In his testimony before the 9/11 Commission on April 13, 2004, Attorney General John Ashcroft blamed the ‘wall’ for keeping information separate from various intelligence agencies. A member of the commission commented: ” ‘I have here a memorandum dated August 6th [2001] from [Ashcroft’s deputy] Larry Thompson, the fifth line of which reads, *The 1995 procedures remain in effect today.* If that wall was so disabling, why was it not destroyed during the course of those eight months [of the Bush Administration, before 9/11]?’ ”
– Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, Without Precedent, Page 196