News of the Day

"A Catholic brother who molested two boys in their beds at a boarding school in Victoria more than 40 years ago has been jailed. Peter Paul Van Ruth was 22 years old and in his first teaching job when he indecently assaulted the boys at Salesian College in Sunbury in 1969. On Tuesday, 42 years later, Van Ruth was jailed for 28 months in the Victorian County Court."

Anguish has a long memory, sport.

"The new leader of the French far right, Marine Le Pen, has sent shockwaves through France after a poll suggested she could win an unprecedented first round victory in presidential elections. Just two weeks before the regional elections known as the cantonales - the last real electoral test before next year's presidential round - the lawyer daughter of National Front leader Jean Marie Le Pen has eclipsed President Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry, with 23 per cent of the vote."

Just what Europe needs... a neo fascist France.

I'm not too worried, because somehow I don't think it will happen.

''Simply, I've come as a friend to reinforce your best instincts. To say, 'Be bold. Stay optimistic. Yours remains what it has always been, a nation which is exceptional in every way - above all, in your unfailing ability to confound predictions of decline'.''

- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to US Chamber of Commerce.

Keep America Safe for Justice

Liz Cheney is apparently is not familiar with the notion that a trial is meant to be conducted by professional lawyers and that justice requires the accused have a competent defence.

She has been royally smashed from elements of both political vectors over the "al Qaeda Seven" slur.
Deservedly, although the comparison to McCarthyism is held at arms length on the conservative side.

I don't think I could - were I a lawyer - stomach being the defence lawyer for a lot of people in this world. Yet because of that... the more I recognise the professional detachment, commitment to the rule of law and the moral courage of those who do.

I note with amusement that the Keep America Safe site has a link to none other than Rush Limbaugh defending Liz Cheney.
No professional legal defence for Liz - just a Youtube of drug-addled shock jock instead.

The Christian Science Monitor - not exactly a force for Left-leaning dialogue - notes John Adams himself wrote that his defence of enemy British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre was “one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country.”

Defending terrorism suspects did not come without cost to those who did it in the military justice system either...

Lieutenant Colonel Michael Mori - then a Major - was the military lawyer for David Hicks.

David Hicks is an Australian man who was captured by the Afghan Northern Alliance in December 2001 and turned over to US Special Forces. He was then detained in Guantanamo Bay till 2007. In a very murky and controversial process of legal bargaining he was given over to Australian authorities in May 2007 and finally released in December 2007.

Major Mori was passed over for promotion twice subsequent to taking on the Hicks case.

Incidentally, Hicks alleges that while at Guantanamo Bay he was beaten, forced to run while shackled which causes ankle injury, injected without consent and subject to sleep deprivation, and that he witnessed attack dogs being used to maul detainees.
He was subject to a control order after his release, but 12 months later the Australian Federal Police declined to renew it.
Hicks has since married and has lived a quiet life in Sydney.

The Australian Lawyers alliance awarded Mori a civil justice award for recognition "of unsung heroes who, despite personal risk or sacrifice, have fought to preserve individual rights, human dignity or safety".

Mori was in time promoted and is now a senior military judge. He was very critical of the military justice system and at lack of promotion was considering retirement. Since promotion he has decided to continue his career. His criticism is also "more guarded" now.

I wonder what he would say of it had he not been promoted...