Chiquita death squad attorney Eric Holder floated for U.S. Attorney General!

[Peace Patriot]

He got Chiquita execs off with a hand slap for paying $1.7 million to rightwing death squads in Colombia, to slaughter 4,000 union leaders and workers.

For fucking Attorney General!

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

Obama might as well appoint Albert Gonzales as A.G. That's what Holder and Gonzales do for a living--they get big powerful, multi-millionaire white men immunity for mass murder of the poor and the brown.

I was willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt on the appointment of Rahm Emmanuel as WH chief of staff--at least until we see who he wants as DNC chair (if Dean is leaving that position). Emmanuel is the DLC politico who went round dropping cash on pro-war Democrats, to defeat anti-war Democrats and real leftists (majorityists) in the '06 primaries. He is as responsible as Pelosi and Reid for Congress' 10% approval rating (worse than Bush!). This is to be Obama's "gatekeeper"--a powerful DLCer who hates the grass roots and the 70% majority of Americans opposed to the Iraq War, and likely would have done anything in his power to prevent Obama from getting the nomination? Yup! Him. Chief of staff.

But on the other hand, it may be a brilliant appointment. We don't know yet. Clearly, Obama had to make a deal with the Clinton/DLC faction of the leadership, to get the corpo/fascist vendors of 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines, and the corpo/fascist media, to back off and let him win. I understand what Obama's dealing with. I am not naive. And why not have your chief enemy in the Democratic Party close at hand, and on a tight leash, obliged to implement your legislative agenda? Benefit of the doubt, anyway. If Emmanuel gets the job done for Obama, maybe we can forgive his support for a million innocent people slaughtered in Iraq as a quirk in his character.

Sorry. I mean this. Obama has to work with a largely corpo/fascist Congress, made that way in no small part by Rahm Emmanuel. Emmanuel knows who they are. Maybe he can whip them into shape on Obama's behalf. And I was thinking, too, that, ok, Obama gets the left all riled up and pissed off over this appointment--making the DLC's boy WH chief of staff--so he can do something else that is more important. We don't know the full picture yet. It's only day 4 and he's not even president yet. And he's got the Bush Cartel to worry about.

But this...this is unspeakable! With all the attorneys in this country who are righteous defenders of civil rights, who devote their lives to good causes, who are smart and dedicated and for the people, he can't find someone better than Chiquita Banana's death squad attorney for A.G.? A man who might as well be a mafia attorney. A man with utter contempt for the law when it comes to killing union leaders and uppity workers--especially the brown kind. They count for nothing to shits like Eric Holder.

This is worse than Emmanuel, the DLC and the Iraq War, because of the POSITION--chief law enforcement officer of the U.S. What can we expect from such an A.G.? Two things, at least: Protection of Bush war criminals, and protection of global corporate predators of every kind, when they kill and oppress the little, unimportant people who get in their way. It also may signal the victory of the Clintonites/Bushites, within the Obama camp, on rewarding the horrors in Colombia with a "free trade" deal (that is, rewarding the rich fascists, drug traffickers and death squadders who run Colombia), and on demonizing and trying to topple the democratic leaders of the rest of the continent--particularly Chavez (Venezuela), Morales (Bolivia) and Correa (Ecuador), who control much of South America's oil and are using the profits to benefit the poor.

It raises the gravest question about Obama Latin American foreign policy: Is he going to repeat the mistakes of the last two hundred years, and the horrors of the Reagan and Bush regimes, and try to bludgeon Latin America--and particularly South America--into submission? Is he going to defy the peaceful, democratic aspirations of the poor majority, which are finally being realized on the most of the continent, but notably not in Colombia? Does he have no understanding of the bleak irony that this hideous, fascist regime in Colombia is virtually the only U.S. ally on the continent?

Obama certainly articulated a rather full-on "manifest destiny" outlook, with regard to Latin America, in his speech to the anti-Castro mafia in Miami, in May. But it had some hints that he might pursue restoring U.S. corpo dominance more peacefully than the bloodthirsty Reaganites and Bushwhacks. I don't have any illusions about Obama on this score. I voted for him despite his utter failure to understand the democracy revolution in South America (quickly moving into Central America). Latin American foreign policy is his most serious failure, as a leftist, as a thinker and as an educated man. But he is a learner--open-minded, welcoming toward dissenting views. And I had hope.

