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DOJ funding and priorities pre-9/11 (last updated July 21, 2004)
Fahrenheit 9/11 suggests that Attorney General John Ashcroft cut counterterrorism funding just before the September 11, 2001 attacks. It also suggests that Ashcroft did not prioritize counterterrorism efforts.
Budget Cut?
The suggestion that Ashcroft cut counterterrorism funding before September 11 is based on an incomplete accounting of facts. Ashcroft did submit a budget request on September 10, 2001 that did not endorse FBI requests for $58 million for new counterterrorism field agents, intelligence analysts, and translators. Nonetheless, even without that specific request, Ashcroft's pre-9/11 budget request for the Department of Justice did mark at least a 10.2 percent increase for FY 2002 over what had been enacted for combating terrorism in the then-current fiscal year.
The following graph shows the Department of Justice's funding to combat terrorism from FY 1998 to FY 2002 and the percentage increase over each prior year. It is based on the Office of Management and Budget's 2001 Annual Report to Congress on Combating Terrorism, which is on-line here:
Overall, the federal government has increased funding to combat terrorism each year in recent years. The federal government spent $6.06 billion to combat terrorism in FY1998, $8.32 billion in FY1999, and $8.69 billion in FY2000 and it enacted $9.70 billion for FY2001. Even before the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration requested $10.33 billion to combat terrorism, an increase of 6.5 percent above the prior year's enacted amount and a 70 percent increase from FY1998.
Priorities?
Whether Ashcroft downplayed terrorism is a subject of debate and pits some reported documents against public statements.
On May 9, 2001, Ashcroft testified before the Senate that the Department of Justice had "no higher priority" than combating terrorism (on-line here. Similarly, he said in a July 11 speech that "our number 1 priority is the prevention of terrorist attacks."
However, some internal Department of Justice documents arguably downplayed terrorism, suggesting that Ashcroft's top goals did not include terrorism until after September 11, 2001. Some, such as the FBI's acting director in 2001, Thomas Pickard, have also questioned Ashcroft's priorities publicly.
A May 10, 2001 letter by Ashcroft identified seven goals for the new administration, which did not include counterterrorism (the New York Times reported that the goals were "reducing gun violence and drug trafficking, helping states with anticrime programs, reducing racial discrimination; securing the nation's borders and cutting the immigration backlog; reducing overcrowding and drug use in prison; securing the rights of victims of crime, and strengthening internal financial and computer systems"). A Department of Justice spokesman said the May 10 letter was meant to draw attention to specific initiatives, not to downplay others.
An August 9, 2001 chart titled "Strategic Plans - Attorney General Priorities" listed the seven goals from the May 10, 2001 letter with 36 objectives. One of these 36 objectives reportedly referred to terrorists, but it was not one of the 13 objectives highlighted as an "AG Goal."
Fahrenheit 9/11 shows the testimony of Thomas Pickard before the 9/11 Commission on April 13, 2004. When asked if terrorism was a "top-tier" priority for Ashcroft, Pickard testified that it was "a top tier for the FBI" (emphasis added) and added that counterterrorism was not the top item on Ashcroft's May 10, 2001 letter. Pickard also said, as quoted in the movie, that he told Ashcroft in at least two meetings that the CIA was concerned about an attack, and that Ashcroft told him that "he did not want to hear about this anymore."
Ashcroft disputed Pickard's account when he testified before the 9/11 Commission later the same day. Ashcroft said that "I did never speak to him saying that I did not want to hear about terrorism. I care greatly about the safety and security of the American people and was very interested in terrorism, and specifically interrogated him about threats to the American people, and domestic threats in particular."
Sources: The Office of Management and Budget's 2001 Annual Report to Congress on Combating Terrorism is on-line here. Adam Clymer, How Sept. 11 changed goals of Justice Dept., New York Times, February 28, 2002. A transcript containing the testimony of both Pickard and Ashcroft is available on-line here.
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