More than 150 terrorist threats and cells were also disrupted. Members of a Portland cell, including Patrice Lumumba Ford and Jeffrey Battle, pleaded guilty to criminal charges. Ford and Battle were sentenced to eighteen years in prison.

The Lackawanna Six, a terrorist cell operating near Buffalo, New York, also pleaded guilty to charges of providing material support to al Qaeda. They were sentenced to terms ranging from seven to ten years in prison.

Hamant Lakhani, the British national convicted of attempting to sell shoulder-fired missiles to what he thought was a terrorist group, was sentenced to forty-seven years in prison. Numerous other convictions have been obtained by the Justice Department in cases against terrorism. As I looked back over my time as attorney general it was clear that we had helped prevent terrorists from harming Americans.

During my tenure we also charged and deported nearly five hundred immigration violators linked to the 9/11 investigation. We made major strides toward dismantling the terrorist financial network and we disrupted terrorist movements around the world. We launched seventy investigations into terrorist financing, designated forty entities as terrorist organizations, and froze $136 million from terrorist organizations around the globe. Thousands of terrorists and criminals were stopped through the National Security Entry-Exit Registrations System (NSEERS) including some suspected terrorists with ties to al Qaeda.

We added more than one thousand FBI agents to counterterrorism and counterintelligence; we also added 250 new assistant U.S. Attorneys. Fifty-six Joint Terrorism Task Forces were created to facilitate the fight against terror from the Capitol to the states and localities.

Throughout this process, the Department of Justice acted thoughtfully, carefully, and within the framework of American freedom, the Constitution of the United States. Time and again, the actions in the war on terrorism were subjected to thorough judicial review, and time and again, our department consistently defended the legal challenges. Just as the president’s powers to protect the American people are rooted in the Constitution, our actions against terrorist threats were rooted in the Constitution, while adapting to the changing methods of our terrorist enemies.

Ironically, the attack of 9/11 led to the creation of a climate in America that actually helped reduce crime and drug usage. The attacks on our nation galvanized the morale, the will and the determination of law enforcement, and unified Americans within the law enforcement community like nothing in recent memory. Who wore ball caps bearing the initials NYPD or NYFD before 9/11? After 9/11, the positive identification of the public with law enforcement and responders skyrocketed. How sad that it took bin Laden to wake us up to appreciate the people who work so diligently at protecting us every day, but we should be grateful for the American people’s embrace of the law enforcement community in response to the most horrendous attack in our history.

The intense focus of law enforcement, the stronger coordination among local, state, and federal authorities, and the enhanced vigilance of the American people all worked against criminals and drug lords as well as terrorists. Violent crime dropped every year that I was attorney general to its lowest recorded level in American history in 2004. Rape and sexual assaults, aggravated assaults, and violent crime overall were cut by a quarter. The murder rate dropped to record levels with federal gun crime prosecutions climbing to 76 percent to a record high, while gun crimes plummeted 24 percent to a record low. We did this, by the way, without any new gun-control laws.

If the crime rates in 2003 had remained at 1993 levels, 34.6 million more Americans would have been victimized by violent crimes. Additionally, 2.5 million more Americans would have been raped or sexually assaulted, and 6 million more gun crimes would have occurred. These numbers may not mean much to you merely reading them, but consider that they may represent your family, friends, or neighbors who did not suffer the pain or lass of a rape or murder.

With a restructured and refocused drug strategy, we experienced a 108 percent increase in drug seizures, dismantled a quarter of the major drug organizations, and arrested a quarter of the drug kingpins. Teenage drug use dropped for the first time in a decade—by 17 percent. Again, you may not appreciate that drop, unless you have a teenage son, daughter or grandchild.

We recovered 150 missing children through the use of Amber Alerts, and we expanded the Amber Alert capability form four states to forty-nine states. Moreover, we were the first Justice Department in many years to come away with clean financial audit.

Most of all, we were able to enlist the support of the American people in protecting our country from terrorism. As I write these words, America has not suffered another major terrorist attack. I pray that record continues to grow daily. But our safety has been the result of an alert, vigilant, and supportive public as well as thousands of unsung, dedicated public servants, many of whom I was privileged to work with on a daily basis.

