Never Again
Securing America and Restoring Justice
by John Ashcroft
Overview
FROM THE PUBLISHER
John Ashcroft's service as attorney general began with a tumultuous confirmation battle. Then, on September
11, 2001, his job was transformed into the greatest leadership challenge an attorney general has ever faced. Highly classified intelligence briefings, secret surveillance of terror cells, and war councils with President Bush gave Ashcroft a uniquely comprehensive--and chilling--view of the threats to American security. Ashcroft breaks his silence about historic events that transpired during his term of office including the largest terrorist attack in U.S. history and the enactment and defense of the Patriot Act. NEVER AGAIN is a probing look at what Ashcroft believes will make America safe.
My thoughts
True confession. I bought this book because it was a dollar. I'm a sucker for a cheap book and I have a friend who works for the AG's department, so I thought I could spare a couple of dollars at The Dollar Tree to get each of us a book. What I didn't expect to find is a book so good I couldn't put it down.
My preferred genre is travel. I can read travel essay after travel essay and fall in love with places I've never been. I like history books, and especially fictionalized history, but I'm not much into political books. I started reading this book because, quite frankly, my NY resolution was not to buy any more books this year. Time to get some off my shelf, and this book was next in the random stack.
I didn't know much about John Ashcroft before reading this book but I have since become his admirer. He explained VERY clearly why he made the decisions he made, and regardless of whether or not you agree with his politics, you have to respect his position. I don't know how many of us could have done the job that he's done for America in the volatile time that he was in office. I walked away from this book with deep respect for him and for the position of Attorney General.
Favorite Passage
When I sat before the 9/11 Commission, I encouraged them to study carefully the classified Millennium After Action Review, which amounted to President Clinton's National Security Council plan to disrupt the al Qaeda network in the U.S. and abroad. Unfortunately, our government had failed to implement fully that plan, even though deterrents were spelled out clearly, a full seventeen months before the horrendous attacks of September 11, 2001.
I've been there, and I've heard the impassioned, amorphous rhetoric about infringing on the "civil liberties" of potential terroroists in our towns, cities, malls, and sporting arenas. Frankly, the sense of urgency in America may not have been enough to overcome concern about the outcry and criticism that most certainly would have followed such tough tactics. But the tactics themselves were right; the suggestions made by the Millennium After Action Report worked. I know they worked because, although we did not have access to that particular report until much later, the Justice Department put into practice those very tactics, what I called our "spit on the sidewalk" policy: detain or arrest suspected terrorists on any legal grounds possible. And the attacks stopped.