As Emily Dickinson has said, "Hope is a thing with feathers." Light, airy, will-o-the-wisp, easy to blow away. Beautiful, but so fragile.

This floater--Eric Holder as A.G.--is like a high-powered rifle blast to the little bird of hope that I had on Obama and Latin America. There isn't much left of the poor thing. A few bits of bird bone and feathers falling, falling to the ground, as I try to hope that it isn't true. That it's just a rumor. That they might (or somebody might) float such a thing for various reasons, but that Obama couldn't possibly be serious.

Of all the attorneys in the U.S.....

[Judi Lynn]

1. Adding Holder to the legacy of CIA murderous actions throughout the Americas since Eisenhower,

non-stop, he fits the pattern seamlessly.

You recall Chiquita Bananas was United Fruit. Here's a quick summary of United Fruit's level of control of Guatemala, aided and enforced by the U.S. This is so tragic, so brutal, so filthy:

Other countries in Central and South America also fell under the thrall of the mighty UFCO, also called "yunai" or "La Frutera" or "El Pulpo" (the octopus) in Latin America, but none were more under UFCO's thumb than Guatemala. United Fruit's Guatemalan operation generated about 25 percent of the company's total production. In Guatemala, United Fruit gained control of virtually all means of transport and communications. United Fruit charged a tariff on every item of freight that moved in and out of the country via Puerto Barrios. For many years, the coffee growers of Guatemala paid very high tariffs and the price of Guatemalan coffee on the world market was high because of this.

The capital of the United Fruit Company empire was in Guatemala, in the town of Bananera, where it made its headquarters. From here it master-minded its empire and corrupted every level of government and politics in Guatemala. United Fruit also managed to exempt itself from virtually all taxes for 99 years. UFCO had its fingers in almost every pie in Guatemala. UFCO had the unconditional support of right-wing dictators who maintained their power by terrorizing the people and arresting prominent citizens who were either killed on the spot or tortured in prison to extract confessions. During one wave of repression under Jorge Ubico, hundreds were killed in just two days.

In 1944, the people of Guatemala overthrew the right-wing dictator then in power, Jorge Ubico. Guatemala held its first true elections in history. They elected Dr. Juan Jose Arevalo Bermej to the presidency. A new constitution was drawn up, based on the U.S. Constitution. Arevalo was a socialist and an educator who built over 6,000 schools in Guatemala and made great progress in education and health care.

At this time in Guatemala, just 2.2 percent of the population owned over 70 percent of the country's land. Only 10 percent of the land was available for 90 percent of the population, most of whom were Indians. Most of the land held by the large landowners was unused. Arevalo was succeeded in another free election by Jacobo Arbenz who continued the reform process begun under Arevalo. Arbenz proposed to redistribute some of the unused land and make it available for the 90 percent to farm. Here is where the problem arose: United Fruit was one of the big holders of unused land in Guatemala. The pressure mounted against UFCO and finally the company complained to the many friends it had within the U.S. government including President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, saying that Guatemala had turned communist.

The U.S. State Department and United Fruit embarked on a major public relations campaign to convince the American people and the rest of the U.S. government that Guatemala was a Soviet "satellite".

"It {United Fruit} began with enviable connections to the Eisenhower administration. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his former New York law firm, Sullivan and Cromwell, had long represented the company. Allen Dulles, head of the CIA, had served on UFCO's board of trustees. Ed Whitman, the company's top public relations officer, was the husband of Ann Whitman, President Eisenhower's private secretary. (Ed Whitman produced a film, "Why the Kremlin Hates Bananas," that pictured UFCO fighting in the front trenches of the cold war.) The fruit firm's success in linking the taking of its lands to the evil of international communism was later described by one UFCO official as "the Disney version of the episode." But the company's efforts paid off. It picked up the expenses of journalists who traveled to Guatemala to learn United Fruit's side of the crisis, and some of the most respected North American publications - including the New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, and New Leader - ran stories that pleased the company. A UFCO public relations official later observed that his firm helped condition North American readers to accept the State Department's version of the Arbenz regime as Communist-controlled and the U.S.-planned invasion as wholly Guatemalan." (Quoted from Inevitable Revolutions - The United States in Central America by Walter La Feber, 2nd ed. 1993, pp. 120-121.

