Former Human Rights Watch Lawyer Is Now On Obama's Detainee Task Force

Cmdr. Lippold sent me and other family members a copy of the article that he had wrote for the Washington Times this past Wednesday. He had attended another meeting this past Tuesday with the Detainee Task Force set up by President Obama to review each of the terrorists files at Guantanamo to determine how, and where each terrorist would be tried, or if some of the terrorists would be freed. Obama had stated that the victims families opinions would be considered in the final disposition of the terrorists. But so far Obama has not lived up that part, and it appears that this week's meeting was no different then the other meetings.

I have to agree with Cmdr. Lippold in that these meetings are only for Public Relations. That Obama's team will eventually make the determination on how, where, and when the terrorists would be tried and with-out any in-put from the families. And that the family members were there for window dressing, and nothing else. But the paragraph that really hit me like a freight train was the part where Cmdr. Lippold relates how family members had to tell their stories of how they have been affected emotionally and physically by the terrorist's murdering their loved ones to a member of the Task Force and this individual is a former Human Rights Watch lawyer who is now working for the Task Force that Obama created. Her name is Jennifer Daskal.

That's the part I had to re-read at least three times. I thought maybe I had mis-read it, and or a that there was a misprint. I know and trust Cmdr. Lippold so therefore I knew that I could trust the source. But this latest news about Obama's task force only reinforces my belief that Obama never had no intention of really listening to the victims families. Let alone taking into account their suggestions as to how, and where the terrorists should be tried.

This latest insult to the victims that were murderer by these terrorists, and the victims families is just one more insult, in a long string of insults that Obama and his team have committed upon the victims families. These meetings are nothing but a pitiful attempt by Obama's team to only act like they are doing the right thing. He is releasing the terrorists at Guantanamo as fast as he can, regardless if congress and the American people disapprove of it. Its more than obvious now that he is out to obtain his own political agenda, regardless how the victims families feel.

And now I am glad that we did not attend this latest meeting. I would not have been able to sit in the same room with Jennifer Daskal who has spent the last few years doing everything in her power, along with the Human Rights Watch Organization to make sure that these terrorists are not fully punished for their crimes against her fellow citizens. And from the looks of it, she is in an even better position to help her terrorists friends.


Having a former Human Rights Watch advocate on the Task force is analogous to the Nuremberg Jury Selection Committee having a former member in good standing with the Nazi Party on their team. It would never have happened. And rightly so. Just like having Daskal in the same room with the real victims of the terrorists should never have happened. It was and is one of the most egregious insults that I have seen in a long time. Daskal should have had the common decency and common sense to excuse herself from the room.

Maybe I am wrong about her. Maybe she has had a spiritual awakening, and has realized that she has been sympathizing with the killers, America's enemies and not the real victims. And now with her newly found insight she has set out to atone for her past mistakes. But I seriously doubt that. I would also think that Obama would see her presence and opinions as a conflict of interest on having her on the task force. But then again, Daskal's being on the team will only help Obama to ensure that none of the team members speak out for the victims and their families. That everyone on his team has the same beliefs, and singleness of purpose. That the task force was not created to take into account the victims and their families, but only the interest of the terrorists, and Obama's liberal beliefs into how our enemies should be dealt with. So really everyone benefits from her presence, except the victims and their families.

Cmdr. Lippold goes on to write how the task force members never even mention taking the rights of the victims of terrorism into consideration when they were discussing on how to bring the terrorists to justice. But with members like Daskal on the team its more than apparent how Obamas team will respond in the end. All one has to do is read a few of the articles that Daskal has written for her former bosses, the Human Rights Watch organization. Its no secret that her sympathies lie with the terrorists. She criticized the Military Commissions, Guantanamo and everything else Bush did in trying to get the terrorists tried for their crimes. She has portrayed the terrorists as the real victims, and the Military Commissions as the evil villains. I never read one sentence in her articles about the innocent Americans that her clients murdered, and or their families.

In her old job when she was working for Human Rights Watch, I could to a point understand how she was working so hard and diligently to have the terrorists tried in Federal Court, Guantanamo closed, and or the terrorists freed. But now she is working in our own government with those same beliefs. And that is not right. No matter how Obama and his team tries to spin it. The terrorists have enough sympathizers in our government, they did not need another one on the Task Force.

We had hoped there for awhile that maybe, just maybe our son's killers would obtain a trial here in America that was not partial to the terrorists. We had to watch as his killers were given reduced sentences, and pardoned in Yemen by President Saleh. And some not even tried for their crimes. But then we had new hope when we seen the Military Commissions in action. But now all that hope has faded away as we realize that Obama is doing the same thing here in America as President Saleh did in Yemen. He is more interested in appeasing the liberal left, and carrying out his political own agenda. Saleh had to appease those in his country who supported the terrorists, and justice was forgotten there for political gain, just like its being forgotten here in America now.