. Circuit’s ruling that ordered the dismissal of a number of habeas petitions filed by Guantánamo detainees; some of our clients are petitioners in the Supreme Court case. We expect to play a substantial role in the briefing. We also plan to petition the Supreme Court to hear our Pakistani client’s appeal from the D.C. Circuit’s order dismissing his case. Further, we are pursuing relief in the D.C. Circuit under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 for all of our clients. On a separate front, we filed amicus briefs and coordinated the amicus effort in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in which the Supreme Court in the summer of 2006 invalidated President Bush’s military commissions and in which we have obtained favorable rulings that our clients have rights under the Fifth Amendment and the Geneva Conventions.
From the Times in the U.K.
Even before he got to work yesterday, the new Administration had halted all military trials of terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. Mr Obama is expected to sign an executive order today that will close the camp within a year “to further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice”. Judges have agreed to stop the trials of five Guantánamo detainees who have been charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks.
So let me get this straight. The President of our United States halted military trials of suspected terrorist detainees who will now be represented by the firm where the Attorney General of the United States is a senior partner. Seems to be self-styled lobbying to me.
I have to ask this question. Are they pro bono, meaning the detainees not being prosecuted at all is good for the firm, or is the government going to pay the legal bills of the detainees.
The fact that Mr. Holder, while Deputy Attorney General, pushed for the release of 16 violent FALN terrorists against the advice of the FBI, the US Attorneys who prosecuted them and the NYPD officers who were maimed by them, suggests that he was perfectly willing to put politics before the national security interests of this country. He is not suited for the job of attorney general, which is central to the issues surrounding the disposition of war on terror detainees.
Read this one son's account of the loss of his father at the hands of the FALN in a vicious, cold-blooded attack on Jan. 24, 1975, the lunchtime bombing at New York City’s historic Fraunces Tavern.
In a September 1999 letter to House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde, FBI Director Louis Freeh explained that “the FBI has consistently advised the DOJ in writing that the FBI was opposed to any such pardon and or commutation of sentences for any of these individuals.” Freeh said clemency “would likely return committed, experienced, sophisticated and hardened terrorists to the clandestine movement.” Mr. Freeh emphasized “the FBI was unequivocally opposed to the release of these terrorists under any circumstances and had so advised the DOJ.” Moreover, in a letter to me dated Jan. 6, 1998, (more than a year before the pardons) a senior official from Holder’s own Justice Department expressly referred to the FALN members as “terrorists.”
Yet, according to Edward Lewine of the New York Daily News, despite this opposition, “Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, the Justice Department official most involved with this issue, reportedly supported clemency.” Indeed, rather than consult with attack victims and their families, Mr. Holder instead met privately with members of Congress and recommended what the FALN members should do to facilitate a grant of presidential clemency.
“What an opportunity we have to change this country,” he said, as he reminded them of the vast crowd “as far as the eye could see” that had watched his inauguration on Tuesday. Blame the American public for not asking the definition of "change."
Friday, February 20, 2009
Rev. Al Sharpton- Publicity Opportunist Extraordinaire
Rev. Al Sharpton attacked this cartoon claiming it is racist. Yo Rev. Why didn't you attack this cartoon two days before for picking on blind people?? I guess there is a distinction on whether one African-American is blind or not.
BTW Al, I believe the Porkulus Spendulous package was authored by more than one person. Quit your whining. Sean Delona's comments: "It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist," Allan said in a written statement.
Visit Political Rants and see what the ZenMaster has to say about it.
Look at this post on PAWaterCooler.com
AG Eric Holder, Rev. Al Sharpton, and other black spokespersons do more harm than good for their cause. We aren’t cowards. Almost everytime a white person talks about color somehow it is twisted as racist. So here goes. This country did not elect an African-American as President of the United States. The country elected an American. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. You are Irish if you are born in Ireland. You are Italian if you are born in Italy. You are an American if you were born on American soil and your birth certificate says so. Yet, it is important for people of color to point to Barack’s skin tone.
