Ashcroft's priorities: What is the TRUTH?

[skeptic9]

A Paul Krugman column in the NY times last month (at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/23/opinion/23KRUG.html ) and a website with documents to back it up are in direct conflict with what Ashcroft just said under oath.

Supportive of the headline version of Richard Clarke's main argument (US Lagged on Terror Fight--Clarke") is side-by-side posting of Janet Reno's TOP priority in April 2000--counterterrorism--versus John Ashcroft's May 2001 list of seven "Strategic Goals and Objectives". Ashcroft did not even mention terrorism.

Under oath, he just said that these May 2001 list items were RENO's priorities, NOT HIS!

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The Center for American Progress has links and summaries of actual documents that contradict what Ashcroft just said, at http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=39039 :

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."

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/strategic2001-2006/chapter2.pdf ).