Obama Team Faces Major Task in Justice Dept. Overhaul

[kpete]

Source: Washington Post

Obama Team Faces Major Task in Justice Dept. Overhaul
Goal Is to Restore Confidence in Law Enforcement Actions

As a transition team for the Obama administration begins work on a Justice Department overhaul, the key question is where to begin.

Political considerations affected every crevice of the department during the Bush years, from the summer intern hiring program to the dispensing of legal advice about detainee interrogations, according to reports by the inspector general and testimony from bipartisan former DOJ officials at congressional hearings.

Although retired federal judge Michael B. Mukasey, who took charge of the department in the winter, has drawn praise for limiting contacts between White House officials and prosecutors, and for firmly rejecting the role of politics in law enforcement, restoring public confidence in the department's law enforcement actions will be central, lawmakers and former government officials say.

"The infusion of politics into the Justice Department and an abdication of responsibility by its leaders have dealt a severe blow," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the panel's ranking Republican, wrote in an opinion piece last month. "Great damage has been done to the credibility and effectiveness of the Justice Department."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/12/AR2008111202679.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

[sinkingfeeling]

1. No kidding! Will have to rebuild it from scratch.

[VeraAgnes]

2. Who do you think will be Attorney General?

I'd really like Fitzpartrick..........

[bearfan454]

15. Me too!

He would be great.

[WhiteTara]

25. Iglesias would also be a good pick

He could appoint Fitz to be Special Prosecutor.

[catzies]

3. This is only the beginning. Bushies so thoroughly trashed our govt. it will take

massive efforts by Team Obama to reconstruct what they destroyed & make it workable again.

Thank God smart effective people will be in charge very soon.

[stubtoe]

4. Do they ever. Get politics out of Justice!

[Joe Chi Minh]

14. It's the only way to get justice into Justice! What about John Dean?

would he be eligible? Or is that a crazy question?

[Joanne98]

5. Fire the Bush loyalists!

[Doctor_J]

26. I would prosecute most of them

they took an oath to uphold the law. Any of them who engaged in political prosection are guilty of high crimes.

[Zorra]

6. The first step is easy: Get rid of every Bu*h appointee possible, immediately after taking office.

The next step is to get rid of anyone hired by Bu*h or hired by these appointees.

Then go through all the computers and paperwork and find out who should be prosecuted.

[ladjf]

7. The first step is to hire an intelligent, hard working, honest

Attorney General. The rest would follow.

[annabanana]

8. Patrick Fitzgerald.

I would trust him in that job.

[asjr]

10. Thought about him yesterday. I hope someone on

the transition team brings up his name.

[Lena inRI]

23. Then VINCENT BUGLIOSI is our guy. . .

. . .


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Bugliosi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7abu9a0xtNI

I'm watching C L O S E L Y to see if President-Elect Obama approaches Mr. Bugliosi.

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[ladjf]

24. Well, we could wish. But, I don't think he'll get the post.

[Democrats_win]

9. Justice begins with economic justice. Let's start there.

[Joe Chi Minh]

16. Really, the cornerstone of a healthy society, and the precondition for peace (and now, it is

becoming ever clearer, for lasting prosperity), both at home and abroad. But, of course, that does not diminish the requrement for an apolitical Justice Department.

[PassingFair]

11. James Comey

He knows where the snake nests are.

I trust this cubscout to do the right thing.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_B._Comey

[annabanana]

22. A real "Do the Right Thing" guy... I like him too. . . .n/t

[YvonneCa]

12. Good. And isn't it a credit to our democracy that Obama...

...was elected to fix the mess Bush is leaving behind? The alternative was unthinkable to me.

[bushmeister0]

13. I like the bit in the article about how the DoJ's focus turned from

white collar crime to terrorism.

The war on terrorism served W & Co. so well. It started wars which benefited their clients, it won elections through fear and it allowed all their criminal buddies on Wall Street to wreck more havoc on the global finaincial system than OBL could have ever hoped to achieve.

No carbomb or plane hijacking could put 1.2. million people out of work or put a third of all US homes into forclosure. You did a heckuva job Gonzo!

And how about this bit:

"At a conference in Washington this week, former department criminal division chief Robert S. Litt asked that the new administration avoid fighting old battles that could be perceived as vindictive, such as seeking to prosecute government officials involved in decisions about interrogation and the gathering of domestic intelligence . . .

