DOJ Lawyer's History of Defending America's Enemies

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

DOJ lawyer’s history of defending America’s enemies
By: BARBARA HOLLINGSWORTH
Local Opinion Editor
07/07/10 12:15 PM EDT

Tony West, the lead attorney in the Obama administration’s lawsuit against the State of Arizona’s immigration law, is among the controversial Department of Justice appointees who made their names by defending terrorists after 9/11.
West once volunteered to represent “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh. Lindh was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 and is now serving a 20-year sentence for collaborating with al-Qaeda.

West joined the San Francisco law firm of Morrison & Foerster (their website is Mofo.com) less than three months after 9/11, and proceeded to provide legal services to suspected terrorists captured by our military forces overseas and detained at Guantanamo Bay.

West, a former protégé of Jamie Gorelick, was one of nine lawyers known collectively as the “Gitmo 9,” whose appointments to key Obama Justice Department positions was challenged by conservatives, who feared that they would go after CIA agents and other defenders of America instead of the terrorists.

At the time, their concerns were dismissed as partisan sniping. “Department of Justice attorneys work around the clock to keep this country safe, and it is offensive that their patriotism is being questioned,” DOJ spokesman Matt Miller said. “We will not participate in an attempt to drag people’s names through the mud for political purposes.”

But how equally offensive — even if fitting — that a DOJ civil rights attorney who defended the “rights” of foreign jihadists by portraying the defenders of this nation as the bad guys is now trying to protect the “rights” of foreign drug smugglers and human traffickers to enter Arizona at will. An estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants are living in Arizona right now.

The Obama administration apparently considers a law passed by the Arizona legislature and signed by Governor Jan Brewer that requires police officers to inquire about the immigration status of people they stop for other suspected offenses as a more serious problem than the de facto invasion of our southern border.

SB 1070 “attempts to second-guess federal policies and re-order federal priorities in the area of immigration enforcement and to directly regulate immigration and the condition of an alien’s entry and presence in the United States despite the fact that those subjects are federal domains and do not involve any legitimate state interest,” West wrote in legal papers filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

Arizonans have a different take on why the federal lawsuit was filed.

“This is about the Obamas’ policy of nonenforcement. This interferes with their plan for amnesty,” said State Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, author of the Arizona law. “They are aiding and abetting the enemy.”

In West’s case, it’s not the first time.

[Valin]

Yes? Begs the question...what to do.