Ashcroft slammed for book's criticism of 9/11 panel
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/5416FF0D7BC93529862572090019E305?OpenDocument
By Philip Dine
POST-DISPATCH WASHINGTON BUREAU
10/15/2006
After a short period out of the public limelight, former Attorney General John Ashcroft has re-entered it - in dramatic fashion.
Fellow Republicans who served on the 9/11 Commission, which investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks, are ripping Ashcroft for what he wrote about the panel in his new book. Ashcroft's behavior - back then as a witness and now as an author - is "underhanded" and "outrageous," they say.
In his book, "Never Again," Ashcroft accuses the commission of a partisan effort aimed at "assessing blame and grandstanding" instead of finding the truth and protecting Americans. He alleges that the hearings "disintegrated into show trials" and that the Republican-chaired panel was "dangerously out of control" and "obsessed" with blaming President George W. Bush for not preventing the terrorist attacks while "absolving" President Bill Clinton's administration.
In an interview Friday, former Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said that of the many witnesses interviewed by the commission, Ashcroft was the least interested in helping the panel get at the facts of what had happened before Sept. 11, 2001, so another terrorist attack could be averted.
"John was the least cooperative of all the witnesses we had," Gorton said. "He was the only one who refused to submit his written testimony in advance, he probably came with the largest entourage of any of the people we talked to, and he engaged in a disingenuous and partisan attack" on the committee.
Former Illinois Gov. James Thompson, also a Republican and commission member, called Ashcroft's criticism of the panel "outrageous, because it's not true. None of that is true."
Ashcroft's behavior was so bad, Thompson said, that Ashcroft's then-boss, Bush, privately apologized to commission members.
"Ashcroft tried to put us on trial and it backfired. The president of the United States apologized to us in the Oval Office for his conduct, which is kind of embarrassing," Thompson said.
"The president has thanked us for our report, and he gave us a four-hour interview," Thompson said. "As far as I can tell, the American people overwhelmingly support the commission and our report. The Congress supports the commission and our work. We were not partisan - we were even-handed, and we made recommendations based on the history of what happened. So I don't know where John is coming from."
Thompson said the only motive he could guess at is that Ashcroft is "selling a book."
In his testimony before the commission in April 2004, Ashcroft indicated that commission member Jamie Gorelick, a Justice Department official in the Clinton administration, had put up barriers between intelligence and law enforcement and that these barriers contributed to the terrorist attacks. But Gorton said that weeks before Ashcroft testified his own Justice Department had reaffirmed that the barriers should continue. So while Ashcroft tried to divide panel members along partisan lines, his only impact was to antagonize and further unify them, Gorton said.
Ashcroft's spokeswoman said he stands by the accounts in his book.
Ashcroft served as Missouri's governor and senator before becoming what he acknowledges was likely "the most controversial attorney general in U.S. history."
He now runs the Ashcroft Group, a Washington-based consulting and lobbying business that assists firms seeking contracts in the field of homeland security and helps with corporate management.
In his book, Ashcroft blames the loss of his Senate seat in 2000 to Democrat Mel Carnahan partly on newspapers who didn't objectively cover the race but focused instead on "venerating the former governor." Carnahan died in an airplane crash while campaigning. Ashcroft also contends that the Carnahan campaign, continued by his widow, Jean Carnahan, pre-empted Ashcroft's own message by focusing on the late governor's "family values."
Ashcroft writes about the "Democratic vitriol" he faced during his confirmation hearing to be attorney general, exempting a few legislators he saw as principled, including Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
"I felt a bit like what I imagined the early Christians must have felt like as they stepped through the archways into the Roman Coliseum to face the hungry lions," he says, as he prepared to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
He has high praise for Bush as a leader who asked no-nonsense questions about the terrorist threat in Cabinet meetings and demanded thorough and unvarnished answers.
Ashcroft complains that members of Congress wanted to be briefed on the night of Sept. 11, and that he answered questions "until well after midnight." He says he didn't get to bed that day until "the wee hours. It had been one of the longest days of my life" - and he was back at work "well before 7 a.m. the next morning."
He lists a number of personal accomplishments after Sept. 11 that he says helped protect the nation, including arrests, surveillance and deportations, while still respecting civil liberties, unlike, he says, President Franklin Roosevelt after Pearl Harbor.
