Charles Stimson resigned Friday. Stimson is the attorney who was deputy secretary of defense for detainee affairs. You may recall he was the person who suggested in a radio interview that business clients of lawyers who provide legal counsel to detainees should pressure the attorneys not to represent the detainees, a suggestion that is contrary to the ethical canons of attorneys.
According to the New York Times:
Stimson drew outrage from the legal community — and a disavowal from the Defense Department — for his Jan. 11 comments, in which he also suggested some attorneys were being untruthful about doing the work free of charge and instead were ”receiving moneys from who knows where.”
He also said companies might want to consider taking their legal business to other firms that do not represent suspected terrorists.
The Defense Department disavowed the suggestion. Attorney General Albert Gonzalez also disavowed Stimson’s remarks. But Stimson said that the controversy hampered his effectiveness on the job. The NY Times said:
Stimson publicly apologized several days after the radio interview, saying his comments did not reflect his values and that he firmly believes in the principles of the U.S. legal system.
But it didn’t completely quiet critics.
The Bar Association of San Francisco last week asked the California State Bar to investigate whether Stimson violated legal ethics by suggesting a boycott of law firms that represent Guantanamo Bay detainees.
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Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
The Hutto center is not under the jurisdiction of the Defense Department, however. It’s operated by a division of Homeland Security, if I understand it correctly.
Plus it’s been the subject of a lot of news coverage here in Texas over the past couple of weeks. The splitting up of families is not resting well with a lot of people.
Here’s a story about the Ibrahim family from the Austin American-Statesman of February 2, for example. Here’s a story of the release of the family from the Dallas Morning News, today. When the news hit last week, it appears, Immigration and Customs got to work. The family had arrived from Palestine on valid visas and sought asylum. (Here’s a short story from KXAN-36, an NBC News affiliate in Austin, that is likely to survive longer than the other links.)
One of those stories says the Hutto Center is one of two in the U.S. I don’t know where the other one is.
The laws are different, the agencies holding them are different, and the cases are much different, between the civilians at the Hutto center and the “enemy combatants” at the Guantanamo Naval Base. Many of the legal principles are the same, though, I’ll bet. Thanks for the note.
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Gitmo is not the only detainee center. There is the Don Hutto concentration camp for immigrants in Texas.
http://latinalista.blogspot.com/
Families, ie mothers and kids, are interned there. One family managed to get released. These people are accused of no crime except being immigrants. Guess what? The kids are finally going to get an education in the camp.
This is a camp run by a private company!
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