Ashcroft: 9/11 Commission ignored facts

Keith Olbermann Anchor, 'Countdown' • Profile

On Monday, "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann talked to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft about his new book, "Never Again," the warning signs before 9/11 and the accusations in David Kuo's new book, "Tempting Faith."

You can read the transcript below.

KEITH OLBERMANN, "COUNTDOWN' HOST:  The title of former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s book is “Never Again,” perhaps not intended to be interpreted differently by his admirers and by his critics, but doubtless to be so, and no doubt to the good in terms of book sales.  It is, not surprisingly, a staunch defense of the Bush administration and some of its most controversial actions by one of the pivotal figures of Mr. Bush’s first term. 

Our third story on the COUNTDOWN tonight, the new book by the man who ran the U.S. Justice Department from 2001 to 2005, former attorney general of the United States, John Ashcroft. 

Thank you for some of your time tonight, sir. 

JOHN ASHCROFT, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, thank you.  Nice to be with you.

OLBERMANN:  Let me start with your assessment in “Never Again” about the 9/11 Commission, that it was, quote, “obsessed,” unquote, with finding fault with the Bush administration. 

Two Republican members of that commission have responded.  Former Senator Gorton of Washington, former Governor Thompson of Illinois, told “The St. Louis Post Dispatch” that your claims are not true, that President Bush ended up apologizing to the commission for your behavior. 

Did that apology occur, and why would commission Republicans have gone after the Bush administration in the first place? 

ASHCROFT:  Well, I’m not in the business for answering for their behavior, their statements.  I felt that the commission, frankly, was ignoring a number of very important things, and it could be that some would be disenchanted for what I did, because I took information to the commission that it seemed intent on ignoring or not otherwise providing, including the fact that the wall which separated intelligence and law enforcement had been crafted and developed in a memorandum authored by a member of the commission.

Now, for people to sit in judgment on conduct and not reveal the fact that they in fact were the sponsors of the conduct seemed to me to be something that people deserved to know, and it added, I think, to the way in which the commission should operate. 

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It wasn’t something the commission, I suppose, was happy to hear, but I thought they needed that as well as some other things to be revealed. 

So in my commission appearance, I basically told them things that I thought they didn’t—weren’t giving the right emphasis to, and which I thought were important for an objective and fair deliberation, which should have been the responsibility of the commission. 

OLBERMANN:  Governor Thompson said—and then I’ll move on from this subject, if that’s all right with you—that you “had tried to put us”—referring to the 9/11 commission—“on trial, and it backfired.  The President of the United States apologized to us in the Oval Office for his conduct, which is kind of embarrassing.” 

Do you know if the president apologized for your actions to the commission? 

ASHCROFT:  I do not know.  I wasn’t in the Oval Office with the commission.  And if I caused any embarrassment to the president, I regret that.  But I felt that, as I explained earlier, my conduct in the commission was in line with I thought appropriate matters to be brought to the attention of both the commission and the American people, not just about the facts of the matter, but relating to the way in which the commission had been involved in specific policies that were major problems with our fight against terror. 

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