The campaign succeeded and in 1954 the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency orchestrated a coup, code-named "Operation PBSUCCESS". The invading force numbered only 150 men under the command of Castillo Armas but the CIA convinced the Guatemalan public and President Arbenz that a major invasion was underway. The CIA set up a clandestine radio station to carry propaganda, jammed all Guatemalan stations, and hired skilled American pilots to bomb strategic points in Guatemala City. The U.S. replaced the freely elected government of Guatemala with another right-wing dictatorship that would again bend to UFCO's will.

The history of Guatemala since the Spanish conquest is one of continuous domination and repression. For a brief ten years from 1944 to 1954, Guatemala experienced the fresh air of democracy. However, with a right-wing dictatorship back in power, Guatemala was thrown back into the dark ages and the stage was set for the next 30 years of repression and killing.. As part of their efforts in the coup, the CIA made a list of 70,000 "questionable individuals". During Guatemala's 36 year civil war that just came to an end this year (1996), the government often referred to this list originally put together by the CIA.

http://www.mayaparadise.com/ufc1e.htm

[amyrose2712]

2. Sadly, it seems...

that US Policy on Latin America has been pretty much the same throughout dem and rep administrations.

[EFerrari]

3. Omg. Speechless!

:wow:

[Peace Patriot]

4. It took the wind out of my sails really fast. From elation to....

...real despair. How could this even be THINKABLE?

Well, my fluttery little bird of hope heart is hoping that it IS only a rumor. The writer who wrote it said "many believe he is the top contendor." That could mean a lot of different things (from a lot of different quarters), and not necessarily that Obama is really considering it.

Is he SO in the debt of the Corpo/Fascists who are running things that he would send such a horrible message to South America: 'here's what we think of your dead union leaders--ha-ha, we gotcha--and nobody has to pay for it--nyeah, nyeah, ni-nyeah, n-yeah!' Really, that's what it would mean, to the U.S. corpos operating there, to the death squads, and to the Colombian fascists--a green light to keep killing--and to the workers, to the peasants, to the majorities of most countries and their leaders: 'WE DON'T GIVE A FUCK!'

I am going to be very amazed if Barack Obama sends this message. And I'd say, back to the drawing board for our democracy, cuz something is far, far, far worse than even our wildest theorists have imagined. And it's name is probably "Oil"--which may mean war in this hemisphere--likely to take Venezuela's oil province, Zulia, on the Caribbean. That is my nightmare, but there is plenty of evidence that it may be a real plan.

There is another issue that might be involved, and that is, that an Ecuadoran court is about to issue a $16 billion judgment against Chevron-Texaco--for oil and toxic pollution of the Ecuadoran rainforest that has been described as worse than the Exxon-Valdez and "the rainforest chernobyl." It's possible that having Chiquita's death squad lawyer as A.G. is related to this--and is being pushed by the global corporate predators who rule over us, in part because of it. They want us taxpayers, in some way, to pay for Chevron's legal defense, if they try to fight the judgment somewhere. The U.S. Attorney General as "friend of the court"? Something like that. And once they've deprived the poor tribes who filed the suit, of medical care and compensation, and have deprived Ecuador of cleanup costs, then they'll back off, and a more public interest attorney can become A.G. ??

Or, maybe they intend to grab Ecuador's oil province, too--in a sweep of the most easily gettable oil resources, the two countries bordering Colombia, where the prep has been $6 BILLION in military aid to Colombia, and two coordinated U.S./Colombia military actions this year (run from the "war room" in the U.S. embassy in Bogota), and which has plenty of death squads to cross the borders and assassinate any troublesome leftists, including the presidents of these countries (Chavez and Correa) and other leaders, if they try to stop it. There are, indeed, fascist secessionist groups in both Venezuela's and Ecuador's oil provinces (similar to Bolivia's), to start an insurrection from within. Such a scheme would likely make the judgment against Chevron moot. That would be lost to a state of war.

This is my nightmare scenario. But Chiquita's death squad attorney for A.G. makes you contemplate nightmares. How far wrong can Obama go, or be pushed?

[Judi Lynn]

5. It just occurred to me I read he has some "Chicago School" economic advisors,

and the Chicago school way of doing things was happily implemented by the Pinochet regime in Chile as soon as Nixon installed him on the death of the people's elected President Salvador Allende.CHILE: THE LABORATORY TEST

Many people have often wondered what it would be like to create a nation based solely on their political and economic beliefs. Imagine: no opposition, no political rivals, no compromise of morals. Only a "benevolent dictator," if you will, setting up society according to your ideals.

