Holder praises JAGs for work with terror suspects

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Attorney General Eric Holder praised military lawyers for representing terror detainees at the risk of their own careers and warned that government officials must rely on the rule of law even when they act in secrecy for reasons of national security.

In a speech for a law conference at the U.S. Military Academy, Holder said some of those engaged in the battle against terrorism did not always follow the law. He offered no specifics in his address to the mostly military audience of about 150, which included military and civilian lawyers, law professors and members of the nation's military academies.

The speech touching on the service of the Judge Advocate General Corps came a day before a court deadline for the Obama administration to release all or parts of key Bush administration memos detailing which tough interrogation techniques were acceptable against terror suspects. Critics of the Bush administration say those tough techniques amounted to torture.

"In our current struggle against international terrorism, when others surrendered faithful obedience to the law to the circumstances of the time, it was the brave men and women of the JAG corps who stood up against the tides, many times risking their careers to do so," Holder said.

Holder insisted that even when the government must act in secrecy for national security reasons, "we must be most vigilant in relying on the rule of law to govern our conduct."

"A need to act behind closed doors does not grant a license to pursue policies, and to take actions, that cannot withstand the disinfecting power of sunlight," he said.

His remarks stood in sharp contrast to criticism last month from former Vice President Dick Cheney, who charged that the Obama administration was making the country less safe by dismantling some Bush-era anti-terror programs.

Holder told his audience, "We will not sacrifice our values or trample on our Constitution under the false premise that it is the only way to protect our national security."

The attorney general acknowledged that the hardest part of his job so far is emptying the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, of terror suspects by early next year. Some will be released or sent to other countries, and others will face prosecution in U.S. federal courts. Officials still don't know what to do about a third category of detainees.

"If a detainee is too dangerous to release, yet there are insurmountable obstacles to prosecuting him in federal court, what shall we do?" Holder said. "Though we do not know yet the answer, I pledge that the ultimate solution will be one that is grounded in our Constitution."

Associated Press writer Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this report.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)