Ashcroft says he did his best to reduce the "wall" that Gorelick had helped create between intelligence and law enforcement officials.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/5416FF0D7BC93529862572090019E305?OpenDocument
By Philip Dine
POST-DISPATCH WASHINGTON BUREAU
10/15/2006
After a short period out of the public limelight, former Attorney General John Ashcroft has re-entered it - in dramatic fashion.
Fellow Republicans who served on the 9/11 Commission, which investigated the 2001 terrorist attacks, are ripping Ashcroft for what he wrote about the panel in his new book. Ashcroft's behavior - back then as a witness and now as an author - is "underhanded" and "outrageous," they say.
In his book, "Never Again," Ashcroft accuses the commission of a partisan effort aimed at "assessing blame and grandstanding" instead of finding the truth and protecting Americans. He alleges that the hearings "disintegrated into show trials" and that the Republican-chaired panel was "dangerously out of control" and "obsessed" with blaming President George W. Bush for not preventing the terrorist attacks while "absolving" President Bill Clinton's administration.
In an interview Friday, former Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said that of the many witnesses interviewed by the commission, Ashcroft was the least interested in helping the panel get at the facts of what had happened before Sept. 11, 2001, so another terrorist attack could be averted.
"John was the least cooperative of all the witnesses we had," Gorton said. "He was the only one who refused to submit his written testimony in advance, he probably came with the largest entourage of any of the people we talked to, and he engaged in a disingenuous and partisan attack" on the committee.
Former Illinois Gov. James Thompson, also a Republican and commission member, called Ashcroft's criticism of the panel "outrageous, because it's not true. None of that is true."
Ashcroft's behavior was so bad, Thompson said, that Ashcroft's then-boss, Bush, privately apologized to commission members.
"Ashcroft tried to put us on trial and it backfired. The president of the United States apologized to us in the Oval Office for his conduct, which is kind of embarrassing," Thompson said.
"The president has thanked us for our report, and he gave us a four-hour interview," Thompson said. "As far as I can tell, the American people overwhelmingly support the commission and our report. The Congress supports the commission and our work. We were not partisan - we were even-handed, and we made recommendations based on the history of what happened. So I don't know where John is coming from."
Thompson said the only motive he could guess at is that Ashcroft is "selling a book."
In his testimony before the commission in April 2004, Ashcroft indicated that commission member Jamie Gorelick, a Justice Department official in the Clinton administration, had put up barriers between intelligence and law enforcement and that these barriers contributed to the terrorist attacks. But Gorton said that weeks before Ashcroft testified his own Justice Department had reaffirmed that the barriers should continue. So while Ashcroft tried to divide panel members along partisan lines, his only impact was to antagonize and further unify them, Gorton said.
Ashcroft's spokeswoman said he stands by the accounts in his book.
Ashcroft served as Missouri's governor and senator before becoming what he acknowledges was likely "the most controversial attorney general in U.S. history."
He now runs the Ashcroft Group, a Washington-based consulting and lobbying business that assists firms seeking contracts in the field of homeland security and helps with corporate management.
In his book, Ashcroft blames the loss of his Senate seat in 2000 to Democrat Mel Carnahan partly on newspapers who didn't objectively cover the race but focused instead on "venerating the former governor." Carnahan died in an airplane crash while campaigning. Ashcroft also contends that the Carnahan campaign, continued by his widow, Jean Carnahan, pre-empted Ashcroft's own message by focusing on the late governor's "family values."
Ashcroft writes about the "Democratic vitriol" he faced during his confirmation hearing to be attorney general, exempting a few legislators he saw as principled, including Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
"I felt a bit like what I imagined the early Christians must have felt like as they stepped through the archways into the Roman Coliseum to face the hungry lions," he says, as he prepared to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
He has high praise for Bush as a leader who asked no-nonsense questions about the terrorist threat in Cabinet meetings and demanded thorough and unvarnished answers.
Ashcroft complains that members of Congress wanted to be briefed on the night of Sept. 11, and that he answered questions "until well after midnight." He says he didn't get to bed that day until "the wee hours. It had been one of the longest days of my life" - and he was back at work "well before 7 a.m. the next morning."
He lists a number of personal accomplishments after Sept. 11 that he says helped protect the nation, including arrests, surveillance and deportations, while still respecting civil liberties, unlike, he says, President Franklin Roosevelt after Pearl Harbor.
Ashcroft says he did his best to reduce the "wall" that Gorelick had helped create between intelligence and law enforcement officials.