Sen. Brown: VP Biden 'off base' in blasting me on military tribunals

Note: Sen Scott Brown is the top military defense attorney for the MA Guard -- VP Biden picked on the wrong person!

Sen. Brown: VP Biden 'off base' in blasting me on military tribunals
NY Post
February 15, 2010
unattributed

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown took a swipe at Vice President Joe Biden today -- saying that President Obama's No. 2 was “off base” when he said the Republican get his facts straight when it comes to military tribunals and whether he is aware that terrorists have the right to a lawyer.

“It was insulting,” Brown, a critic of Obama during his recent Senate campaign, told Politico.com.

The comments came a day after Biden blasted Brown during an appearance on CBS's “Face the Nation" when he said he didn't “know whether the new senator from Massachusetts understands: When you get tried in a military tribunal, you get a lawyer, too.”

“He’s trying to give me a lesson on military law, and I didn’t think it was appropriate,” said Brown. “And I thought he was off base when it comes to explaining to the American people that somehow I need a lesson on whether people get attorneys -- of course they get attorneys. There’s a difference as to what type of attorney they’re going to get and when they’re going to get that attorney, and how are they treated, and what rights do they in fact get.”

The newly elected lawmaker, who served in the Massachusetts Army National Guard for 30 years, added, “I know the military rules and regulations and procedures from A to Z."

Biden's comments are part of the Obama administration's push to defend its controversial, and unpopular, plan to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four cohorts in Manhattan federal court -- just a few blocks from Ground Zero -- instead of a miliary tribunal.

Excerpt: Read more at nypost.com