His heritage makes him half white. So why didn’t we elect a white President? All of the sudden skin color matters?? The men in military who were born in this country fighting overseas or serving anywhere, are they Americans, or because of their skin color, are they African-American? Do they fight behind the American Flag or the African-American Flag? Every soldier I ever met was proud as hell to be an American.
If you were born in this country the only way you are going to take ownership of that title is to seize it, not disguise it. The President of the United States needs to be a leader in the forefront of the discussion. He has to tell America that Americans are Americans. If you were born here, grew up here, worked here, and retire here you should be proud to be an American. Our ancestors who came here created the melting pot. But those of us who are born here are not part of that pot. We are part of the United States of America. And the sooner people of color take ownership of that title the sooner their perceived “Berlin Wall” will come crashing down.
If you don’t want to be called black quit pointing it out. In all of my point please do not lose sight of the fact that everyone’s cultural heritage is important, no different than religion. Traditions are not lost when one calls him/herself an American. Parents teach their children about where they came from in the timeline of life. Nothing in that teaching interferes with the birthplace of a person. And I do believe that should never be lost. It is something to be shared among Americans. It is something to be explored by Americans. It is something that we do as Americans.
Eric and Rev. Al, the ball is in your court now.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Clinton, Richardson, and Obama
From my previous posts one can surmise that I am not a fan of Barack Obama. My reasons are many but mainly center on his lack of experience. I listened to the older George Bush in a recent interview talk kindly of PEBO. The comment that stuck with me was Bush's assessment that Barack is articulate. While that my be true it makes me personally feel the country will be "sold" on something, not united to solve our problems.
A crack in his cabinet appeared over the weekend. Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico withdrew his name for the post of Commerce Secretary due to the disclosure of an investigation over the award of a state contract to one of his donors. The Obama transition team claims that Richardson wasn't forthcoming with this information before the announcement of his appointment. Their claim falls flat on its face since the Albuquerque Journal has been reporting on this story since August, 2008. A simple Google search would glean light on the allegation.
This story follows a similar story recently where an upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Clinton's foundation in November 2004, about the same time Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman's mall project.
Sen. Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex, an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse, N.Y.
She also helped secure an earmark in a highway bill that set aside $5 million for Destiny USA roadway construction.
In another saga Eric Holder, PEBO's nominee for Attorney General, failed to disclose that Governor BLagojevich picked him to settle an Illinois casino license mess.
Blagojevich and Holder appeared together at a March 24, 2004, news conference to announce Holder's role as "special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board" -- a post that was to pay Holder and his Washington, D.C. law firm up to $300,000.
Holder, however, omitted that event from his 47-page response to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire made public this week -- an oversight he plans to correct after a Chicago Sun-Times inquiry, Obama's transition team indicated late Tuesday.
I guess these acts are the change PEBO convinced us he would bring to Washington.
A crack in his cabinet appeared over the weekend. Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico withdrew his name for the post of Commerce Secretary due to the disclosure of an investigation over the award of a state contract to one of his donors. The Obama transition team claims that Richardson wasn't forthcoming with this information before the announcement of his appointment. Their claim falls flat on its face since the Albuquerque Journal has been reporting on this story since August, 2008. A simple Google search would glean light on the allegation.
This story follows a similar story recently where an upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Clinton's foundation in November 2004, about the same time Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman's mall project.
Sen. Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex, an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse, N.Y.
She also helped secure an earmark in a highway bill that set aside $5 million for Destiny USA roadway construction.
In another saga Eric Holder, PEBO's nominee for Attorney General, failed to disclose that Governor BLagojevich picked him to settle an Illinois casino license mess.
Blagojevich and Holder appeared together at a March 24, 2004, news conference to announce Holder's role as "special investigator to the Illinois Gaming Board" -- a post that was to pay Holder and his Washington, D.C. law firm up to $300,000.
Holder, however, omitted that event from his 47-page response to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire made public this week -- an oversight he plans to correct after a Chicago Sun-Times inquiry, Obama's transition team indicated late Tuesday.
I guess these acts are the change PEBO convinced us he would bring to Washington.
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