NYT: 9/11 Panel Is Said to Offer Harsh Review of Ashcroft

WASHINGTON, April 12 — Draft reports by the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks portray Attorney General John Ashcroft as largely uninterested in counterterrorism issues before Sept. 11 despite intelligence warnings that summer that Al Qaeda was planning a large, perhaps catastrophic, terrorist attack, panel officials and others with access to the reports have said.

They said the draft reports, which are expected to be completed and made public during two days of hearings by the commission this week, show that F.B.I. officials were alarmed throughout 2001 by what they perceived as Mr. Ashcroft's lack of interest in terrorism issues and his decision in August 2001 to reject the bureau's request for a large expansion of its counterterrorism programs.

The draft reports, they said, quote the F.B.I.'s former counterterrorism chief, Dale Watson, as saying he "fell off my chair" when he learned that Mr. Ashcroft had failed to list combating terrorism as one of the department's priorities in a March 2001 department-wide memo.

They said the reports would also quote from internal memorandums by Thomas J. Pickard, acting director of the F.B.I. in summer 2001, in which Mr. Pickard described his frustration with Mr. Ashcroft and what he saw as the attorney general's lack of interest in the issue of how the bureau was investigating terrorism suspects in the United States.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/04/13/politics/13PANE.html

what a whack. :eyes:

He was busy shopping for drapes. Mustn't cast his eyes upon those breasts

flabby ass for all that annointin' that's required of all government officials in this bejeebus misadministration.

his subordinates to take part in his on-the-clock Bible study groups at the DOJ. So much for separation of church and state... Oh yeah, and the obsession with porn.

Of course, don't ever expect to get a raise or promotion if you don't.

That's what he implied with the whole 'bare breasts' fiasco, IMO.

No doubt about it.

They had other agendas.

nt

It was an article with comments from one of Ashcroft's spokesmen saying he was never notified of any terrorist threats in this country. Weeeeeee! :D

Did anyone else notice he's only scheduled for 1 hour and 15 mins tomorrow? If he gives an opening statement, there's no way the Commissioners will have 10 mins each to ask questions. WTF?

focusing on covering bare breasted statues with curtains.

What kind of a First String is this? We not only got tunnel vision, we got DUMB.

Get those Myopic Pubs outta there.

He's your smoking gun, that rapture-wishing fuck.

Maybe he'll quit for health reasons.

Obviously full of bile!

From Democrats.com:

Newsweek: " predecessor, Janet Reno, demanded to be regularly briefed on the status of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act cases on terror suspects. Ashcroft told Justice lawyers he did not need to hear daily reports. 'It's like a soap opera,' Ashcroft said at one meeting, according to a former Justice official. 'You can tune in once a week and catch up with what's been going on.' (An Ashcroft aide denies that the A.G. made such a comment.)... Ashcroft never saw that Aug. 6, 2001, PDB warning of an Al Qaeda attack inside the United States. Why? Because President George W. Bush, with his penchant for secrecy, had restricted the distribution of the PDB to just seven national-security officials. The A.G. didn't make the cut... Pickard will testify that in a July conference call, he alerted all 56 FBI field offices to be on the lookout for Al Qaeda activity. But FBI whistle-blower Colleen Rowley says she never got the word."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4711886/

n/t

Colleen Rowley?

I suspect that they will eventually have to can someone in order put the 9/11 hearings to bed.

go to timeout right now!

Just a note. I heard Carey on public radio today saying that the public hearings are merely theater to keep the American people informed. They already know everything they need to know from the restricted questioning.

So, is Ashcroft going to take a token fall for the administration here? I doubt it. Don't get me wrong. I'll take Ashcroft. I'm just convinced this entire hearing already has a foregone conclusion. And that will be:

How could anyone have known? We were institutionally unprepared.
All we have to do is spend another $78 Bn for a new internal intelligence agency to counteract terrorism within our borders. What was that? What about the Dept of Homeland Defense? Oh that old thing????

avoided with an ounce of prevention.

there's six less whores there, and he put a commedian/celebrity in jail for having a son that sold bongs over the internet.

of them would have been forced to resign already.

The trouble with this administration is they are all pushing a predetermined agenda and no one is minding the store. Bush & Cheney want tax cuts and Saddam's oil, Rummy & Condi want an anti-missile system and Asscrack wants to cover all the naked statues. Throw in all the other republican priorities like putting religion in schools and government and generally trying to undo everything Clinton and we see a government that is so ideological that to them the daily job of running the country was an afterthought.

It is amazing that not one person lost their job due to 9/11. Quite the contrary, many were bumped upstairs. A skeptical person might think, "Hmm, is this to keep them quiet?" But, you can lose your job in a New York minute if you tell the truth. Ask General Shinseki. Or if you tell the truth after leaving the maladministration, expect to be "fucked like you have never been fucked before." Or whatever the hell Rove said. Ask DiUilio, O'Neill, Wilson, Clarke, et. al.

an answer to why he stopped flying commercial aircraft?