The Chicago School of Economics got that chance for 16 years in Chile, under near-laboratory conditions. Between 1973 and 1989, a government team of economists trained at the University of Chicago dismantled or decentralized the Chilean state as far as was humanly possible. Their program included privatizing welfare and social programs, deregulating the market, liberalizing trade, rolling back trade unions, and rewriting its constitution and laws. And they did all this in the absence of the far-right's most hated institution: democracy.

The results were exactly what liberals predicted. Chile's economy became more unstable than any other in Latin America, alternately experiencing deep plunges and soaring growth. Once all this erratic behavior was averaged out, however, Chile's growth during this 16-year period was one of the slowest of any Latin American country. Worse, income inequality grew severe. The majority of workers actually earned less in 1989 than in 1973 (after adjusting for inflation), while the incomes of the rich skyrocketed. In the absence of market regulations, Chile also became one of the most polluted countries in Latin America. And Chile's lack of democracy was only possible by suppressing political opposition and labor unions under a reign of terror and widespread human rights abuses.

Conservatives have developed an apologist literature defending Chile as a huge success story. In 1982, Milton Friedman enthusiastically praised General Pinochet (the Chilean dictator) because he "has supported a fully free-market economy as a matter of principle. Chile is an economic miracle." (1) However, the statistics below show this to be untrue. Chile is a tragic failure of right-wing economics, and its people are still paying the price for it today.

The history of Chile and the "Chicago boys"

Unfortunately, Chile has been the site of revolution and experimentation for over 30 years now. From 1964 to 1970, President Eduardo Frei led a "revolution in liberty." From 1970 to 1973, Salvadore Allende embarked on a "Chilean road to socialism." From 1973 to 1989, General Augusto Pinochet and his military regime conducted a "silent revolution" (so-called because the free market quietly brought about drastic social change). After 1990, Chile has returned to democracy, but it will be a long time recovering from its experiments.

Chile's main export to the world is copper, and the United States has long held a keen interest in it. By the 1960s, U.S. companies had invested so heavily in Chile's copper mines that they owned most of them. When the conservative reformer Eduardo Frei became president in 1964, he attempted to nationalize the copper mines, but to no avail — he met stiff resistance from the business community.

In 1970, Salvadore Allende became the first Marxist to be democratically elected president in the Western hemisphere. In the course of his sweeping socialist reforms, he nationalized not only the copper mines but banks and other foreign-owned assets as well. Along with the redistribution of land under land reform, these actions deeply antagonized Chile's business community and right wing. It is now a matter of historical record that the CIA helped organize their opposition to Allende. A massive campaign of strikes, social unrest and other political subversion followed. In September 1973, the CIA helped General Pinochet launch a military coup in which Allende was killed. The Pinochet government claimed he committed suicide; his supporters claimed he was murdered.

The new government immediately began privatizing the businesses that Allende had seized, as well as reversing his other socialist reforms. But Pinochet did not have an economic plan of his own, and by 1975 inflation would run as high as 341 percent. Into this crisis stepped a group of economists known as "the Chicago boys."

The Chicago boys were a group of 30 Chileans who had studied economics at the University of Chicago between 1955 and 1963. During the course of their postgraduate studies they had become disciples of Milton Friedman, and had returned to Chile completely indoctrinated in free market theory. By the end of 1974, they had risen to positions of power in the Pinochet regime, controlling most of its offices for economic planning.

The arrangement was a new one in the history of governments. Although Pinochet was a dictator, he turned the economy over to the Chicago boys, and his only role was to suppress political and labor opposition to their policies. This arrangement was presented to the Chilean people as the removal of politicians and politics from the nation's affairs. Instead, technocrats with Ph.D.'s would run the economy according to the best theory available. Those theories, of course, were the "neoliberal" theories of Milton Friedman. Rational science would decide policy — not political slogans and muddled democracy.

In March 1975, the Chicago boys held an economic seminar that received national media attention. Here they proposed a radical austerity program — "shock treatment," they called it — to solve Chile's economic woes. They invited some of the world's top economists to speak at the conference, among them Chicago professors Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger. Unsurprisingly, they gave the proposal their highest praise. The plan called for a drastic reduction in the money supply and government spending, the privatization of government services, massive deregulation of the market, and the liberalization of international trade.

