Terror Warning Criticized (Ashcroft Didn't Work With Homeland Security)

Some allies of the Department of Homeland Security within the Bush administration and members of Congress criticized Attorney General John D. Ashcroft yesterday for issuing terrorist threat warnings at a news conference on Wednesday, contending he failed to coordinate the information with the White House and with Homeland Security, which has the job of releasing threat warnings.

(snip)

Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and Bush administration rules, only the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can publicly issue threat warnings, and they must be approved in a complex interagency process involving the White House. Administration officials sympathetic to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said he was not informed Ashcroft was going to characterize the threat in that way -- an assertion that Justice officials deny.

Earlier Wednesday, Ridge appeared on five news shows saying that although the prospect of terrorist attack is significant, Americans should "go about living their lives and enjoying living in this country," as he said on CBS.

Last night the White House played down the turf battle. Deputy White House communications director Brian Besanceney said Mueller, Ashcroft and Ridge, who meet with President Bush every day, "discussed this issue with the president on more than one occasion and they agreed on the strategy and the seriousness of the threat. There was agreement on the way forward."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61742-2004May27.html

--that it resulted from a power grab by Ashcroft. None of the US and local officials who are supposed to be notified received any prior info. Ditto the FBI field offices.

when he's telling people he won't be in the next administration if Bush wins?

I'm not doubting what's happened, I just don't get what's going on in their minds.

Just like I don't understand why they're suddenly investigating neocons.

I have noticed that some of their newscasts have been a bit more critical lately.

Maybe they are awakening from their long sleep.

When Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the latest terror warning, the rest of the government -- including the Department of Homeland Security -- heard the details on television.

So, too, did America's mayors.

"The announcement itself wasn't something that we were given a heads up to,'' says Baltimore mayor Martin O'Malley.

Sources tell CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr the Justice Department did nothing to put other agencies in the loop before broadcasting "be-on-the-lookout" pictures of seven suspected terrorists.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/25/terror/main619569.shtml

CBS is a GOP Whore media source! The title should be; 'Incompetence in Bush Adm.' Tell the truth CBS!

the Department of Homeland Security is still a chaotic mess, the Administration is still 100% about politics, Rove told them to hype security threats, and in their rush to perpetuate this sham they couldn't be bothered to follow any institutionalized process (since they never follow process anyway).

Compared to Ashcroft & Co., the Keystone Kops look like the Untouchables. I knew we were in for some bad times when they made Ashcroft AG, but his total incompetence is almost beyond belief.

Please? We will all be needing a little help here, guys.

AP , WASHINGTON
Friday, May 28, 2004,Page 1

Al-Qaeda is close to completing its avowed plan to strike the US again with a major attack, according to top US law enforcement officials who want the public's help in locating seven terror operatives labeled a "clear and present danger" by US Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Ashcroft said a steady stream of "disturbing" intelligence, collected for months, could mean terrorists already are in the US to execute the plan, though he acknowledged there is no new information indicating when, where or how an attack might happen.

"We do believe that al-Qaeda plans to attack the US, and that is a result of intelligence that is corroborated at a variety of levels," Ashcroft said at a news conference Wednesday with FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Ashcroft and Mueller announced an intensified level of counterterrorism activity for the summer. This includes:

Interviews with individuals who could provide intelligence about terrorism.

Creation of a new FBI task force to focus on the threat.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2004/05/28/2003157227

I hope there is something special in store for Herr Asscroft..
Calico dreams, mon cher!

Was it the capture of Moussaoui? At that time, it seemed he was trying to beat someone else to the announcement.

Ashcroft couldn't organize a hand job in a whore house.

CNN interrputed a regular show with a "news special report" regarding the terralert

the next day Ashcroft and Mueller took time to make an official appearance to "remind" people of the terralert, complete with photos
and dire (vague and non-specific)warnings

talkingheads and "unnamed" officials are characterizing this latest threat as "...terrorist being 90% ready to carry out an attack..."

ok -- if this latest threat is sooooooooo ready, and it's important enough for Ashcroft and Mueller to get "airtime" -- then why are we still at "YELLOW ALERT", shouldn't we, at least, be at "ORANGE ALERT"?

But if memory serves me, I heard the rumor that this alert was coming the day before it was shown on TV. Doesn't give me much confidence in our Dept. of Homeland Security if they weren't aware it was coming. Smells like a Dr StrangeRove no-lose smackdown to me. If people took Ashcroft seriously there would be no criticism from DHS or WH. But since they didn't, then smack him down. And like a good little troll, that Johnny boy is, he'll take it with a grin.

