From TIME’s Bobby Ghosh afield in Michigan:
Leon Panetta is confident that the DoJ’s new investigation into wrongdoing by CIA’s interrogators will absolve the Agency. “I don’t believe there’s a basis for any kind of action [against the interrogators]… and I’ll be proved right,” Panetta told reporters in Dearborn, MI, last night.
The CIA Director, in town to host a dinner for leaders of the Arab-American community, brushed off reports he almost resigned as CIA Director last month, after Attorney General Holder ordered the investigation: “No, I never [thought of resigning].”
But he said he remained opposed to the investigation, because it raked over old coals. “It’s no secret that I didn’t agree with the effort to go back,” he said. “If we get trapped in the past, we’ll lose the future.”
He also dismissed reports that his relations with Holder had soured. “I’ve been in Washington for 40 years, and I’ve learned you fight the battles you believe in,” he said, with a shrug. “Some you win, some you lose.”