At the 9/11 commission’s hearings Tuesday, former acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard accused Attorney General John Ashcroft of dismissing terrorist threat warnings in the months before Sept. 11 and for rejecting appeals for more counterterrorism funds.

Pickard also said neither Bush nor Ashcroft made an attempt to meet with him between August 6, 2001 and Sept. 11 to discuss terrorism even though Bush was warned on Aug. 6 that Bin Laden was determined to strike inside the U.S.