Ashcroft's Perjury in front of the 9/11 Commission and Able Danger

[ck4829]

"John Ashcroft delivered a remarkable performance before the 9/11 commission today. It was spirited and aggressive and overtly political. It was also full of untruths, and in this post I will prove that Ashcroft was dissembling.

Ashcroft’s main point was that the Clinton administration was at fault for the deficiencies in the FBI that caused it to miss the boat on 9/11. He had two complaints: A “wall” between the FBI and the CIA (which I will address at a later time) and the decrepit state of the FBI’s information technology system.

"Our agents were isolated by government-imposed walls, handcuffed by government-imposed restrictions and starved for basic information technology," the attorney general went on. "The old national intelligence system in place on Sept. 11 was destined to fail."<…>

Mr. Ashcroft also rebutted suggestions that the F.B.I.'s notoriously outmoded computer system — actually, 42 different "antique" systems, he said — could be blamed on Louis J. Freeh, the former F.B.I. director, who is an acknowledged computerphobe. Mr. Freeh testified earlier today.

The real blame, Mr. Ashcroft said, lies on the doorstep of the Clinton administration, whose last fiscal year budget — still in effect on Sept. 11, 2001 — allotted $36 million less for computer development than the budget of the first administration of the first President George Bush eight years earlier.

Ashcroft is correct that Louis Freeh was not responsible for the decrepit state of the FBI’s computer systems before 9/11. However, the problem was not the Clinton White house. His inference is that it was is a spectacular lie.

It gets better because here is Freeh's testimony.

"We sought a total of $70 million for ISI, consisting of $20 million from base IT funding and an increase of $50 million in new budget authority for ISI. Congress appropriated $2 million of the requested increase, to be used for additional personnel to support ISI, and directed the Attorney General to make available $40 million from the Department’s Working Capital Fund. However, Congress prohibited the FBI from spending any of these funds, including the $20 million from the FBI’s base IT budget, until a comprehensive implementation plan was submitted to the Congress.

During the FY 2000 appropriations cycle, we proposed a total of $58.8 million for ISI, consisting of $20 million from base IT funding and an increase of $38.8 million in new budget authority. The FY 2000 appropriation for the FBI provided no new budget authority and again prohibited the FBI from obligating any available funds for ISI until the Congress approved the ISI plan."

It was the republican congress that was responsible for the delay in the upgrade of the FBI’s computer systems, and John Ashcroft was a powerful member of the Senate."

We have to investigate who hindered the FBI and who hindered the anti-terrorism efforts, and then we will have our answers.

http://politus.blogspot.com/2004/04/ashcroft-lied-under-oath.html

[zbdent]

1. "Congress prohibited the FBI from spending any of these funds"

and, if you recall, Republicans were controlling Congress - both the House and the Senate, since 1/3/1995 . . .

[annabanana]

2. HOW the hell do they get away with this shit?

I am constantly astounded by the fact that they feeel so comfortable telling lie after lie.. on the record.. and on tape.. and right out in public. They clearly feel "safe" from any repercussions.

so..
1)they either know the bad voting machines are a lock

or
2)they have so many confederates in the "Democratic" ranks that they honestly feel they have nothing to worry about.

or both.

[zbdent]

3. The "liberal media" chooses not to question

the Repuke press releases . . . that's how . . .

[ladjf]

6. But, we shouldn't have to depend on the media to enforce

the law.

[ck4829]

4. Self-Kick

[Supersedeas]

5. It is a tangled web, but the same names keep popping up

[SpiralHawk]

7. How did Ashcroft vote on FBI appropriations

while he was in the Senate?

That would be interesting to know.