Know your BFEE: Judge Laurence Silberman, Go-To Guy of the Military Industrial Complex

[Octafish]

14. It's like a book written by Eric Duckman: ''War, Peace, Crime, Punishment and The Idiot''

It'd be a really, really big book, like a "Who's Who of War Inc." While imperfect in execution and substandard in style, it is factual with all the dots and stuff available for peer review.

Laurence Silberman: the Right Man or the Right's Man?

People for the American Way

Is retired federal judge Laurence Silberman the right person to co-chair the Iraq intelligence commission? Those who know him—including onetime Nixon aide and respected author Kevin Phillips, former independent counsel and Eisenhower deputy attorney general Lawrence Walsh, and reformed right-wing hit man David Brock—raise serious concerns about Silberman’s past activities, his temperament, his judgement and his unyielding commitment to right-wing orthodoxy. After reviewing this criticism, along with Silberman’s own statements, it becomes clear that Silberman is ill suited for a role on the intelligence commission.

“October Surprise”

Both Phillips and Walsh allege that Silberman was involved in the Reagan campaign’s purported efforts to delay the release of American hostages in Iran until after the 1980 presidential elections.

In a commentary on National Public Radio, Phillips notes:

“Silberman has been more involved with cover-ups in the Middle East than with any attempts to unravel them (including) the October surprise episode in 1980 in which the Republicans were later accused of colluding with the revolutionary government of Iran to keep 52 American hostages confined in Iran so that they could not be freed by the Jimmy Carter administration in time to influence the 1980 presidential election….(I)n 1980 as part of that year's Republican campaign, he attended at least one of the October surprise meetings where an Iranian representative discussed what Iran would want in exchange for keeping the hostages.”

Walsh’s book, Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up, provides a similar account:

“...Silberman had been on the fringe of the negotiations to avoid the possibility of an 'October surprise'--the pre-election release of the U.S. embassy staff held captive by Iranian radicals. He and Robert McFarlane had represented Reagan in at least one meeting with a person who claimed to have influence with Iranians who might affect the timing of the release of the hostages. Among some career officers in the State Department, he was jokingly referred to as 'our ambassador to Khomeini.'”

SNIP...

Silberman and Oliver North

Walsh, the independent counsel who investigated the Reagan administration’s involvement in the Iran-Contra affair, found that his staff could not get a fair hearing from Silberman. According to Walsh, when the counsel’s office tried to make the case against Iran-Contra conspirator Lt. Col. Oliver North in one argument, Silberman cut them off at every turn:

“Silberman’s bias had been so intrusive that it had almost prevented (Gerard Lynch, who represented the independent counsel's office) from presenting a coherent argument…. (R)arely had (Lynch) reached the fourth sentence in any answer before Silberman interrupted him--not seeking clarification but simply badgering him to make some concession. At times, the judge's sole purpose seemed to have been diversion and obstruction....(Silberman’s interrogation) had been an overbearing effort to coerce a concession if not just to block a fair statement of our position. His performance had been ugly."

Walsh even considered reporting Silberman for judicial misconduct. Ultimately, North’s conviction was overturned by the court on procedural grounds in a 2-1 decision, with Silberman in the majority.

CONTINUED...

http://www.pfaw.org/press-releases/2004/02/laurence-silberman-the-right-man-or-the-rights-man

What's weird is how few lawyers know the story, let alone the average Joe. It's been my experience, of those I've met who do know, they're the Republican. Thanks for knowing and wanting to know, CanSocDem. As for my lawyer chums, I've got a pal who knows a guy...