Let's Support All the Lawyers

A Pentagon official tries to shame American corporations who do business with law firms who are also defending Guantanamo detainees; it doesn't work. From a Boston Globe account:

In a radio interview, [Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs Charles D. "Cully""] Stimson stated the names of a dozen law firms that volunteer their services to represent detainees, and he suggested that the chief executives of the firms' corporate clients would make the lawyers "choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms."

He said he expected the newly public list of law firms that do work at Guantanamo Bay to spark a cycle of negative publicity for them. Instead, Stimson himself became the center of nationwide criticism and later apologized for the remarks.

After quoting corporate representatives from General Electric and Boston Scientific Corp. specifically who are standing by their firm, the story goes to one of the accursed attorneys:

"It would seem [the Pentagon] made a miscalculation," said Stephen Oleskey , an attorney at WilmerHale in Boston who has traveled to Guantanamo Bay seven times since he took up the case in 2004. "We haven't had any clients call up and say, 'We are really deeply disturbed that you are advocating for fair hearings.' The amount of support [we have gotten] has been heartening."