We've had enough witch hunts

The truth is that the bureau was hamstrung not by constitutional limits on its powers but rather by incompetence and bureaucratic arrogance at the organization's top, which ignored ample warnings from below that something terrifying was afoot. Furthermore, the FBI's parent bureaucracy, the Justice Department, was itself hobbled by Attorney General John Ashcroft, who remained steadfastly focused on the so-called war on drugs despite urgent warnings from the previous administration that terrorism was the main law-enforcement problem.

The rest of the Bush administration was equally distracted before Sept. 11, focusing on an illusory promise of missile defense rather than on the hard reality of terrorism. Former White House officials have told me that despite the passionate warnings of Richard Clarke, a top anti-terrorism official under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the president's Cabinet went the first eight months of his administration without discussing terrorist threats.