Hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee - Federal Government Counterterrorism Efforts

Federal News Service

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

SUBJECT: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COUNTERTERRORISM EFFORTS

CHAIRED BY: SENATOR ORRIN HATCH (R-UT)

WITNESS: ATTORNEY GENERAL JOHN ASHCROFT

LOCATION: 226 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.

BODY:
ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: I think the reason, and it's not that I-if I did say that I was exerting executive privilege, I don't believe I said that, and I didn't intend to say I was exerting the privilege. I think only the president asserts the privilege, and I have not done so. I have stated a reason, and that is that the president has a right to receive advice from his Attorney General, in confidence, and so do other executive agencies of government, and this does not mean that there can't be debate on such topics. It just means that the private advice that the president gets from his Attorney General doesn't have to be a part of the debate. There is nothing in what I am saying here that would restrain debate, either in the Congress or in the public about such issues. You've given, I think, a little dissertation on this. I don't mean anything pejorative about this kind of thing you would get in law school. Some professor would toss out the deal and set these things up, and it would be the occasion for the kind of give-and-take in a debate which might well be appropriate, and I commend that kind of debate, except when the persons involved in the actual conduct of a war signal the parties to the war the entirety of the strategy and understanding of the way the war may be conducted, there are times when that's not in the best interest. And if I may just say this-I know this-that our armed forces train our own people to resist interrogation techniques. As soon as we know what the interrogation techniques are, we go to our own armed forces, and we say, "This is the way you resist these interrogation techniques."

Now, for us to advertise, by way of a variety of means, whether it includes one kind of disclosure or not, exactly the way in which we do things may not be the right way to conduct policy at the time of war. Sen. Biden talked about the fact that there may be things that we would do in order to protect and secure the interests of our own citizens, who are part of these-our responsibility at war. That strikes home at my house.

SEN. SCHUMER: But, sir, you are saying there is no --

SEN. HATCH: -- Senator, your time is up.

SEN. SCHUMER: Well, I just want to make this one point, and maybe I don't understand it fully. You are saying that you're not asserting privilege, but then you're saying, "When I speak to the president directly, I want to do that privately." So you're sort of asserting privilege.

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: I am asserting the need for the Executive Branch to be able to receive confidential advice regarding the state of the law as a function of the doctrine of separation --

SEN. SCHUMER: But these memos were more-they had an effect on policy and what happened, not just-they weren't just your private advice in a discussion with the president one evening. They are far more authoritative than that-thousands rely on it, and I'd be happy to --

ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: I'm not going to comment on the documents that you allege provided a basis for a news story. I'm simply not going to do that.