“Contrary to press reporting and based on the information that’s available to me,” Mr. Gonzales said during an interview Thursday with The Washington Times, “I don’t support the investigation by the department because this is a matter that has already been reviewed thoroughly and because I believe that another investigation is going to harm our intelligence gathering capabilities and that’s a concern that’s shared by career intelligence officials, and so for those reasons I respectfully disagree with the decision.”
On Monday, Mr. Gonzales told The Washington Times’ “America’s Morning News” radio program that he understood Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s inquiry would look at “the 1 percent of actors who went beyond the legal limits prescribed by the lawyers at the Department of Justice.”
“We obviously worked very hard during the Bush administration to establish ground rules to establish parameters about how to deal with terrorists, because we’re a nation of laws, and if people go beyond that, I think it is legitimate to question and examine that conduct to ensure people are held accountable for their actions, even if it’s action in prosecuting the war on terror and trying to protect America.”