More:
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-chichile.htm

[Billy Burnett]

6. All of this is well described in Naomi Klein's must-read book Shock Doctrine.

Anyone who is interested in US/Lat Am/Caribbean relations would do well by reading this book.

She has a pretty decent website with ongoing developments being examined also...

http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine

[Judi Lynn]

8. Interested DU'ers could help by signing the petition at your link:

http://action.openleft.com/page/petition/treasury

This is also good, from your link. I've got to read it a little bit later, when time allows some time to concentrate properly, and will not miss it:

"One Year After the Publication of The Shock Doctrine, A Response to the Attacks"
By Naomi Klein - September 2nd, 2008

http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/09/response-attacks

~~~~~~~~~~
Thank god she wrote this book!

[Billy Burnett]

7. Did you ever watch the documentary "Our Brand is Crisis"?

Our Brand is Crisis
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1142099417074229440&ei=LFcXSbTPFpHuqAKY3ajLDQ&q=%22Our+Brand+is+Crisis%22&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%22Our+Brand+is+Crisis%22&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#

In this doc one will learn which side the most prominent and successful Dem advisors were working for in the Peruvian election between Gonzalo "Goni" Sánchez de Lozada of the MNR Party and Evo Morales of the MAS Party. You will see the back room skullduggery and the McCain/Palin type of strategies they used to smear and lie about Morales. Even playing the Evo = Bin Laden card.

Neo liberal economists are every bit as ruthless and dangerous as neocons running militaries.

I'm seriously hoping the story you've posted is dead wrong.

[Peace Patriot]

9. You mean the Bolivian election, right? nt

[Billy Burnett]

10. Yikes. I knew that! It was the Bolivian election.

:wtf:

I have no idea how I typed "Peruvian". ::dunce:

[Judi Lynn]

11. Another name emerges as a possibility:

~snip~
For the first presidential transition since 9/11, the Department of Justice has not left anything to chance. For weeks, Legal Times reports, Justice officials have been preparing for the handoff. And since the election, so has President-Elect Barack Obama's team.

Obama's Justice transition crew will be headed by Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr's David Ogden, who served as assistant attorney general for the civil division under President Bill Clinton. Ogden will be assisted by his onetime deputy at Justice, Jenner & Block's Washington, D.C., managing partner, Thomas Perrelli. The government's point people on the transition will be Attorney General Michael Mukasey's chief of staff, Brian Benczkowski, and Lee Lofthus, assistant attorney general for the administration.

Historically, being on the transition team doesn't lead to a job at Justice. But Legal Times notes there are exceptions. Baker & McKenzie partner and former deputy attorney general Paul McNulty, who led the Bush transition in 2000, says that two-thirds of his team served at Justice immediately or eventually after Bush took office.

Of course, there is also that tiny question of who will get the top job at Justice. Covington & Burling partner Eric Holder still gets the most mentions from Washington insiders, according to Legal Times. But a dark horse candidate has emerged: D.C. Court of Appeals judge Merrick Garland, who, like Holder, worked in the Clinton Justice Department.

http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2008/11/the-am-law-li-4.html

[Peace Patriot]

12. Here are the wiki bios on Garland and Holder

Garland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_B._Garland

Holder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Holder
(Holder is African-American. I'm sure sorry to hear that. He has been on Obama's legal team all along--didn't know that. The wiki bio does not mention that he got Chiquita execs off for 4,000 murders of union workers in Colombia.)

----

"...Holder himself, using his influence as former deputy attorney general under the Clinton Administration, helped to negotiate Chiquita's sweetheart 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 squads.

"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 Chiquita's claim that it was forced to pay 'protection' to the paramilitaries, stated unequivocally that Chiquita was not paying for protection; rather, 'it was paying for blood.'"

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

-----

Although Garland is also well-connected in Clinton circles, he does not seem to have these dreadful, seamy associations that Holder does. Garland is a DC federal appeals court judge. He seems to have ruled in favor of the law and humanity in a Guantanamo case. Wiki says he's an Obama candidate for the Supreme Court. He seems to have good moderate/liberal creds. The only thing questionable I can see in his resume (and I am not very knowledgeable about things like DC law firms) is that he was Assistant AG in charge of the OK City bombing (which some investigators suspect was some kind of coverup--why did they execute Timothy McVeigh so quickly?).

