Iglesias for Gitmo proscecutor

Lawyer famous for independence

By BEN SMITH

Fired New Mexico US Attorney David Iglesias will be President Obama’s chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay.

Reduce…

That is, when terror trials resume there, he told a New Mexico television station this morning. The move has doubly powerful symbolism: Iglesias is recently famous for being fired for refusing to compromise his political independence, but he knows Guantanamo Bay well: He was the Navy defense lawyer played by Tom Cruise in the film, “A Few Good Men.”

Iglesias, a Naval reservist, said he’d been activated as a Judge Advocate General “prosecuting terror cases out of Guantanamo.”

A lawyer familiar with the plans said Iglesias will be the head prosecutor there, and that his appointment had been in the works before Obama took office, but was held up by opposition from the Bush White House.

Iglesias said he’d been to Guantanamo once already, and planned to go down there more, “depending on the direction the new administration gives.”

Though Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo Bay — Iglesias said he thought it would close “in the next year or so” — he doesn’t oppose military commissions in principle.

New White House site slams Bush

The new White House website unveiled by President Barack Obama’s team Tuesday includes a shot at former President Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

Under the “agenda” portion of the site regarding Katrina, it reads: “President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.”

“President Obama swiftly responded to Hurricane Katrina,” the statement on the site continues. “Citing the Bush Administration’s ‘unconscionable ineptitude’ in responding to Hurricane Katrina, then-Senator Obama introduced legislation requiring disaster planners to take into account the specific needs of low-income hurricane victims.”

The site also points out that Obama “visited thousands of Hurricane survivors in the Houston Convention Center and later took three more trips to the region” and worked with the Congressional Black Caucus to help rebuild in the aftermath of Katrina.

In interviews prior to leaving the White House, Bush defended the federal government’s response to the hurricane.

“The truth of the matter is the response was pretty darn quick if you think about the fact that the Coast Guard and a lot of brave kids were pulling 30,000 people off of roofs as soon as the storm passed, as soon as they found people on those roofs,” Bush said during an interview with CNN last week.

Bush also said his lowest point in office came when he heard “people saying George Bush is a racist because of the response” to the hurricane.

Obama: ‘We have chosen hope’

Barack Obama took the oath of office today as the nation’s 44th president, then delivered a sobering assessment of where America stands and a hopeful vision of what it can become. “On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord,” he said. full story

Obama: It’s time to remake America

Barack Obama was sworn in today as the 44th president of the United States. Obama acknowledged in his inaugural address that the nation is in crisis, but said America remains the most powerful nation on Earth. “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America,” he said. full story