This guy must have been a bigger embarassment than anticipated, given how quickly he backpedaled.
[QUOTE=Scylla]
As king of the Indefensible Position, I suppose the duty must fall to me:
Ummm.. this is going to be tough, but here goes:
Who are you to attack this man’s right to free expression? Should he be penalized for holding and vocalizing his opinion? It’s been clearly stated that this is his personal opinion and not an official one, so what’s the problem?
Are you going to go out and take the jobs away from other people who have opinions you don’t like and dare to censor the right to free speech? Do you really want to go down that slippery slope?
You may abhor what he says but you should defend his right to say it. Shame on you all.
Hey! That was pretty good. I surprised myself there! I just hope nobody points out that the asshole was speaking in his official capacity and using his position innapropriately to promote a personal agenda that directly contradicts his professional responsibility to protect the very freedoms of expression without threat of retribution that I alluded to.
Nobody point that, ok?
[/QUOTE]
Well, government officials don’t turn into non-government officials just because they say they are speaking for themselves only.
In addition, it does seem to be stretching credibility to claim that an official can simultaneously be impartial and think that detainee defense lawyers should be run out of town.
It could be argued that as the Deputy Sec Def in charge of detainees he isn’t supposed to be impartial, but I would question that. It seems to me that his job is to manage the handling of detainees without prejudging the case. In fact, he shouldn’t post judge the case either. He isn’t the one who determines whether or not they are entitled to representation.
[QUOTE=Sunrazor]
Whattaya’ wanna’ bet Stimson gets re-assigned in the not too distant future?
[/QUOTE]
From the Wikipedia article on Stimson:
If the Admin didn’t fire/reassign him for that, what makes you think they’re going to over this?
Because they are losing the argument. Its an old ploy, the put out somebody important, but nonetheless expendable, to take an extreme position that they don’t expect to fly, but can use to gauge how close they can get to the position they want. If it blows up in their faces, they chuck the extremist miscreant overboard and purport to be shockedshocked.
[QUOTE=Steve MB]
This guy must have been a bigger embarassment than anticipated, given how quickly he backpedaled.
[/QUOTE]
And while we’re linking to letters to editors on the matter, here’s one from a lawyer who is defending detainees at Guantanamo.
Sorry, I meant to include that you gotta’ watch a few seconds of a commercial, but it’s worth it.
[QUOTE=elucidator]
If it blows up in their faces, they chuck the extremist miscreant overboard and purport to be shockedshocked.
[/QUOTE]
Not quite this time:
Defense Official Resigns Over Detainee Remarks
It was Stimson’s own conscience that made him leave, not any show of respect for the constitution by his bosses.