But next to Holder, Garland seems like a saint. (Holder was involved in the Clinton pardon of Mark Rich, along with aiding and abetting the murder of 4,000 union workers in Colombia). (Note: The Clintons are filthy on Colombia--and, of course, so is the Bush Cartel. Hard to say who's filthier.)

[Judi Lynn]

13. As an aside, consider Hillary Clinton's campaign strategist, and PR guy, Mark Penn.

Mark Penn is one of four PR firms enlisted by Uribe last year or the year before in his bid to jam that FTA down everyone's throat which hasn't worked out for him, so far!

Penn is the one who organized the most intense attacks on Obama, including stunningly low blows you just would NEVER have expected from Hillary Clinton's campaign.

A man of many talents, he was known to DU'ers some time ago for contriving misleading public polls which attempted to damage Hugo Chavez. Only some closer research explained who and what was driving this disinformation campaign last year or the one before it.

Penn has conducted his own form of war on leftists in Colombia by serving Uribe's FTA dreams, has attempted to damage Chavez through dirty maneuvers to mold public perception, and has worked to prevent Obama's election.

Thanks for the information on Garland. He does sound less lethal than anyone who would dream of supporting the fascist death-squad loving Colombian government's bid to rip off the US taxpayers for even MORE of their hard-earned tax dollars to continue their war against all remaining leftists and all other assorted dissidents.

I was horrified, like you, when the time started growing short and McVeigh's execution was imminent. They were DESPERATE to get him dead, and he was the only one who could have given so much, MUCH more information to explain what the hell happened. I have NEVER seen anyone dragged to his death so swiftly by the "law" in my entire life. It was grisly.

Execution of ANYONE is wrong. Killing Timothy McVeigh in the twinkling of an eye raises suspicion about the government itself.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Here's a recent brief quote from Obama on the Colombian labor problem:

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: The history in Colombia right now is that labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis, and there have not been prosecutions. And what I have said, because the free trade—the trade agreement itself does have labor and environmental protections, but we have to stand for human rights, and we have to make sure that violence isn’t being perpetrated against workers who are just trying to organize for their rights, which is why, for example, I supported the Peruvian Free Trade Agreement, which was a well-structured agreement.

http://i4.democracynow.org/2008/11/12/white_house_denies_attempt_to_link

This seems a universe away from Holder, for sure.

[ieoeja]

15. Amendment VI to the Constitution of the United States of America

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."

[Bacchus39]

16. exactly, but there are those who don't agree with that principle it would seem n/t

x

[EFerrari]

19. I knew you would eventually come out in favor of death squads and their support people.

Thank you for not disappointing me.

[Bacchus39]

22. I knew the election of a Democrat would not satisfy you

sorry, I've said it before and will say it again, the Democratic party is not a good fit for you.

oh, and yeah regarding the death squads. protection money is quite common in Colombia both to the paras and the FARC.

supporting the right to defence in a trial is a long stretch to supporting death squads, boba.

[EFerrari]

26. Are you afraid to post your insults in English because of the mods?

That must be awful.

lol

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EFerrari]

18. Which means that any citizen is entitled to representation.

That doesn't cover attorneys who decide to take cases from murderous multinationals outside of our borders for big fat fees.

[Bacchus39]

20. looks like its going to be Attorney General Holder

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081118/pl_nm/us_usa_obama_holder

[EFerrari]

21. Yep. It sure does.

[Bacchus39]

23. time for you to move to Venezuela or Bolivia I believe

seems you would happier there.

[EFerrari]

24. How anti-American of you, Bacchus.

And how typical.

[Judi Lynn]

25. Anti-American is correct. We've had fascists running this place for ages. It's time THEY left. n/t

[Bacchus39]

27. anti-American is not recognizing the right of people to have a defense

attorneys aren't the ones who decide on guilt or innocence of the their clients. I don't see you working in marketing for a law firm.

[EFerrari]

30. Chiquita is not people and there's no lack of lawyers wanting that gig.

Whether we need their lawyer is another matter.

And I've spent most of my career in PR.

lol

:rofl:

[Bacchus39]

31. where?, at Venanalysis????? again, lawyers don't decide on guilt or pass judgement

on the moral behavior of their clients even if you have.

[EFerrari]

32. None of which is pertinent. n/t

[Bacchus39]

33. its not pertinent to being appointed AG that's for sure. what was his firm...

supposed to do? we think you're guilty, sorry.

[EFerrari]

34. That's right. We should never consider the human rights record

of anyone appointed to public office.

[Bacchus39]

35. well, look into his record then and get back to us. representing a client as an attorney

is not a human rights offense.

[EFerrari]

