Abstract

Ashcroft Attacks

The author comments on U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's testimony before the commission investigating the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001. When faced with criticism, accuse. That seems to be Attorney General John Ashcroft's rule of political survival. When called before the 9/11 Commission to discuss the Justice Department's and the FBI's responses to the Al Qaeda threat before 9/11, he blasted away: at the Clinton Administration, at the commission (one member in particular) and at unnamed Patriot Act critics. He admitted no errors. And he barely addressed the questions raised about his own actions before 9/11. Interim reports of the 9/11 Commission note that the FBI Ashcroft inherited from Janet Reno was a mess. The reports also indicate that Ashcroft did little to change the status quo. Ashcroft had a lot of FBI issues on his plate. Rather than acknowledge or explain this, Ashcroft came before the commission loaded for bear. He waved a mid-1990s Justice Department memo his department had just declassified, which he claims was the origin of the so-called wall that separated investigations of terrorists from criminal inquiries and which he and others blame for impeding counterterrorism efforts.