Here’s what now appears not in dispute: It’s DOJ’s Office of Legal

Counsel’s job, by regulation, to issue legal opinions for the AG.

Agencies involved in dealing with al Qaeda captives (the CIA and others)

wanted to know what precisely the law was. Gonzales, on behalf of the

WHCounsel’s office, asked OLC to perform this function. While OLC was

completing its memo, thre was “give and take” — as there routinely is

b/w DOJ, OLC & the WHC.

The dispute: Gonzales is being pushed on, but not necessarily accused

regarding, whether this “give and take” consisted of him (Gonzales)

forcing his own viewpoint and getting it fed back by OLC as its own

opinion (such that the so-called torture memo constitutes his personal

views).

Gonzales has been effective in maintaining that (a) the 2002 OLC opinion

represented the judgment of the OLC, not necessarily his views; (b) that

judgment is a legal opinion by a component of DOJ, not a statement of

official policy of the U.S.; and (c) he has always supported the Bush

policy that Geneva doesn’t apply but that we should treat captives

humanely to the extent consistent with military necessity.