Capt. David Iglesias, a Navy lawyer who leads a team prosecuting war crimes and terrorism cases at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will speak at the UALR Law School at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Arnold Lecture series. He’s to talk about military commissions’ work.
The UALR news release doesn’t mention it, but Iglesias has a local tie of a sort. He and Bud Cummins of Little Rock were among the eight U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration in a political purge. Iglesias’ case was one of the most egregious because it was linked to Republican complaints that he hadn’t aggressively gone after some Democratic politicians while he served in New Mexico. Cummins was fired for spurious reasons to make way for Karl Rove protege Tim Griffin to get his job. It set off a controversy that cost Griffin the appointment, but Griffin’s loss of the hoped-for political launching pad didn’t deter his ultimate rise to Congress from the 2nd District. Iglesias has spoken on that subject before, calling Griffin “fundamentally unqualified.”