Points of dispute

As White House counsel and US attorney general, Alberto Gonzales played a key role in several highly controversial legal policy decisions, including:

The so-called "Torture Memo"

The Aug. 1, 2002, legal memorandum was drawn up by the Justice Department for Gonzales, who was then White House counsel. It offered a narrow definition of torture and stated that the commander in chief could order the use of aggressive interrogation techniques without violating the Anti-Torture Act. When the document became public after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in 2004, the Justice Department withdrew the opinion.

Terrorist surveillance program

Gonzales was instrumental after the Sept. 11th attacks in establishing the Terrorist Surveillance Program, in which President Bush authorized eavesdropping on international phone calls and e-mails of Americans without a warrant -- bypassing a 1978 law that requires the government to obtain warrants. The administration reversed itself earlier this year and agreed to seek warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

US attorney firings

Gonzales's credibility with Congress suffered irreparable damage this spring after details emerged about the firings last year of nine federal prosecutors. Democrats have charged the firings were politically motivated, designed to remove prosecutors who were not aggressively pursuing administration objectives. Gonzales's chief of staff at the Justice Department and his White House liaison were instrumental in drawing up the list of US attorneys to be dismissed. Both were forced to step down. Gonzales had minimized his role in the firings in testimony that was later contradicted by his aides. Congress is demanding that a special prosecutor be named to investigate the firings.

Globe Staff