David Obey: “I want to explain one other reason that we need to adopt this amendment. We discovered, and we discussed with the…”

“I want to explain one other reason that we need to adopt this amendment. We discovered, and we discussed with the Attorney General in the hearing, the fact that up until September 11, the Justice Department appeared insistent on downplaying the importance of antiterrorism activities. This is a document which demonstrates the papers that were presented to the Attorney General shortly before the events of September 11. As it was discussed in our hearing, apparently what happened is that the FBI was trying to push to have a higher emphasis on terrorism. Newsweek magazine contains a story discussing the difference between former director of the FBI Louis Freeh and the Attorney General about the relative importance that should be placed on antiterrorist activities. The FBI made it quite clear that they wanted antiterrorism activities to be given a much greater emphasis than the Attorney General was comfortable in giving them. This chart was a chart given to the Attorney General. He was asked to spell out for the agency staff what his priorities were.”