Testimony of Attorney General John Ashcroft
Senate Committee on the Judiciary
(NOTE: THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OFTEN DEVIATES FROM PREPARED REMARKS)
December 6, 2001

On the morning of September 11, as the United States came under attack, I was in an airplane with several members of the Justice Department en route to Milwaukee, in the skies over the Great Lakes. By the time we could return to Washington, thousands of people had been murdered at the World Trade Center. 189 were dead at the Pentagon. Forty-four had crashed to the ground in Pennsylvania. From that moment, at the command of the President of the United States, I began to mobilize the resources of the Department of Justice toward one single, over-arching and over-riding objective: to save innocent lives from further acts of terrorism.

America's campaign to save innocent lives from terrorists is now 87 days old. It has brought me back to this committee to report to you in accordance with Congress's oversight role. I welcome this opportunity to clarify for you and the American people how the Justice Department is working to protect American lives while preserving American liberties.

Since those first terrible hours of September 11, America has faced a choice that is as stark as the images that linger of that morning. One option is to call September 11 a fluke, to believe it could never happen again, and to live in a dream world that requires us to do nothing differently. The other option is to fight back, to summon all our strength and all our resources and devote ourselves to better ways to identify, disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks.

Under the leadership of President Bush, America has made the choice to fight terrorism -- not just for ourselves but for all civilized people. Since September 11, through dozens of warnings to law enforcement, a deliberate campaign of terrorist disruption, tighter security around potential targets, and a preventative campaign of arrest and detention of lawbreakers, America has grown stronger -- and safer -- in the face of terrorism.

Thanks to the vigilance of law enforcement and the patience of the American people, we have not suffered another major terrorist attack. Still, we cannot -- we must not -- allow ourselves to grow complacent. The reasons are apparent to me each morning. My day begins with a review of the threats to Americans and American interests that were received in the previous 24 hours. If ever there were proof of the existence of evil in the world, it is in the pages of these reports. They are a chilling daily chronicle of hatred of America by fanatics who seek to extinguish freedom, enslave women, corrupt education and to kill Americans wherever and whenever they can.

The terrorist enemy that threatens civilization today is unlike any we have ever known. It slaughters thousands of innocents - a crime of war and a crime against humanity. It seeks weapons of mass destruction and threatens their use against America. No one should doubt the intent, nor the depth, of its consuming, destructive hatred.

Terrorist operatives infiltrate our communities -- plotting, planning and waiting to kill again. They enjoy the benefits of our free society even as they commit themselves to our destruction. They exploit our openness - not randomly or haphazardly - but by deliberate, premeditated design.


Source: US Department of Justice
URL: http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/speeches/2001/1206transcriptsenatejudiciarycommittee.htm



There is more. Lynne Cheney, otherwise known as Mrs Richard Cheney, served until recently on the board of Lockheed Martin, the world's biggest weapons manufacturer and a major Star Wars contractor along with TRW -- another arms maker, of which the board included none other than Dick Cheney himself.

That is hardly a secret; nor is the fact that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was a member of the board of Chevron, and helped that corporation get into Kazakhstan, as Ian Bremmer, president of research and consulting firm Eurasia Group and senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, told Al-Ahram Weekly. Zalmay Khalilzad, who served in Reagan's State Department and Bush Sr's Pentagon, was once chief consultant for Unocal.

It gets better: on 23 May, Khalilzad was appointed special assistant to Bush Jr, and senior director for Gulf, Southwest Asia and other regional issues on the National Security Council. The links between administration figures, Big Oil and defence are numerous: one need only look to James Baker and John Sununu for further evidence.