At the same time, we must never forget that the war against terror can only be won one day at a time. When I wrote in my resignation letter to President Bush that “the objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved,” the news media objected vociferously. “How can you say it is achieved? The war is not over.”

Yes, we did; we won the war yesterday, and the day before, but the president well knew and so did I that victory is achieved one day at a time. We must remain constantly vigilant. We dare not underestimate our enemy. Al Qaeda is committed to the destruction of America, and give them credit for being, and they are definitely much more patient than the pace of our fast-food society conditions us to be. Their commitment does not depend on bin Laden or any other single leader. In June 2006, American forces in Iraq killed insurgency leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. A truly evil man is dead, but other will rise to take his place. Defeating them will take prayerful creativity, imagination, energy, persistence, and determination.

It may indeed be true that the terrorists thought that America was weak, that we would implode in the face of their attacks. After all, we had not responded effectively to their strikes in Nairobi, Khobar Towers, the USS Cole.

They may have dreamed they would sink the American economy by their strikes, and while we must admit the economic impact of 9/11 was enormous, the resilience of Americans and the ability of Americans to pull the economy back together after the attack was nothing short of inspiring.

America refused to be defeated. The United States responded with greater unity resolve, and intensity than the terrorists expected. In the hearts of each one of us rang the unspoken words, “Never again.”

Thankfully, the one question I’ll never have to answer is, “why did you allow us to be attacked again?” But my great satisfaction is, we were able to disrupt numerous terrorist attacks during my stay in office, and of all the accomplishments about which I am most pleased, I am happiest about what did not happen.

Certainly, people may have tried to pull things off that didn’t work or of which we were unaware. But whenever we found any potential terrorists, we acted swiftly and effectively to get them off the street or out of the country.

An old saying purports, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and that is so true. But we needed a pound of prevention to deal with the terrorists America faced, and to prevent a war from being fought against them on our soil, in our backyards…and we still do.

On the home front, our constant efforts in defense of liberty took heat at every step, but we considered the fight worth making. And that unseen war must continue as well.

My prayer is not merely that God will bless America—He has done so abundantly—but that we would be granted wisdom in protecting this grand experiment that many of us believe was His idea in the first place.

One senior administration official described my role in President George W. Bush’s administration as one of “spear-catcher.” Every spear caught is an injury avoided; the ones you don’t catch—the ones that catch you—are the ones that really hurt.

After I left my position in the cabinet, I met many people who said, “My, you certainly had to work through some difficult times,” and perhaps we did. But I’m grateful that God allowed me to be there during those times, as challenging as they were.

At my Justice Department retirement ceremony n January 25, 2005, Daniel Bryant, director of the Office of Legal Policy, equipped that the caricatures of me in the press “served as a full-employment program for cartoonists and pundits.” He then cited David Letterman’s jab whenever he heard that I was retiring: “They say Attorney General John Ashcroft may be stepping down. Apparently he wants to spend more time spying on his family.”

Actually, Letterman was probably more right than he knew. I was indeed looking forward to seeing my family members for more frequently.

These days, I enjoy working with my own company, the Ashcroft Group, which counsels corporations on enhancing corporate integrity, developing homeland security technologies, navigating strategic crises, and managing risks. I also enjoy keeping relatively normal hours, and eating dinner with Janet most evenings.

I relish the outdoors and the farm Janet and I have away from Washington, where there is nothing but a couple of toolsheds. I enjoy fighting back the brush, picking blackberries, and harvesting tomatoes in the garden.

Every once in a while, I’ll be working up a good sweat when I notice a jumbo jet high above in the crystal sky, on its way toward Washington, D.C. Occasionally, a thought may dart through my consciousness that, similar to what happened on 9/11, there could be some evil-intentioned person at the controls.

Then I’ll stop and mop my brow, watch the airliner continue on its way, and gratefully pray, “Never again."

The preceeding is a chapter from Never Again, the newly released book by former Attorney General John Ashcroft.