How do you fast track your chances to work for the Department of Justice? Defend terrorists. After months of stalling, Attorney General Eric Holder has finally (sort of) admitted that at least nine of President Obama's appointees have either represented or advocated for Guantanamo detainees But Mr. Holder is still refusing to name any of the now DOJ lawyers who worked on behalf of terrorists except for two who were already known. (source)

Continued...

At a hearing three months ago Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) knew from press reports that Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal once represented Osama bin Laden's driver and Jennifer Daskal, an official in the National Security Division, worked on behalf of detainees at the liberal organization Human Rights Watch. This prompted him to ask the Attorney General for the names of all political appointees who had represented or advocated for detainees. He also asked which cases they worked on and what their terror-related responsibilities are now at the Justice Department. (source)

Mr. Holder said at the time that he would look into the matter but it has taken him three months and all GOP senators on the Judiciary Committee joining in Senator Grassley's request to get a response that doesn't come close to answering the questions a hand. In his February 18 letter, the Attorney General said nine Obama political appointees at the Justice Department have advocated on behalf of detainees but he did not identify any of then other than Katyal and Daskal. He wrote: "To the best of our knowledge, during their employment prior to joining the government, only five of the lawyers who serve as political appointees in those components represented detainees, and four others either contributed to amicus briefs in detainee-related cases or were otherwise involved in advocacy on behalf of detainees." (source) No names, no current responsibilities, no specifics on their work on behalf of terrorists.

Senator Grassley is not pleased with the dodge, "The country has the right to know what the predilections of people in the Justice Department are toward terrorism, especially if they’re giving constitutional rights to terrorists," he said in a recent interview. "To me, this is a case of our own public servants or political appointees having an agenda of their own instead of being concerned with the national security of the United States...This letter creates a lot of suspicion about conflicts of interest. Mr. Grassley concluded that "without the names and details, we have a reason to question what’s really going on here." (source)

Debra Burlingame, who lost her brother on 9/11, said of Mr. Holder's recent admission, "It's like they're bringing al Qaeda lawyers inside the Department of Justice."

There is no doubt that is exactly what they're doing. The only question remaining is how long will it take the Obama administration to stop hiding the details needed to see how far this conflict of interest goes?