On September 12, 2001, “FBI director Robert Mueller…warned at a high-level meeting that irregular methods for apprehending, detaining, or interrogating terrorism suspects might taint evidence. [Attorney General John] Ashcroft dismissed Mueller’s doubts, directing that Mueller ‘stop the discussion right here… The chief mission of U.S. law enforcement…is to stop another attack and apprehend any accomplices to terrorists before they hit us again. If we can’t bring them to trial, so be it.’ ”
– Peter Margulies, Law’s Detour, Page 15