The DOJ’s Disgusting Double Standard In the O’Keefe Affair

Yes, when I heard yesterday, via Andrew Breitbart that James O’Keefe was denied an attorney for 28 hours, the first thing I thought of, was: @#$%&*???? Is it possible that they would grant an attorney to the panty-bomber (an enemy combatant who aimed to slaughter a plane load of people) after only 50 minutes…and they would deny a conservative activist an attorney for 28 hours????

Yes, it reminded me of Janet Napolitano’s Dept. of Homeland Security report on right-wing extremism, last year,  which signaled an Obama administration shift in the War on terror away from Islamic terrorists to imagined right-wing domestic ones.

Yes, this episode gives credence to the widespread notion that the Obama administration’s approach to terrorism is tragically wrong-headed and dangerous not only in terms of our personal safety, but in terms of our civil liberties, as well.

Ace of Spades broached this subject in his post about the dangers of treating enemy combatants like common criminals:

The point is: Either the government has the power to do something to a suspect or it does not. Either the Constitution forbids a certain practice or it does not.

Bush, the supposed idiot, established a bright-line distinction between citizen suspects and illegal combatants. Bush, the fascist cretin who couldn’t pronounce “nuclear,” set up an analytical structure wherein it was clear that citizen suspects were owed the full panoply of constitutional protections, and only terrorist illegal combatants were to be treated with lesser protections.

But Obama the Genius With the Nicely Creased Trousers has created a system wherein Mad Maxipad is sorta like me, as far as the law goes, and I, unfortunately, am sorta like him.

And instead of there being a bright-line distinction between us, I sort of have to trust that the Obama Administration will be restrained by its own conscience and judgment, because there isn’t any strong paper command about this any longer.

And how are they doing so far?

Well, gee: If Breitbart’s reportage is true, James O’Keefe was denied a lawyer for a full 28 hours.

Seems a pretty big departure from constitutional norms, doesn’t it?

But, you know, just as Mad Maxipad is sort of a citizen deserving some but not all citizen rights, James O’Keefe is now sort of a terrorist also deserving some but not all citizen rights.

And Andrea Shea King at Big Government elaborated:

When the Christmas Day panty bomber was arrested for trying to blow up himself and the plane he rode in on, he was questioned for approximately 50 minutes before an attorney was brought in to advise him.  What happened next?  Mister Burning Briefs clammed up.

Contrast that with James O’Keefe, American citizen, who was denied an attorney for 28 hours after he was arrested and accused of trying to tamper with the phones of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu.  During that time, the FBI issued a press release on the arrest and leaked the criminal complaint.  The mainstream media salivated, while ACORN’s Bertha Lewis scambled to appear before TV cameras.

The Christmas Day bomber was given Constitutional rights and Miranda’d within an hour of his arrest but a U.S. citizen was not given a lawyer until more than a day had passed?

How — and why — did a terror suspect get kid glove legal treatment?  And as another conservative journalist asked, “Where was the ‘don’t rush to judgment’ media when someone killed innocents while shouting Allah Akbar?  But at the first hint of a scandal, they crucify O’Keefe?”

Could it be that one of the two is considered to be a clear and present danger to the Obama administration…and it ain’t the Islamic terrorist?

RELATED article by Byron York on the mounting pressure Republicans (and a few Democrats) are putting on Attorney General, Eric Holder:

…unanswered questions about the Justice Department’s terrorism policies are piling up on Holder’s desk. There are still questions about the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed decision, as well as the administration’s misbegotten effort to close Guantanamo. And a bipartisan group of senators wants to know who decided to cut short the interrogation of accused Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, granting him full American constitutional rights in the civilian justice system and killing the chance to gain potentially valuable intelligence about the al Qaeda group that sent Abdulmutallab to the United States on his deadly mission.

It is impossible to overstate how seriously Republicans view these issues, and, despite their weaknesses as the minority party, they are determined to get answers out of Holder. “He needs to go to Congress and say, ‘I made that decision. Here’s why,’ ” GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander said Sunday on Fox News. “And based on that, perhaps he should step down.”

So far, few other senators will go that far — Grassley won’t — but the demands for answers will only grow. Put them all together, and Holder is facing a very rough future.

Don Surber thinks Republicans should take a look a the O’Keefe affair, as well:

I seriously hope that Republicans on the House judiciary committee and the Senate judiciary committee demand a full-scale investigation of this case.

“James O’Keefe sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney, while the U.S. attorney leaked the information about his arrest, helping the media frame it as ‘Watergate Junior,’” Breitbart said.

MORE:

Pamela Geller focuses on the equally egregious media side of things.

Breitbart t.v: McCain: Holder ‘Has Obviously Botched This One Very, Very Badly’

Linked by Michelle Malkin, Buzzworthy, and Doug Ross, thanks.