The Fascist Mindset

I guess this shit shouldn't surprise me any more, but it still does.

Last week a Pentagon spokesman/fulltime asshole named Charles Stimson, who is the DOD Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs (a fairly high-falutin' title if you ask me) went on a DC radio station and made an astonishing statement.

First he listed the dozen or so law firms who are representing Gitmo detainees, and then he went on to say "I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, these CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms."

Well allrighty then. First we pick up these people without a warrant, then keep them locked up for years without habeas corpus, and when they finally manage to get in touch with an attorney (all of whom are working pro bono, BTW), threaten an economic boycott on the law firms where those attorneys are employed.

Makes a nice, neat package for the government, doesn't it? Get the lawyers to run in fear and then claim that the detainees must be guilty, since they couldn't even get a free lawyer to defend them.

What a fucking outrage. Yeah, yeah, I know the fucker ended up apologizing for saying it. For saying it. Not for thinking it.

But it serves to illustrate perfectly, in this little capsulized event, the utter disdain and contempt this maladministration feels toward the constitution and the rule of law.