Isn't this about the same time Ashcroft quit flying on commercial airlines?

[NNN0LHI]

FAA was focused on explosives, not suicide pilots

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-terror28.html

WASHINGTON -- Before Sept. 11, the Federal Aviation Administration focused on the danger of explosives aboard planes rather than a suicide hijacking, even though its own security officers warned terrorists might try to crash an airliner, a federal panel said Tuesday.

The FAA's Office of Civil Aviation Security considered the risk of a suicide hijacking at least as early as March 1998, says the preliminary report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. snip

At Tuesday's hearing, the commission provided documents showing the FAA was aware of the possibility of suicide hijackings but did not pass the information along to airlines.

In a presentation to airline and airport officials in early 2001, the FAA discounted the threat of a suicide hijacking because there was ''no indication that any group is currently thinking in that direction.'' And when the agency issued a terrorism warning to air carriers in July 2001, it noted the risk of explosives inside luggage but did not mention suicide hijackings.

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[fishnfla]

1. Yes, it was July 2001

he was going on a fishing trip

[NNN0LHI]

2. You are right

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

Ashcroft Flying High

(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.

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[lovedems]

3. That is so Christian of him! Wouldn't it be nice if we could all afford

to lease jet's to travel around and visit our families for week-end trips! That man is the biggest SOB, he outranks Cheney in my book. At least Cheney admits to being evil. ASSKKKroft masquerades as a Christian but he is his own king.

[aquart]

4. Yes, the only butt he protected was his own.

May he never sleep.