Ashcroft stops flying on commercial airlines - July 26, 2001

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

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.

"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.

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. snip

Asked if he knew anything about the threat or who might have made it, the attorney general replied, "Frankly, I don't. That's the answer."

one and a half months later, and boom?

:eyes: Hmm, and they were protecting the American people too... :eyes:

people found out he had taken 1 or 2 trips by commerical airlines during that time. Might be interesting to see if the AG went back to flying commercial airlines after 9-11

Thanks....I hadn't heard that before.

Hmmm.....almost makes it seem like the story was planted. Very, very curious! :tinfoilhat:

despite the warning, he knew there wasn't really a threat.

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.

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.

It looks more like the Justice Department is trying to hide the expense of leasing that jet, if in fact it was for Ashcroft's "personal travel".

Fact is, the CBS story is incorrect. Ashcroft flew on commercial airlines.

:shrug:

even if the CBS story were true, what could we reasonably make of it? Not much at all.
911myths.com does a good job of thinking through the issue rationally.

We now know the idea that Tenet was running around with "his hair on fire" trying to get anyone to take the threat seriously. And, as time goes by, we find they had much more information on the specific nature of the threat.

From what we know now, it wouldn't be surprising at all that Ashcroft took measures to protect himself.

I think Mike Moore bent over backwards to give the Administration the benefit of the doubt so that his movie would be taken seriously.

http://media.indypgh.org/uploads/2004/01/hillary.mov
Like most 911myth "debunks" that one makes no sense. They are presuming the integrity of John Ashcroft. When asked why he was told not to fly, he said he had "no idea" why . The top law enforcement guy in the country didn't think to ask why he was warned against using commercial flights?

Missouri governor opposing Ashcroft for Senate, plane came down 10 days before 2000 election (Ashcroft lost to the dead man).

Maybe Ashcroft was worried about the same kind of hardball being revisited on him?

Maybe he sung the soar like an eagle song to psyche himself out.

But, Carnahan's plane was a private Cessna, not a commercial flight.

knew what was coming down in a matter of weeks. He's basically an insecure man with a touch of the paranoia that defines weak men whose role in their career is to be of service to much more powerful people; so he wasn't about to take any chances that the upcoming events might actually happen sooner than he had been led to believe, and worse yet, the covering "exercises" might just accidentally (of course) target the very commercial flight that had the U.S. AG on it. Talk about striking powerful symbols. WTC (U.S. commerce), Pentagon (U.S. Military might), AG of the United States (country of laws, not men). Powerful people participate in nefarious schemes, and JA wisely decided to no longer risk being a target. After all, he could have been on a FL11,175,93,77.

Give the man credit for being smart enough to understand how power is PROJECTED and how it is MAINTAINED.

During an October 10, 2001 radio interview, David Shippers revealed that he had warned "Attorney General John Ashcroft and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that he had proof from a credible source (that he has still not revealed) about a plot to use hijacked commercial airliners to ram the White House and Capitol." (Chin 5- 19-2002)

http://www.nancho.net/911/mariani.html

Newsweek reported an "extraordinary confrontation" between the attorney general and then- FBI director Louis Freeh at the annual meeting of FBI Special Agents in Charge in May 2001. Ashcroft and Freeh met before their appearance and the attorney general laid out his priorities, "'basically, violent crime and drugs,' recalls one participant. Freeh replied bluntly that those were not his priorities, and started to talk about terror and counterterrorism. 'Ashcroft didn't want to hear about it,' says a former senior law enforcement official." The New York Times and Washington Post reported that Thomas J. Pickard, acting director of the FBI in the summer of 2001, told the 9/11 Commission that Ashcroft had "little interest" in terrorism.

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=124722

On July 5, the CIA briefed Attorney General Ashcroft on the al-Qaeda threat, warning that a significant terrorist attack is imminent, and a strike could occur at any time. (9/11 Commission, 4/13/2004) On this day, acting FBI Director Tom Pickard briefs Ashcroft about the terror threat inside the US. Pickard later swears under oath that Ashcroft tells him, “(I do) not want to hear about this anymore.”

On September 10, 2001, Ashcroft rejects a proposed $58 million increase in FBI counterterrorism funding for the next year’s budget

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/01/national/01INQU.html

9/11/2001 10:49 p.m.: Ashcroft Claims to Already Understand Hijacking Procedure

It is reported that Attorney General Ashcroft has told members of Congress that there were three to five hijackers on each plane armed only with knives.

http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?id=1521846767-2800

Forgot about that, though it was one of the first items ever to come out about 9/11!

The Schippers story leaves Ashcroft rather bare. Clearly, a future tribunal could haul him in for questioning about his reaction to Schippers - to ignore it but stop flying commercial. Hmmmmm....

At the least Ashcroft knew something to do with aviation was coming up, and given his native paranoia plus the Carnahan demise, took steps to protect himself absolutely (if unnecessarily) -- hey he's the oil-anointed General.

At the same time, this story suggests he's likely not involved in operative details of the 9/11 plot, but more part of the look-away and wash-your-hands-of-it crew. As a full insider, he would have required no special precautions.

For example, someone who was really in on the plot details could calmly sit in his office at, say, the Pentagon, and pontificate about how a Pearl Harbor attack was due soon, confident that the imminent strike on the opposite side of the building in just half an hour would leave him untouched. Then he could even rush out for photo op to show himself taking charge of the rescue actvities. (I'm just giving an example of the kind of guy we're looking for who would be one of the operators. No one you could actually name.)