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At the end of July in 2001, then Attorney General John Ashcroft was reported by CBS and several other news agencies to be "traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines". The reports stated that the Justice Department cited a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and advised Ashcroft to travel only by private jet throughout the rest of his term. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department would specify exactly what that "threat" was, where it originated, or when it was discovered. The CIA denied knowledge of any threat at all.
Ashcroft stated: "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." [NOTE: On average it costs about $1600 an hour for the government to lease private jets for personal use.]
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According to the report by CBS, the Justice Department firmly stated that Ashcroft himself didn't make the decision to fly privately. They claimed that the suggestion came exclusively from Ashcroft's FBI security detail. The FBI had no comment on the issue.
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| Less than a year after the initial threat was revealed, the Justice Department made a statement to quell the issue by saying that his pre-9/11 change in flight plans had nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, or the impending attacks, but were more the result of personal threats on his life. Condoleezza Rice tried to dispell the severity of the pre-9/11 threat by relating it to terrorism and hijackings abroad and not in the US. |
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More on Attorney General Ashcroft's pre-9/11 warning:
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READ CBS News: Ashcroft Flying High [07/26/01]
READ Fox News: Ashcroft Travel Alert Didn't Involve Bin Laden [05/16/02] |