...When Bob Kerrey was interviewed on Air America Radio, they asked him about that...and he said they'd seen no evidence to indicate that the allegations were true.

Translation: Nobody offered up anything about it, so we're not pursuing it.

First meeting called by AG Ashcroft?

Terrorism? Nope, porn.

Terror to Asscraft is a bare breast or two guys having anal sex.

That should count for something.

"I fell out of my chair" That is my exact feeling with every decision these dufuses have made. Everyone knows that Ashcroft was more concerned about spying on abortion clinics and speaking in tongues than protecting this country. This is a man who lost a senatorial election to a dead man (Mel Carnahan - may he rest in peace) for Heaven's sake! Ashcroft has never had a real job and is the only attorney that I know who actually has a problem with the bare breasted lady justice statue. AGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

:mad:

and that's good, because he's just the type to do something REALLY and OBVIOUSLY crazy as a result...If ever there was a loose cannon, it's name was Johnny Ashcroft...

They are going to ask him why he stopped flying! Oh Goody!!!

Although I rather he burst into flames.

Bet he shows up covered in oil. }(

. . . and once someone gets under his skin, he blows a cork (inside his head), and totally forgets what he is "supposed" to say, and then words literally "spew" forth from his mouth with disgust toward whomever questions his abilities and/or decisions.

I also saw him already address why he was flying privately before 911. He said there had been threats from (then he stammers like he doesn't know what to say). Then he says something to the fact that their were threats uh, duh, uh, uh, duh, and that's all I'm saying.

He will testify today at 3:30 FYI

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=WTX0WFHK0I1QSCRBAEKSFEY?type=domesticNews&storyID=4813684&pageNumber=1

Good stuff buried at the end (as usual), but twisted into some sort of convoluted mess.
So will this again be twisted to blame Clinton?
I HATE single sentence paragraphs!!!

Although the FBI's counterterrorism budget tripled during the mid-1990s, its counterterrorism spending stayed fairly constant between fiscal years 1998 and 2001, the report said.

On Sept. 11, 2001, only about 1,300 agents, or 6 percent of the FBI's total personnel, worked on counterterrorism, the report said.

"Former FBI officials told us that prior to 9/11, there was not sufficient national commitment or political will to dedicate the necessary resources to counterterrorism."

The new Bush administration proposed an 8 percent increase in overall FBI funding for fiscal year 2002. This included the largest proposed percentage increase in the FBI's counterterrorism program since fiscal year 1997.

On May 9, 2001, Ashcroft testified that the Justice Department had no higher priority than to protect citizens from terrorist attacks.

The next day, May 10, 2001, the Justice Department issued guidance for developing the fiscal year 2003 budget that made reducing the incidence of gun violence and reducing the trafficking of illegal drugs priority objectives and made no mention of counterterrorism, the report said.

Before the attacks, the FBI did not have a sufficient number of translators proficient in Arabic and other languages useful in counterterrorism investigations, which resulted in a significant backlog of untranslated communication intercepts by early 2001, the report said.

using a legion of FBI agents to track prostitutes. I remember reading stories about long and deep cover investigations in New Orleans (?) that resulted in 1 prostitutes arrest.

And they were going after Mormons for multiple marriages too!

Where are the Media Whores who tracked down Clinton's activities from who scratched the light switches in the WH to who gave Clinton a hair cut on Air Force One?

I here and now declare proof that Limbaugh, North, Fineman, Russert, Novak... are in fact part of a Secret Shadow Fascist Mafia within the United States Government. Possibly they sold their morality to a Foreign Government and are guilty of Treason against the United States of America.


-----------------------------


9/11 staff statement critical of Ashcroft, FBI

WASHINGTON - The day before the Sept. 11 attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft rejected an FBI appeal for an extra infusion of money for counterterrorism, according to a Sept. 11 commission staff statement released Tuesday.


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The statement, issued as the independent panel’s spotlight turned to the FBI and Justice Department, said Ashcroft on Sept. 10, 2001, rejected a request made earlier by acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard for “further counterterrorism enhancements” in the 2002 budget, which already would have boosted FBI spending by 8 percent.

That rejection came four months after Ashcroft, in testimony at a Senate terrorism hearing, said the Justice Department “has no higher priority” than protecting Americans from terrorism at home and abroad. And the decision occurred after months of rising concern at high government levels that Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network might be preparing a major attack against U.S. interests.

Full text of 9/11 staff statement

Seven priorities listed
The commission staff statement quotes a former FBI counterterrorism chief, Dale Watson, as saying he “almost fell out of his chair” when he saw a May 10 budget memo from Ashcroft listing seven priorities, including illegal drugs and gun violence, but not terrorism.

The statement opened a two-day round of hearings Tuesday on how law enforcement responded to the terror threat, with testimony from Ashcroft, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, Pickard and former Attorney General Janet Reno. Former CIA counterterrorism center director Cofer Black also was scheduled to testify.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4730946/

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Who assassinated Carnahan?

Boobs.

"Boo-tay".

Bling-bling.


:evilgrin:

Damn that's great!!