Just finished watching this video:

A CBS Video That Basically Proves that the Ashcroft Terror Announcement Was a Thrown Together Political Diversion
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/videoplayer/newVid/framesource2.html?clip=/media/2004/05/27/video620064.rm&sec=201&vidId=201&title=Qaeda$@$Alert$@$A$@$Shock&hitboxMLC=national

more than a diversion -- it's an indictment of bush*'s incompetency

in the video: Ashcroft and Mueller are stressing "terra terra terra"

Meanwhile, Ridge is down playing "terra terra terra"

the news reporter has implied that this latest terralert is based on a power-grab by Ashcroft to get control over homeland insecurity

ok, here's the bush* incompetency part -- it was reported that bush* asked Ridge and Ashcroft if they were working from the same page...

:wtf: isn't bush* paying attention during all these "morning briefings"? Why isn't his "MBA-style leadership" efficient enough to make sure information is being shared between department heads?

more importantly -- did bush* even know that Ashcroft and Mueller were going to make a "booga-booga terra terra terra" announcement?

Orwell would be proud. Instand diversion, perfect defense ... "All you Liberals complained that the administration didn't do anything before 9/11, and now that they're doing something you're complaining about that." Oceana has always been at war with Eurasia Eastasia.

I don't believe that for a second. Karl and dick perhaps, but not chimpy*.

Will the Democrats expose this for the blatant fearmongering that it is?


White House Divided Over Terror Alert



May 28, 1:51 AM (ET)

By CURT ANDERSON

(AP)


WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI and Justice Department insist that warning the public about a possibly devastating terror attack in this country was justified by intelligence and may avert a repeat of the Sept. 11 attacks. But some Bush administration officials and lawmakers aren't so sure.

These officials and members of Congress with access to the same intelligence reports said the announcement by Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller was overblown and caused unnecessary public worry.

Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the Ashcroft-Mueller news conference on Wednesday mistakenly led some to believe the nation's threat level had been increased.

He called it "regrettable" that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who made a round of television appearances Wednesday, did not join Ashcroft and Mueller.


"Their separate public appearances left the impression that the broad and close interagency consultation we expect - and which the law requires - may not have taken place in this case," Cox said.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040528/D82RD6M00.html

~snip~
Most of what was said that night by agreement remains private but this I can say without violating any confidence. The secretary believes strongly it is necessary for the government to speak with one clear voice on matters of terror, one clear message.

The reasons are pretty obvious. Mixed messages lead to a lack of confidence. We stop believing. You stop believing, or worse, you start believing there are all sorts of nefarious reasons for the warnings, politics or something else.

That is what makes this week's alert so distressing. We can't expect the government to know everything. We can and should expect it to agree on what it does know and what it means. We'll get to that a little later in the program.

~snip~

MESERVE: And the people who I talk to tell me that the intelligence community is more in accord with what Secretary Ridge had to say yesterday rather than with Attorney General Ashcroft. And let me say also, Aaron, that the Justice Department is denying that homeland was left out of the loop. One official told us today that they were consulted all along the way at every step.

IT IS a sad commentary on the state of the Bush administration's credibility that the timing of its announcement of a serious terrorism threat has come into question.

The White House has only itself to blame for its predicament. The false information it disseminated about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction -- as a major pretext for war -- gives cause for Americans to be skeptical of pronouncements from an administration that often likes to implore paternalistically, "Trust us."

No one doubts that al Qaeda remains a threat and could attempt to strike at high-profile events such as the political conventions this summer. The war in Afghanistan clearly weakened, but did not extinguish, al Qaeda's capabilities. But by all indications, the information rolled out this week by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in a semi-alarmist manner was not new. The administration revealed that intelligence reports were showing increasing "chatter" that suggests an attack on U.S. soil may be coming in the next few months.

Curiously, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has not elevated the color-coded terror alert level to orange. Ridge and FBI Director Robert Mueller were notably more restrained than Ashcroft in describing the threat.

~snip~
more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/28/EDG8P6SCFO1.DTL

...Ashcroft appeared with FBI Director Robert Mueller and urged the public to increase its vigilance over the next several months, when a number of events, including an upcoming G-8 summit in Georgia and the political conventions, might present inviting targets.

like, don't those look inviting? nudge, nudge, wink wink...

I find that a bit weird. And they do it all the time.

If homeland security is on the budget chopping block.

Obvious political ploy--but who is going to stop them if they continue to get away with every crime?

Where is the outrage in our press and from our elected leaders? Are they all gagged to the point of uselessness from dancing to their corporate taskmakers?

cannon. Hopefully some day someone will catalog in a day-by-day fashion his every misdeed, abuse of power, abrogation of oath of office, politically-motivated action, his every unconstitutional or unlawful act or policy. I strongly suspect his name will live in infamy for as long as this Republic shall last, be it another thousand years or more. But that's just my opinion and I might be wrong.