Human Rights Contradictions Evident With Obama’s Attorney General Pick
Eric Holder, Jr.
From MAMA Radio in Colombia:
Holder’s Links to Chiquita Brands International Not a Good Sign for Justice For the Victims of Paramilitary Terror
By Mario A. Murillo
(Bogotá, Colombia)
First the good news: We’re two months away from President George W. Bush’s last full day in the White House. The countdown for the end of the nightmare has begun in earnest.
Now the bad news: As Barack Obama puts together his cabinet and eyes a slew of former Clinton officials for key staff positions, it is becoming ever more apparent that all those calls for change coming from progressive circles in the U.S. – and abroad – have fallen on deaf ears.
Most striking, at least for the time being, is the soon to be named position of the top law enforcement official of the country. It looks like the first African-American President will appoint the first African-American attorney general in the coming days, something that on the surface looks like an advance, but should actually sound alarm bells for anybody seeking true change in the way things are done in Washington, especially when it comes to bringing corporate criminals to justice.
Siegelman: New Revelations “More Frightening Than Anything That Came Before”
By Zachary Roth
Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman says that new revelations about his prosecution amount to “outrageous criminal conduct in the US Attorney’s office and the Department of Justice,” and are “more frightening than anything that has come before.” And he believes that his case is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of politicized prosecutions by DOJ.
Siegelman was reacting in an interview with TPMmuckraker to the news, first reported this morning by Time, that the US Attorney on his case, who had recused herself because her husband was a top GOP operative who had worked closely with Karl Rove – and even run the 2002 campaign of Siegelman’s gubernatorial opponent — continued to advise prosecutors on the case.
At times while speaking to TPMmuckraker, Siegelman appeared to have trouble maintaining his composure. He called the news — which came from a whistleblower in the US Attorney’s office who passed on emails and other information to the House Judiciary Commitee — “another shocking revelation in the misconduct of the US attorneys offices and the DOJ.”
The news appears to contradict previous statements from DOJ on the matter. When Congress investigated the affair earlier this year, DOJ had said that the US Attorney, Leura Canary, had recused herself “before any significant decisions … were made.”
Siegelman continued: “If what [the whistleblower] says is true, it’s one issue. But the fact that it was never disclosed to the defense or the judge, and then was covered up by DOJ, is a crime, even if what she said wasn’t true.”
He added: “At every stage of this investigation, either by lawyers or the House Judiciary Committee, DOJ has refused to turn over documents” or otherwise cooperate.
The authenticity of the key emails provided by the whistleblower has not been questioned, according to Time.
Siegelman also said he was shocked by other revelations from the whistleblower, including that one of the jurors had expressed romantic interest in an FBI agent working with prosecutors. He called it “astounding” that this hadn’t been revealed to the judge and the defense.
And Siegelman, a Democrat, left no doubt that he believes that the apparent politicization of his prosecution was just one example of many such cases. “If this were isolated to just the middle district of Alabama, it would be shocking enough. But I guarantee this kind of misbehavior has been going on all over the country.”
He added: “Whoever is the new Attorney General has to be strong enough to weed out the Karl Rove clones who have been embedded in US Attorneys’ offices throughout the United States. If not, it is going to eat at our system for years to come.”
At one point, Siegelman turned philosophical: “If I’ve been put through this for a reason, it’s to expose the fact that this is not an isolated incident. I am prayerful that Congress will dig in and demand the truth. These folks have got to be weeded out.”
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