NP echoes of Brock Vond

[Doug Millison]

[...] Since the attacks on New York and Washington, John Ashcroft has been
criticised for rounding up more than 1,000 people on suspicion of being
connected to al-Qaida. Many were held for months, despite a lack of
credible evidence.

He has accused his critics of undermining the fight against terrorism. But
it is becoming clear that before September 11 he had little interest in
counter-terrorism, and diverted resources from measures to prevent
terrorism towards those aimed at more traditional targets, such as drugs
and child pornography. [...] On September 10 last year, the last day of
what is now seen as a bygone age of innocence, Mr Ashcroft sent a request
for budget increases to the White House. It covered 68 programmes, none of
them related to counter-terrorism.

He also sent a memorandum to his heads of departments, stating his seven
priorities. Counter-terrorism was not on the list. He turned down an FBI
request for hundreds more agents to be assigned to tracking terrorist
threats.

Nevertheless, he began using a chartered private jet to travel around the
country, rather than take commercial airliners as Ms Reno had done. A
justice department spokesman said this was done as a result of an FBI
"threat assessment" on Mr Ashcroft, but insisted that the assessment was
not specifically linked to al-Qaida.

But Mr Ashcroft stopped using commercial flights in July, just as the
intelligence "chatter" about a possible al-Qaida strike on US soil was
getting louder. [...]

He has continued to plough resources into the drug war, stepping up raids
on Californian health centres which provide the chronically ill with
medicinal marijuana.

He has argued that the battle against Colombian rebels should be considered
part of the broader counter-terrorist effort.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,11209,719231,00.html