Ashcroft was also out of the PDB loop, and apparently wasn't aware of any threat, according to the staff reports of the 9/11 commission, giving their now daily interview on Lehrer's Newshour last night. Each night they have one Republican and one Democrat (and they usually seem to agree on virtually everything) on to discuss the day's inquisiton. It's been the most interesting analysis I've seen, because most of the news shows have 2 second blurbs, or the pundits doing their spin things.

These interviews are always interesting and at times, revelatory, because these are the people who are reading all the staff reports, interviewing all the witnesses and hearing all the testimony.