Blagojevich appeal attorney Len Goodman on Obama drone program, Drone Justice is Blind, There’s no way President Obama can fairly review each drone strike

“Why wasn’t Rod Blagojevich, Governor of IL, prosecuted before Tony Rezko, a businessman?”…Citizen Wells

“Why did Patrick Fitzgerald and the US Justice Department wait until December 2008 to arrest Rod Blagojevich?”…Citizen Wells

“Regardless of how this plays out, it benefits Obama. If there is no appeal or the appeal is denied, Blagojevich will be sequestered. If the appeal proceeds, it could drag out beyond impacting the 2012 election cycle. The intent is obvious.”…Citizen Wells, July 19, 2011

I am still awaiting word if the opening brief in the Blagojevich appeal was presented today, April 25, 2013.

Len ( Leonard) Goodman is one of the defense attorneys in the Blagojevich appeal.

From the Len Goodman attorney website.

“Biography

Leonard Goodman is a Chicago criminal defense attorney with a reputation for taking on, and winning, the most difficult cases.  Since graduating from Northwestern University School of Law in 1989, Mr. Goodman has devoted his career to the representation of persons charged with serious crimes and has been a strong advocate for the cause of justice.  He has tried criminal cases in state and federal courts throughout the Midwest.  His appellate practice is nationwide.

Mr. Goodman has the rare distinction of having won major criminal cases at every level of the state and federal court systems, including wins (obtaining the reversal of his clients’ criminal convictions) in the United States Supreme Court (drug conspiracy conviction), the Illinois Supreme Court (first degree murder), the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (first degree murder) and the Illinois Appellate Court (two first degree murders and one attempted murder). The appeals that he has briefed and argued have helped change the law and advance the cause of justice (See significant cases).

He has represented high-profile defendants and the indigent, all with equal vigor and has won awards for his work on behalf of the wrongfully convicted and on behalf of an Afghani man detained at Guantanamo Bay without charges or evidence of any wrongdoing.

Mr. Goodman is also an adjunct professor of Law at Depaul University where he teaches Federal Habeas Corpus.”

http://lengoodmanlawoffice.com/wp/biography/

From In These Times April 10, 2013.

“Drone Justice is Blind

There’s no way President Obama can fairly review each drone strike.

BY LEONARD C. GOODMAN

For the first time in history, the United States government has proclaimed its legal right to assassinate any person, anywhere on the globe, as long as our chief executive believes that person to be a terrorist. President Barack Obama has said that most of the people we are incinerating are “al-Qaeda suspects who are up in very tough terrain along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Precise numbers are hard to come by, due to the secrecy under which the drone program operates. But the various groups that track drone strikes agree that since Obama took office, more than 350 strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia have killed at least 2,400 people. This means, outside of Afghanistan, U.S. drones are killing on average at least 47 people a month. If you include drone strikes in Afghanistan,the numbers are much larger.

The administration’s claim as to the legality of these strikes relies on the fiction that a rigorous review of evidence takes place before a “terrorist” is targeted. However, no matter how smart and reasonable Obama might be, he is not personally reviewing the evidence against most of the people we are killing. In fact, according to CNN, at least half of drone strike deaths have been the result of “signature strikes,” in which drone operators decide, based on visual evidence of suspicious behavior, to fire on people whose identities they don’t even know. As one government official told the New York Times, to the CIA, “three guys doing jumping jacks” looks suspiciously like a terrorist training camp.

We are told that drone killings neutralize imminent threats to America, but we need only consider the numbers to know we are being lied to. There cannot be 50 people every month who were on the verge of launching an attack on the U.S. until they were “neutralized” by a drone. We therefore must ask: To whom did each targeted person pose a threat? Were they a threat to U.S. military bases or CIA installations located within their country? Were they a threat to corporate interests located within their country? Were they a threat to the regime that governs their country and allows us to fly the drones?”

Read more:

http://inthesetimes.com/article/14835/drone_justice_is_blind/