36. That's right! There aren't enough attorneys willing to defend killers.

It makes me so happy that you're always on the side of the people.

[Bacchus39]

37. so all accused are guilty then? fascinating....

your take on justice.

[EFerrari]

38. The best use of me on DU is to get you to post your unabridged opinions.

Please, continue!

[Bacchus39]

42. oh, I intend to. your perpetual frustration and disappointment that

the US is not subservient to the Chavez agenda is a never ending source of amusement.

[subsuelo]

43. you have it backwards, my friend

Chavez and the people of Latin America will no longer be subservient to the US imperialist agenda.

[Bacchus39]

44. that's fine with me amigo, but there is absolutely no reason

Pres. Obama needs to appoint Chavez and Morales approved cabinet members.

[AlphaCentauri]

45. Obama needs and impartial voice about latin america

other wise change will be far from being accomplish

[EFerrari]

48. That's simply delusional. Expecting the United States not to destabilize

democracy in Latin America is not the same as besting them in some way.

[Bacchus39]

49. "besting them???"

yeah sure, there is every reason to expect that the US would not destabilize democracy in Latin America. and????

what does that have to do with Obama's appointment? do you think Obama is going to undermine Latin America??

I'd love to hear your proposals for Latin America.

Lets start with a few points of agreement:

1. the "war on drugs" will not go away although there may be some shifts in policy. I find it difficult to believe there will be much change in this policy for political reasons

2. the embargo won't end but there may be some lifting of restrictions. again, political reasons.

3. the US will not invade Venezuela. no brainer

4. the US will not assassinate Chavez. again, no brainer

how about free trade? what about Bolivia who expelled the ambassador and got their favorite nation status removed. the Bolivian government though wants favored trade status restored. where do you stand on that? and with Colombia? with Venezuela you won't have to worry about that issue coming up.

[EFerrari]

50. The United States has restarted the dirty wars in Latin America.

And Obama is stepping into that landscape. I hope he has good advisers.

[Bacchus39]

51. which dirty wars?? explain n/t

s

[Judi Lynn]

52. Clearly he has. Hope he will see his plans buried but good in the next few years.

Maybe it was the death rattle of a filthy movement tottering on its last legs.

We should start finding out in the next couple of years, right?

[crispini]

17. Kick

[Bacchus39]

29. the Mark Rich pardon involvement and advocating stricter marijuana laws

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7891721


are much more troubling to me than representing Chiquita. not disqualifying but concerning.

[JDPriestly]

39. Here is Holder's bio on his firm's website. Sounds good to me.

Mr. Holder is a litigation partner who handles, among other matters, complex civil and criminal cases, domestic and international advisory matters and internal corporate investigations.

During his professional career, Mr. Holder has held a number of significant positions in government. Upon graduating from Columbia Law School, he moved to Washington, DC and joined the Department of Justice as part of the Attorney General's Honors Program. He was assigned to the newly formed Public Integrity Section in 1976 and was tasked to investigate and prosecute official corruption on the local, state and federal levels. While at the Public Integrity Section, Mr. Holder participated in a number of prosecutions and appeals involving such defendants as the Treasurer of the state of Florida, the Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, a local judge in Philadelphia, an Assistant United States Attorney in New York City, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a "capo" in an organized crime family in Pennsylvania.

In 1988, Mr. Holder was nominated by President Reagan to become an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He was confirmed by the Senate and his investiture occurred in October of that year. Over the next five years, Judge Holder presided over hundreds of civil and criminal trials and matters. Many of the trials involved homicides and other crimes of violence.

In 1993, President Clinton nominated Mr. Holder to become the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. He was confirmed later that year and served as the head of the largest United States Attorneys office in the nation for nearly four years. He was the first black person to serve in that position. As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Holder created a Domestic Violence Unit to more effectively handle those types of tragic cases, implemented a community prosecution project to work hand in hand with residents and local government agencies in order to make neighborhoods safer, supported a renewed enforcement emphasis on hate crimes so that criminal acts of intolerance would be severely punished, developed a comprehensive strategy to improve the manner in which agencies handled cases involving the abuse of children, launched a community outreach program to reconnect the U.S. Attorney's office with the citizens it serves, revitalized the Victim/Witness Assistance Program to better serve those individuals who were directly affected by crime and developed "Operation Ceasefire," an initiative designed to reduce violent crime by getting guns out of the hands of criminals.

