Holder: 'I Don't Apologize'

Attorney General Eric Holder has not entirely given the left the change from Bush that it desired—a former Bush administration lawyer says Holder has preserved about 85 percent of Bush’s counterterrorism policies—but in one area, the break is clear: trying terrorist suspects in criminal courts. “I don’t apologize for what I’ve done,” Holder tells The New Yorker. “History will show that the decisions we’ve made are the right ones.” Holder hits back at his critics over the handling of the attempted Christmas Day bombing, noting that every single terrorist suspect arrested inside the U.S. was treated as a civilian criminal. Holder says he’s “distressed” that people “who know better” say courts aren’t up to trying terrorists. “If Giuliani was still the U.S. Attorney in New York, my guess is that, by now, I would already have gotten 10 phone calls from him telling me why these cases needed to be tried not only in civilian court but at Foley Square.”