Nope. An "opinion" expressed by the Attorney General has an obvious influence on all federal law enforcement personnel. In this case it influences them to give less weight to civil liberties issues than the law requires.
Frankly, this defense implies that Ashcroft's statement is a cowardly means of giving a directive without taking responsibility for any subsequent results, a la Henry II's "Will no friend rid me of this troublesome priest?"
Thats your interpretation, an unsupportable one. Apparently the only way Ashcroft can satisfy your standards is to not make public statements.
As far as I'm concerned (for example) Ashcroft was more likely talking about the ACLU types who made such a fuss about the conditions in Camp Xray that some moslim fanatics felt compelled to kidnap a WSJ reporter hostage to offer in exchange for better conditions for the prisoners.