http://www.cov.com/eholder/

He has supported increased pro bono work by lawyers. Don't judge a lawyer by his clients. Judge a lawyer by how loyally, effectively and ethically he represents his clients. It's not a question of whether Holder represented Chiquita. Holder did not help Chiquita commit criminal acts. It's how ethically and honestly Holder conducted himself when representing Chiquita that counts.

Holder brings a wealth of experience. He is clearly competent, loyal and brilliant. I think he sounds like a really great choice. It is going to take someone with a lot of experience to clean up the mess in the Department of Justice. I like the fact that Holder virtually started his career in the Public Integrity section. That suggests to me that he learned early on just how devastating the effects of corruption in government can be. I like this appointment so far.

[EFerrari]

47. His firm can't very well say, "He defended a corporate criminal

from charges of the murders of thousands of people", can they?

[Judi Lynn]

40. "The Trouble With Eric Holder"

The Trouble With Eric Holder
posted by John Nichols on 11/18/2008 @ 8:48pm

~snip~
Appearing on CNN in June, 2002, the former Clinton administration Justice Department aide sounded as if he had just stepped out of the Bush camp: "We're dealing with a different world now. Everybody should remember those pictures that we saw on September the 11th. The World Trade Centers aflame, the pictures of the Pentagon, and any time some petty bureaucrat decides that his or her little piece of turf is being invaded, get rid of that person. Those are the kinds of things we have to do."

If that's unsettling, consider the fact that Holder was part of the legal team that in 2005 developed strategies for securing re-authorization of the Patriot Act.

Much will be made of Holder's role as a deputy attorney general in helping former President Clinton arrange for the last-minute pardon of fugitive/Democratic campaign contributor Marc Rich. (Holder said he gave Clinton a "neutral, leaning towards favorable" opinion of the proposed pardon.) And it will also be noted that Holder, as a corporate lawyer in private practice after leaving the Clinton team, played a key role in negotiating an agreement with the Justice Department that got Chiquita Brands International executives off the hook for paying protection money to right-wing death squads in Colombia.

But the first questions for Holder should go to the issue of his attitude toward the role of the attorney general in defending the Constitution.

Several years ago, Holder said, "The Attorney General is the one Cabinet member who's different from all the rest. The Attorney General serves first the people, but also serves the president. There has to be a closeness at the same time there needs to be distance."

What we need to know is this: How close would Holder, as attorney general, get to obeying his oath to defend the Constitution?

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/state_of_change/384564

[Judi Lynn]

41. Couple of comments I found in a very quick search:

Comment:

Holder is a Columbia Law grad. Some people might think that means something.
In character with Columbia Law grads, Holder represented Chiquita Brands when it came to light that Chiquita was paying money to death squads in Colombia -- death squads the State Department had declared terrorist organizations. Holder managed to work out a settlement with Bush's "Justice" Department whereby Chiquita pleaded guilty and paid a fine of $25 million. Not a bad result for his client considering that it had been funneling money to terrorist organizations.

It remains to be seen whether Holder -- Columbia Law grad or not -- could've gotten the same deal if his clients had been Palestinians funneling money to Hamas.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/11/18/143558/12

Comment:

Tue, 11/18/2008 - 15:43 — SJvl_37-NqN
Eric Holder fits the extremely disturbing pattern of Obama's advisors and appointees.

Like Obama’s “Intelligence” transition team Holder has connections to torture, death squads and the worst of US policy under Clinton. He represents Chiquita, a corporation which has, since its beginning, paid terrorists and death squads to suppress workers and their communities in Central and South America. Chiquita falsely claimed, through Holder, that they were paying extortion to the right-wing terrorist organizations when, in fact, these killers are the clandestine muscle for Chiquita and other transnational corporations, the regional economic elites, and the corrupt puppet governments that they control. It has been clearly demonstrated that Álvaro Uribe Vélez, president of Columbia, is intimately connected to and has used these torturers and mass murders who have a function similar to what the Contra’s did in Central America.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/eric-holder-will-accept-attorney-general-pos

[CounterPropagandist]

46. This is just terrible

I expected someone very different. Didn't we vote for change? He promised so much. Isn't there any way to get him to reconsider this, or have Congress turn this down? What could Obama be thinking? We need someone that is a champion of civil liberties.