Holder expected to review, change Bush policies

WASHINGTON – Eric Holder has won confirmation as the first black attorney general, but he’ll have little time to consider his role in history as he decides which Bush administration counterterrorism policies to reverse.

Holder was confirmed 75-21 on Monday, with all the opposition coming from Republicans. He was due to be sworn in yesterday by Vice President Joe Biden.
For starters, the new attorney general will learn the secrets of the Office of Legal Counsel, whose lawyers justified the use of controversial interrogation tactics and even declined to provide Bush administration documents to internal Justice Department investigators.
Holder will inherit a Justice Department wracked by Bush administration scandals over politically inspired hirings and firings. He has pledged to restore its reputation.
Holder also will play a major role in the future of terrorism detainees.
President Barack Obama, in a major policy shift, signed an executive order to close the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year. He also created a special task force to review detainee policy; Holder and Defence Secretary Robert Gates will serve as co-chairs.
That panel will look at options for apprehension, detention, trial, transfer or release of detainees and report to the president within 180 days.
Holder promised senators he would review why career prosecutors in Washington decided not to prosecute the former head of the department’s Civil Rights Division. An inspector general’s report last month found that Bradley Schlozman, the former head of the division, misled lawmakers about whether he politicised hiring decisions.
Another key question facing Holder is whether to reverse former President George W Bush’s order that three of his former top aides – Karl Rove, Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten – should not testify before Congress about firings of US attorneys. Rove and Miers were former aides when Bush gave his order.
– Nampa-AP