The annual Foreign Affairs Symposium hosted Jon Ashcroft, former Attorney General during the George W. Bush administration, this past Tuesday in Shriver Hall. His presentation to the Hopkins community surrounded the precarious issue of freedom in American society.
Ashcroft addressed the controversies that arose during Bush's administration regarding the balance of liberty and security. He defended the administration's reaction to September 11 and its repercussions.
"[Former President George W. Bush] looked in my direction and said, ‘Never let this happen again," Ashcroft said, "Frankly, one of the great characteristics of good leadership is clarity. There was nothing uncertain about that."
Ashcroft discussed how he transformed his administration's philosophy from one of waiting for something to happen to one of prevention. He explained that the administration "didn't like what we got", in reference to the devastation of September 11, and vowed to "change what we're doing," radically altering the ineffective strategy of counter-terrorism.
The anti-terrorism campaign that the Bush administration launched when Ashcroft was Attorney General hinged on the correct handling of information.
Ashcroft approached the extremely contentious issue of the Patriot Act and the disparity between what the government believes to be an appropriate degree of privacy for its citizens and that which the citizens believe to be appropriate. He explained that as the government assembles information, they want their citizens to reap the maximum benefit from the information that they have and so that the information is not abused.
He asserted that the administration's objective is to maintain its citizens' rights of privacy; however, he believed that this commitment to preserving privacy causes "turbulence." Ashcroft emphasizes that his administration sought to utilize information without violating people's personal liberties.
"We have a responsibility to develop the information as necessary for prevention, but to develop ways to safeguard the utilization of that information so that we don't infringe the rights and liberties of the people of the United States of America," Ashcroft said.
He then tackled the divisive Patriot Act and elucidated the logic of the Bush administration. He said that they vowed to increase the federal power over knowledge and to "beef up what we had as available to us to try to act against terrorists."
The Patriot Act represented this "enhanced" power in law enforcement and that it removed barriers that prevented the easy acquisition of information, specifically information regarding terrorism. He said that the administration replaced the formers laws with the Patriot Act because they did not curb terrorism.
Although security is "fundamental", Ashcroft stated that during his time as Attorney General his chief priority was liberty, not security. He said that America is "the best place to be" because of liberty.
"I think freedom is the special ingredient that changes ordinary into extraordinary."
Following Ashcroft's presentation, he received questions from the audience spanning a controversial array of subjects.
When a member of the audience asked him what his definition of torture was, he asserted that he was not able to change the definition of torture.
"I personally do not believe that the United States has engaged in torture," Ashcroft said.
Another inquiry regarded Iraq and weaponry.
"I do not want to assume that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction… there is clear evidence that they have used weapons of mass destruction against their own people," Ashcroft said.
The question and answer section climaxed with a fiery challenge from an audience member ardently asserting that Bush knew about a memo announcing the attacks that would occur on September 11 and did not respond accordingly. Upon Ashcroft's denial of such an accusation, the audience member said that he would e-mail the memo to Ashcroft to prove his point. Ashcroft said that he did not want to give out his e-mail address, causing the audience to laugh.
"I am telling you the truth and you don't want to hear the truth. You want to deny it…full of s--t," the audience member said.
The audience shouted "boo" to his use of an explicative, to which he responded, "Ya'll shut the f--k up!"
"I thought the strongest portion of Mr. Ashcroft's presentation was the time and attention he gave to the Q&A session. He gave thoughtful and composed answers to questions, comments, and criticisms from numerous audience members," Jillian Martynec, Executive Director of the Foreign Affairs Symposium, wrote in an e-mail to The News-Letter.
The theme of this year's Foreign Affairs Symposium is The Paradox of Progress: Chasing Advancement Amidst Global Crisis. The symposium selected Ashcroft to present because of his unique insight.
"His speech embodies the idea of the Paradox of Progress because it shows how we have become torn on certain issues. The world has created new ways to protect people and make travel and other aspects of daily life safer, but what are the consequences and challenges that this then leads to? Most notably, the question of freedom," Eleanor Gardner, fellow Executive Director, along with Andrew Davis, wrote in an e-mail to The News-Letter.