'It would not be beneficial to spend a lot of time calling people up to Congress or in front of grand juries,' Litt said. 'It would really spend a lot of the bipartisan capital Obama managed to build up.'"

Vindictive?

Has this jackass looked at the sorry state DOJ is in these days? No one should pay for that? Maybe a presidential medal of freedom might set all this straight, I guess.

[wroberts189]

17. rehire the fired attorneys n/t

[leftchick]

18. Lawyer for Chiquita in Colombia Death Squad Case May be Next U.S. AG!

won't have to clean up much if this asshole becomes AG.....


Lawyer for Chiquita in Colombia Death Squad Case May be Next U.S. Attorney General

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/lawyer-for-chiquita-in-co_b_141919.html?view=print

In its recent report entitled, "Breaking the Grip? Obstacles to Justice for Paramilitary Mafias in Colombia," Human Rights Watch (HRW) had specific recommendations for the U.S. Department of Justice. Specifically, HRW recommended that, in order to assist with the process of ending the ties between the Colombian government and paramilitary death squads, the U.S. Department of Justice should, among other things, "reate meaningful legal incentives for paramilitary leaders to fully disclose information about atrocities and name all Colombian or foreign officials, business or individuals who may have facilitated their criminal activities," and "ollaborate actively with the efforts of Colombian justice officials who are investigating paramilitary networks in Colombia by sharing relevant information possible and granting them access to paramilitary leaders in U.S. custody."

Do not expect these recommendations to be carried forward if Eric Holder decides to forgo his lucrative corporate law practice at Covington & Burling and accept the U.S. Attorney General position for which many believe he is the top contendor. Eric Holder would have a troubling conflict of interest in carrying out this work in light of his current work as defense lawyer for Chiquita Brands international in a case in which Colombian plaintiffs seek damages for the murders carried out by the AUC paramilitaries - a designated terrorist organization. Chiquita has already admitted in a criminal case that it paid the AUC around $1.7 million in a 7-year period and that it further provided the AUC with a cache of machine guns as well.

Indeed, Holder himself, using his influence as former deputy attorney general under the Clinton Administration, helped to negotiate Chiquita's sweeheart deal with the Justice Department in the criminal case against Chiquita. Under this deal, no Chiquita official received any jail time. Indeed, the identity of the key officials involved in the assistance to the paramilitaries were kept under seal and confidential. In the end, Chiquita was fined a mere $25 million which it has been allowed to pay over a 5-year period. This is incredible given the havoc wreaked by Chiquita's aid to these Colombian death squards.

According to Mario Iguaran, the Attorney General of Colombia, Chiquita's payments to the AUC paramilitaries led to the murder of 4000 civilians in the banana region of Colombia and furthered the growth of the paramilitaries throughout Colombia and their violent takeover of numerous Colombian regions. Iguaran, in response to the claims of both Chiquita and Eric Holder himself that Chiquita was somehow forced to pay "protection" to the paramilitaries (see, Washington Post and Conde Nast Portfolio), stated unequivocally that "his was not payment of extortion money. It was support for an illegal armed group whose methods included murder." See, Christian Science Monitor, "Chiquita Case Puts Big Firms on Notice."

One former paramilitary leader who is in federal custody in the U.S., Salvatore Mancuso, has stated that he has more knowledge about Chiquita's relationship with the paramilitary death squads in Colombia. Mancuso further claims that Dole and Del Monte also made payments to the paramilitaries, just as Chiquita did. Yet, Dole and Del Monte remain un-indicted. Query whether, as Human Rights Watch recommends, a Justice Department under Holder would be interested in pursuing this and other similar leads. This is a serious matter given the fact that the Justice Department has already come under great scrutiny for turning a blind eye to what appears to be rampant corporate support for terrorist groups in Colombia. See, L.A. Times, "U.S. accused of bending rules on Colombian Terror."

[goforit]

19. PROJECT #1!!!......TEAR up the Patriot Act!!!

[goforit]

20. PROJECT #1!!!......TEAR up the Patriot Act!!!

[musiclawyer]

21. I've been saying for weeks, hire Elliot Spitzer ..............

not as the AG, but as the "cleaner"--the guy whose job it is to flush out all the bushies and get rid of them. Make the place spotless. If he does a good job, the AG can use him in whatwever capacity he wants.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

27. First:

Nothing disinfects like fire. After Gonzo and that worm, Mukasey, the best thing to do is burn out the interior of the office of Attorney General and rebuild it.