Elise Cooper of The New Majority wrote today of the June 16 and 17 meetings with Department of Justice officials of family members of the victims of terror (two groups of family members of about 45 people each met with the DOJ on those two days). The meetings were not pretty and Attorney General Eric Holder found somewhere more comfortable to be on the 17th. From what I heard, the families left the meetings fearing that President Barack Obama will bend over backwards to release as many from Gitmo as possible this year and attempt to prosecute those he can from among the rest in federal court, the consequences of both those actions be damned:
President Obama has spoken in the past about accountability and transparency; yet, those attending were not granted simple requests such as having the meeting recorded, receiving a list of those present, and being able to pass out a military commissions comparison chart. Bob Hemenway, who lost a son at the Pentagon, summarized the feelings of all interviewed by stating the meeting was “a set-up. It was a political ploy. We were pawns. What a waste. We were a show case. It was a farce.” The former Commander of the USS Cole, Kirk Lippold, pointed out that he requested a list of those who attended the two June meetings but has so far been refused.
The Attorney General, Eric Holder, attended only the June 16th meeting and stayed for only one out of four hours. Debra Burlingame, the sister of the pilot of American 77 that crashed into the Pentagon, explained that the families asked substantial questions which were either not answered or hardly answered. She stated that “Holder was sorry he walked into that room. For one hour they did not accept his platitudes. The questioning was aggressive, hard, and pointed. They got the message that these people were not going to be satisfied with the celebrity appearance and vague remarks. “
Family members were angered at being blind-sided, such as finding out after the fact that Jennifer Daskal was present at both meetings. Ms. Daskal is now a member of the DOJ detainee review task force. Previously she was the senior counter terrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, where she wrote that the military commissions were “illegitimate, dysfunctional, and a kangaroo court.” [emphasis added mine] Alice Hoagland, whose son Mark Bingham died on Flight 93, remarked that she was appalled and that “Mr. Holder has a pre-disposition to listen and be swayed by the political opinions of these human rights groups. I felt violated and betrayed.” Debra Burlingame went further when she stated that “I would never have talked about the last moments of my brother’s life with a woman sitting there who has championed the rights of the people who killed him.”
Furthermore, all of those interviewed felt that it was offensive for Obama to choose Ms. Daskal as a member of the task force, especially since he did not see the need to have the family members represented. They noted that she has written extensively about the human rights of the terrorists but has never acknowledged the victims and their families. Shirley Hemenway pointed out that not even one family member was chosen to represent the families on any of the task forces. To her this shows that “Obama’s mind is already made up.” Gordon Haberman, whose daughter Andrea died at the World Trade Center, concurs and explained that five months ago, when the task forces were established, President Obama had the opportunity to confer with the family members but chose not to do it and “it is very disappointing to me; the lateness of this meeting.”At the meetings the family members also voiced their outrage at the fact that Obama constantly talks about the human rights of the terrorists. Commander Lippold noted that what these families have gone through as a result of the terrorist’s actions is irrelevant to the Obama administration because “he is more concerned in pursuing his political agenda in the eyes of the world.” Maureen and Al Santora , whose son was a New York firefighter, felt that “our government has forgotten the 3000 families in favor of the foreign governments… the country is in chaos and his first order of business is to close Guantanamo Bay. You got to be kidding me. What is he doing it for, because the image has tainted the U.S? We are bending over backwards for these terrorists to get world support. Give me a break.”