Al Qaeda leadership is getting pro bono counsel from some of America's most prestigious law firms

Robert Pollack of the WSJ points out that the list of lead counsel who have volunteered to defend the high-ranking members of Al Qaeda being held at Guantanamo "reads like a who's who of America's most prestigious law firms: Shearman and Sterling; Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr; Covington & Burling; Hunton & Williams; Sullivan & Cromwell; Debevoise & Plimpton; Cleary Gottlieb; and Blank Rome are among the marquee names."

He writes that a senior U.S. official wondered if, as Pollack writes, "this information might cause something of scandal, since so much of the pro bono work being done to tilt the playing field in favor of al Qaeda appears to be subsidized by legal fees from the Fortune 500."

"Corporate CEOs seeing this should ask firms to choose between lucrative retainers and representing terrorists" who deliberately target the U.S. economy, he quoted the official as saying.

The list of lawyers was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Update: The New York Times is reporting that Charles D. Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, made the following remarks in a radio interview on Thursday with Federal News Radio: “I think the news story that you’re really going to start seeing in the next couple of weeks is this: As a result of a FOIA request through a major news organization, somebody asked, ‘Who are the lawyers around this country representing detainees down there?’ and you know what, it’s shocking.

“I think, quite honestly, when corporate C.E.O.’s see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those C.E.O.’s are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms, and I think that is going to have major play in the next few weeks. And we want to watch that play out.”

In an interview on Friday, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales reportedly weighed in on the controversy saying, “Good lawyers representing the detainees is the best way to ensure that justice is done in these cases.”