Ashcroft used a chartered jet for this fishing trip...

Ashcroft Flying High

WASHINGTON, July 26, 2001

(CBS) Fishing rod in hand, Attorney General John Ashcroft left on a weekend trip to Missouri Thursday afternoon aboard a chartered government jet, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

More....

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml

I'm waiting for a transcript (I was at work), but from what I've heard, his answer was bullshit. If I didn't fly commercial from June 2001, through well after 9/11, I could still say: "I've flown commercial carriers extensively from before 2000 until the present day".

He insisted that he always used commercial flights for personal travel.

fishing trip so shut up already!

(just kidding...)

eom

a Google turns up dozens of references to that flight:

http://www.google.com/search?q=ashcroft+chartered+2001

:wow:

Or at least the expense reports with Southwest Airlines tickets on 'em.

is allowed to fucking outright lie under oath. :mad:

:D

What, Ashcroft prayed so we can overlook this?

If this was a Free Country, they would all be waiting in the dock.

But it isn't (though it may yet be again one day) and the Commission KNOWS that Civil War is but one more provocation away, for the Bushevik Brownshirts, too, who have been programmed to follow unquestioningly and will also go off like Brownshirts against the Jews if their Masters indicated to them that it will be done with the Blessings of the State (no investigations/prosecutions like Klansmen in 1940s Alabama, is what I'm saying).

The Commission will NOT suggest indictments for perjury, even though they have all done it and in spite of the fact that Clinto was trapped into his low-level sexual affair perjury and prosecuted as if it was embezzlement perjury or murder perjury.

But, in a Free Country, Grand Juries would already be in the process of being convened.

and no one says a word.

arlier this week, the Justice Department leased a NASA-owned G-3 Gulfstream for a 6-day trip to Western states. Such aircraft cost the government more than $1,600 an hour to fly. When asked whether Ashcroft was paying for any portion of the trips devoted to personal business, a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to respond.

salin's comment: if it were true, as Ashcroft asserted today, that he never stopped using commercial flights for non-official flights, then the DOJ spokesperson would have given that clarification rather than declining to respond, as the answer would have been pretty straight forward.

:shrug:

asserting that the impeachable offense was tied to obstruction of justice and not sex *wink wink*... because of perjury. The hypocracy is rather overwhelming. Somehow I don't think we are going to see a waddling Ken Starr with steam coming out of his ears any time soon.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1390849

"Isn't this flat out perjury?"

Posted by EarlG

"But I can also tell you that there was nothing in this memo that suggested that an attack was coming on New York or Washington, D.C. There was nothing in this memo as to time, place, how or where." - Condoleezza Rice

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61252-2004Apr8_2.html

"Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York." - August 6 PDB

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_MEMO_TEXT?SITE=FLTAM&S...

that the media, the public and the legal system seems to have a double standard and as part of the bushleague administration they get an automatic pass.

"But I can also tell you..". Now, Republicans are able to do or say anything they want without consequence. Thus "I can tell you X", where X is false, is true. So Condi did not lie.

QED

was just as bad as a provost. Always a slick yes-woman/front-woman for her administration du jour.

So they won't be cornered by that.

From Kennedy to Wellstone, EVERYONE KNOWS what happens to Bushevik Enemies, even if they dare not say it aloud.

Great link, a must-download :-))

/// In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was
A senior official at the CIA said he was unaware of specific threats against any Cabinet member, and Ashcroft himself, in a speech in California, seemed unsure of the nature of the threat.

"I don't do threat assessments myself and I rely on those whose responsibility it is in the law enforcement community, particularly the FBI. And I try to stay within the guidelines that they've suggested I should stay within for those purposes," Ashcroft said. ///

Other reports say it was a "personal death threat". So he was threatened "personally" (that's why he didn't inform the public), but not interested in the details. Not to forget, on flights abroad the personal threat didn't exist because he flew commercial when flying to Europe.

Would you please elaborate, Mr. General?

Ashcroft:

...

I have exclusively traveled on commercial aircraft for my personal travel; continued through the year 2000, through the entirety of the threat period to the nation.

...

These were not private chartered jet aircraft. These were aircraft of the United States government. And it was on such an aircraft that I was on my way to an event in Milwaukee on the morning of September the 11th.


CBS:

...

Fishing rod in hand, Attorney General John Ashcroft left on a weekend trip to Missouri Thursday afternoon aboard a chartered government jet, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

...

Earlier this week, the Justice Department leased a NASA-owned G-3 Gulfstream for a 6-day trip to Western states. Such aircraft cost the government more than $1,600 an hour to fly. When asked whether Ashcroft was paying for any portion of the trips devoted to personal business, a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to respond.

....

Now the second lie is a little slicker because Justice leased the jet from NASA, but the first lie is demonstrably false.

It really is time to get busy and make sure this CBS story sees the light of day again in every corner we can possibly send it.

It is perfect timing that it be re-circulated as widely as possible.

Send it to everyone you know, media contacts, and I'm sure the gentlemen on the commission have email addy's, too!!

Let's flood the system with emails on this so they know we are watching and listening, too!!

info@9-11Commission.gov

Mail them the link and let them know you are watching and listening!!

On Edit: Added Email subject...

Subject: Bob Kerrey on Al Franken's show said there was no evidence of Ashcroft receiving a threat assessment...

Well, if one Goggles "John Ashcroft private jets", you'll get a bunch of mainstream, respected news sources who have documented this:

(CBS) Fishing rod in hand, Attorney General John Ashcroft left on a weekend trip to Missouri Thursday afternoon aboard a chartered government jet, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

"There was a threat assessment and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines," an FBI spokesman said. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department, however, would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it.

More...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/07/26/national/main303601.shtml

And

Nevertheless, he began using a chartered private jet to travel around the country, rather than take commercial airliners as Ms Reno had done. A justice department spokesman said this was done as a result of an FBI "threat assessment" on Mr Ashcroft, but insisted that the assessment was not specifically linked to al-Qaida.

But Mr Ashcroft stopped using commercial flights in July, just as the intelligence "chatter" about a possible al-Qaida strike on US soil was getting louder.

According to yesterday's edition of Newsweek, he had a showdown on counter-terrorism with the outgoing FBI director, Louis Freeh, in the spring of last year in Quantico, Virginia, at an annual meeting of special agents.

More...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,11209,719231,00.html

I'm sure there are more...

:kick: