
 |
|
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
March 8, 2010
/ 22 Adar 5770
Appointments Are the President's Prerogative
By
Debra J. Saunders
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In November, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Attorney General Eric Holder to provide him with a list of Department of Justice political appointees who had represented enemy-combatant "detainees, or worked for organizations advocating on terrorism or detainee policy." The DOJ has not sent him the names.
But on Tuesday, a group called Keep America Safe Liz Cheney is a board member ran ads that proclaimed, "Americans have a right to know the identity of the al-Qaida 7" at the "Department of Jihad." Later Fox News reported the identities of all the attorneys now known as the DOJ9.
I am of two minds on this story.
On one hand, Grassley properly argues that the public has the right to know "who advises the attorney general and president" on national-security matters.
In that polls have shown that a solid majority of Americans do not support the Obama freshman-year approach to terrorism promising to close Guantanamo Bay, charging enemy combatants in civilian criminal courts rather than military tribunals it can hardly be a surprise that Holder does not want to shine the spotlight on attorneys who opposed Bush administration prosecutions of accused agents of terrorism.
But as Grassley spokesperson Beth Pellett Levine noted, Obama and Holder promised, but have not delivered, transparency so that an elected official learned the answer to his request, not from Holder, but through Fox News.
As for the "al-Qaida 7" ad, Levine said Grassley had "nothing to do with the ad."
Smart answer. "Al-Qaida 7" is a cheap-shot label for the DOJ9. It may not constitute McCarthyism, as some critics have charged, but it is a smear.
Debra Burlingame, another Keep America Safe board member whose brother was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 hijacked on 9/11, told me, "We don't mean to suggest that these attorneys are al-Qaida operatives, but they are enabling them."

Let me be clear. I don't like that Obama appointed Jennifer Daskal, formerly of Human Rights Watch, to be the DOJ's national security division attorney given her hostility to military tribunals. Ditto now Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal's past defense of al-Qaida member Salim Hamdan in a case that led to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the military tribunal system, which Congress later reauthorized.
But, on the other hand, Barack Obama won the White House and that gives him the right to hire whomever he wants however misguided their views are.
Or as former Bush attorney and current UC Berkeley law Professor John Yoo noted, "The president can and should put into place political appointees who agree with him. The Obama administration has placed detainee lawyers in important positions in the government because, clearly, the president agrees with the ACLU perspective on the war on terrorism."
And there's something too easy about going after the assistant and undersecretaries for policies endorsed at the very top.
Doesn't Obama have the right to pick his own people? I asked Burlingame. She answered, "He has a right to do it, but does he have a right to do it in the dark?"
The answer is no. But don't take potshots in the dark either.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment JWR contributor Debra J. Saunders' column by clicking here.
Debra J. Saunders Archives
© 2010, Creators Syndicate
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|