Ashcroft Said Not to See Terrorism as Top PriorityThe story goes on the state that funding for counterterrorism was high during the mid-90s and curtailed in the 1998 and 2000 budgets. Why? Well, Hannity will probably blame Clinton today, but that was when the Republicans ruled the House. And you'll recall that their contention was that Clinton's campaign against terrorism was cooked up to draw attention away from Monica.
The Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft failed in 2001 to treat counterterrorism as a top priority, the commission on the Sept. 11 attacks said on Tuesday, in its latest report detailing security breakdowns throughout the government.
The commission staff statement was issued before the start of two days of hearings on the failure of the FBI and other agencies to prevent the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed around 3,000 people.
It focused on a May 10 Justice Department document that set out priorities for that year. The top priorities cited were reducing gun violence and combating drug trafficking. It made no mention of counterterrorism.
When Dale Watson, the head of the counterterrorism division, saw the report, he "almost fell out of his chair," the report said.
"The FBI's new counterterrorism strategy was not a focus of the Justice Department in 2001," it added.
Then-acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard said he appealed to Ashcroft for more money for counterterrorism but on Sept 10, 2001, one day before the hijacked airliner attacks, Ashcroft rejected the appeal.
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh, testifying before the commission, said the bureau's counterterrorism operations were severely underfunded and understaffed in the years leading up to the attacks.
Freeh, questioned by Democratic commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste, later said intelligence services were aware of the danger that a terrorist might use a hijacked plane as a weapon.
He acknowledged steps were taken to protect the White House as well as special events, such as the 2000 Olympic Games and meetings of world leaders, against such a threat, but nothing was done to protect the country at large.
It was the only recorded time that they accused Clinton of darkly thinking like them. We now know better.
