Ashcroft: Clinton Admin. Blind to Terrorist Threat

Attorney General John Ashcroft told the Independent Commission probing the Sept. 11 attacks on Tuesday that the Clinton administration had been "blind" to the gathering terrorist storm that threatened America.

"We did not know an attack was coming because for nearly a decade, our government had blinded itself to its enemies," he testified.

"Our agents were isolated by government-imposed walls, handcuffed by government-imposed restrictions and starved for basic information technology," he contended. "The old national intelligence system in place on September 11 was destined to fail."

Ashcroft cited a 1995 memo that he said made it almost impossible for the FBI and CIA to share intelligence on leads that could have uncovered the 9/11 plot.

"These are the rules," Ashcroft said of the pre-9/11 restrictions. "But somebody did make these rules. Someone built this wall."

"I cannot imagine that the commission knew about this memorandum," he told the 9/11 probers. "So I have declassified it for you and the public to review.

"Full disclosure compels me to inform you that its author is a member of this commission," he revealed.

Ashcroft was referring to former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, who has been among the harshest critics of Bush administration pre-9/11 terrorist policies.

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