Eric Holder

I can make those pledges both to ensure that people are given the opportunity to blow the whistle and they will not be retaliated against.

If I could perhaps submit an answer to you in writing after I have had an opportunity to think about that.

I'm very concerned, very disturbed by--by that decision and the implications and what flows from it.

I would just plead with you really to look at the specifics.

I look forward to that report, and I will do all that I can to ensure that as much of that is made public as is possible.

These career professionals are not only the backbone of the Department of Justice, they are its soul.

The Civil Rights Division has not necessarily gotten the attention, the resources, the support that it has needed.

Again, I think your hypothetical assumes a premise that I'm not willing to accept.

the tools that we have been given by Congress in FISA are important ones.

We have to make sure that people are given...due process.

The Civil Rights Division is unique. It is, in some ways, the conscience of the Justice Department.

I think one component of it, at least as I understand it--you can correct me if I am wrong--was that for an initial--the first time a person comes across, I don't think they are jailed.

I actually favor such a measure.

I think that making the assault weapons ban permanent would be something that would be permitted under Heller.

I am against, in every way, racial profiling.

It is my intention to devote a huge amount of time looking at the Civil Rights Division and restoring that Division.

We will make sure that the interrogation techniques that are sanctioned by the Justice Department are consistent with our treaty obligations.

I will work to make that assessment. I will be more than glad to come back to this Committee and share with you what I have found.

Whatever system we use, it will be consistent with our values; it will be a system that has due process guarantees.

the duty of the Justice Department is to defend statutes that have been passed by Congress, unless there is some very compelling reason not to.

The very recent Supreme Court decision, by only a 5-4 vote, concerning habeas corpus and Guantanamo is an important first step, but we must go much further.

There is certainly administrative bungling here, and, if there was a dissemination of this information, a potential violation of the Privacy Act.

Senator Obama's fundamental rights have been violated here. And that is what, I think, people need to be focussed on.