Is Clarke's book proof that Ashcroft actually DID avoid commercial travel?

[WherestheOutrage]

I seem to recall that an Ashcroft spokesperson said that he avoided air travel in the summer of 2001 due to threats against him *personally*. However, it would now seem that this time period (July 2001 as I recall) coincides with Clarke's Terrorism High Alert period (July through mid-August).

We need to ask the Attorney General one more time: Did he avoid commercial travel because of the terrorist threat in the summer 2001 because of a personal threat, or now more likely, an evidently very real threat that the Terrorist Task Force had identified?

[WilliamPitt]

1. There's this

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

Ashcroft Flying High
WASHINGTON, July 26, 2001

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.

"I don't do threat assessments myself and I rely on those whose responsibility it is in the law enforcement community, particularly the FBI. And I try to stay within the guidelines that they've suggested I should stay within for those purposes," Ashcroft said.

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."

Earlier this week, the Justice Department leased a NASA-owned G-3 Gulfstream for a 6-day trip to Western states. Such aircraft cost the government more than $1,600 an hour to fly. When asked whether Ashcroft was paying for any portion of the trips devoted to personal business, a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to respond.

All other Bush Cabinet appointees, with the exception of Interior and Energy with remote sites to oversee, fly commercial airliners. Janet Reno, Ashcroft's predecessor as attorney general, also routinely flew commercial. The secretaries of State and Defense traditionally travel with extra security on military planes.

The Justice Department insists that it wasn't Ashcroft who wanted to fly leased aircraft. That idea, they said, came strictly from Ashcroft's FBI security detail. The FBI had no further comment.

[izzie]

9. I think his head got so big he can not get into a regular plane.

God also speaks to this man.

[Stephanie]

2. I think so

See this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1302535&mesg_id=1302535

[WillyT]

3. Yeah... And, BTW, Has Asscroft Been Before The 9\11 Comm. At All ???

Publicly, privately, slippen 'em secret notes???

Anybody know?

:shrug:

[calimary]

5. Would this be for that "magic" late-summer month when

bush and cheney were on a month's vacation, and Condi insists "we were at battle stations!"? WOW! I guess those Army commercials that show guys going into the military, enjoying white-water rafting and golfing, are on the level. A Party of One, 'eh? What KIND of party, where is it, what are they serving, and could/should I bring my girlfriend?

[Nlighten1]

8. Is there a link for this?

TIA

[AlCzervik]

4. 911 no fly zone

Here is a good link that has a few articles pertaining to this question, there is a good one dated 912/01 from sanfrancisco chronicle about mayor Willie Brown
http://911research.wtc7.net/sept11/warnings.html

[Blue-Jay]

6. I'd say that there's plenty of proof without Clarke's book.

See the above link to CBS. Ashcroft's flying tendencies have never to my knowledge been denied.

[peacetalksforall]

7. It isn't so much the vacation and the $1600 per HOUR cost for Ashcroft

it's the SERIOUSNESS of the WARNINGS.

I'd like to hear a repeat of the Tenet tapes - he spoke in such a blaise way in front of the commission - and in retrospect of the warnings - it appears to me that the commission is having a joking good time. Is this all just human nature to treat is all so lightly?

Has Ashcroft been questioned?

Is he trout fishing right now?

Is he still flying at $1600 per HOUR? Does he have to go anywhere? How can anyone respect that man?