9/11: Internal Government Documents Show How the Bush Administration
Reduced Counterterrorism

March 22, 2004

Backgrounder: TRUTH & CONSEQUENCES, The Bush Administration and September 11


Since September 11, President Bush and his supporters have repeatedly
intimated that many of the President's political opponents are soft on
terrorism. In his State of the Union address, the President declared:
"We can go forward with confidence and resolve, or we can turn back to
the dangerous illusion that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw
regimes are no threat to us." In comments aimed at those who seek
changes in the Patriot Act, Attorney General John Ashcroft said: "Your
tactics only aid terrorists." One recent ad asserts, "Some call for us
to retreat, putting our national security in the hands of others."

But the real story is far different, as the following internal
Department of Justice (DoJ) documents obtained by the Center for
American Progress demonstrate. The Bush Administration actually reversed
the Clinton Administration's strong emphasis on counterterrorism and
counterintelligence. Attorney General John Ashcroft not only moved
aggressively to reduce DoJ's anti-terrorist budget but also shift DoJ's
mission in spirit to emphasize its role as a domestic police force and
anti-drug force. These changes in mission were just as critical as the
budget changes, with Ashcroft, in effect, guiding the day to day
decisions made by field officers and agents. And all of this while the
Administration was receiving repeated warnings about potential terrorist
attacks.

PRE-SEPTEMBER 11 - Reno Makes Counterterrorism DoJ's Top Priority

5/8/98 – FBI Strategic Plan: Mission statement from internal FBI
Strategic Plan dated 5/8/1998 in which the Tier One priority is
counterterrorism. This document clearly proves that the FBI under the
previous Administration was making counterterrorism its highest
priority. As the document states "Foreign intelligence, terrorist, and
criminal activities that directly threaten the national or economic
security...To succeed we must develop and implement a proactive,
nationally directed program."

4/6/00 – DoJ Budget Goals Memo: Official annual budget goals memo from
Attorney General Janet Reno to department heads dated 4/6/2000 detailing
how counterterrorism is her top priority for the Department of Justice.
In the second paragraph, she states, "In the near term as well as the
future, cybercrime and counterterrrorism are going to be the most
challenging threats in the criminal justice area. Nowhere is the need
for an up-to-date human and technical infrastructure more critical."

PRE-SEPTEMBER 11 – Ashcroft Shifts Direction Away From Counterterrorism

5/10/01 – Ashcroft New DoJ Budget Goals Memo: Official annual budget
goals memo from Attorney General Ashcroft dated 5/10/2001 (directly
compares to the 4/6/2000 Reno memo). Out of 7 strategic goals described,
not one mentions counterterrorism, a serious departure from Reno.

8/9/01 – Internal Draft of New Ashcroft DoJ Strategic Plan: Internal
draft dated 8/9/2001 of DoJ's plans to revamp the official DoJ Strategic
Plan strategic in which Attorney General Ashcroft's new priorities for
DoJ were highlighted in yellow (because of color constraints with PDF,
the items with black boxes were the ones actually highlighted). As it
says, highlighted items equal the specific goals of the new Attorney
General. Specifically highlighted by Ashcroft are domestic violent crime
and drug trafficking prevention. Item 1.3 entitled "Combat terrorist
activities by developing maximum intelligence and investigative
capability" is passed over. After September 11, Ashcroft quickly amended
his plans for DoJ's reorganization. The final strategic mission, which
was released in November looks starkly different than Ashcroft's
pre-September 11 draft. (to see this reversal, you can compare
"stragicplan.pdf" attached to this email with the final strategic
mission that is found on the web at
http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/mps/strateg...6/chapter2.pdf).

Late August 2001 – Internal FBI FY2003 Budget Request to Ashcroft:
Internal FBI FY03 budget request to DoJ dated roughly late August 2001
(FBI submits its request to DoJ, DoJ adjusts and sends a request to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which then puts it into the final
budget). This is not FBI's total request - but only the areas where FBI
is specifically requesting increases over the previous year's baseline.
In this request, FBI specifically asks for, among other things, 54
translators to translate backlog of intelligence gathered (line 3 under
Foreign Language Services, cost of $5.1 million), 248 counterterrorism
agents and support staff (line 14 entitled CT field investigations, cost
of $28 million), and 200 professional intelligence researchers (line 16,
entitled Intelligence Production, at a cost of $20.8 million). FBI has
repeatedly stated that it has a serious backlog of intelligence data it
has gathered but simply does not have the staff to analyze or translate
it into usable information.

9/10/2001 – Official FY2003 Dept. of Justice Budget Request To White
House: Official FY03 DoJ budget request from Attorney General Ashcroft
to OMB Director Mitch Daniels, dated September 10, 2001. This document
specifically highlights only the programs slated for above-baseline
increases or below-baseline cuts. On page 29 of the PDF, Ashcroft
outlines the programs he is trying to cut. Comparing this document to
FBI's request to DoJ, it shows that Ashcroft ignored FBI's
anti-terrorism requests (detailed in this internal FBI document). More
specifically, this document shows that Ashcroft was planning to ignore
the FBI's specific requests for more translators, counterintelligence
agents and researchers, mentioned above. It additionally shows Ashcroft
was trying to slash funding from counterterrorism and grants and other
homeland defense programs before 9/11.

POST-SEPTEMBER 11: Ashcroft Still Ignores FBI Counterterrorism Requests

Post 9/11 – Budget Document Detailing OMB Rejection of FBI
Counter-Terror Request: Internal document showing that FBI requested
$1.499 billion for counterterrorism for the post-September 11 emergency
supplemental but received just $530 million from the White House,
despite serious counterterrorism needs.

Links at
http://www.americanprogress.org/site...RJ8OVF&b=39039