After an introduction by Ambassador Kirkpatrick, Attorney General Ashcroft expressed sympathy for victims of the bombing today of the United Nations mission building in Baghdad in which many persons were killed or injured. He also talked about the September 11, 2001 attacks, saying that they altered the mission of the Justice Department to one of preventing terrorist attacks. 

He talked about using the U.S.A. Patriot Act as a tool in terror prevention in the U.S. He talked about many of the cases prosecuted against alleged terrorists because of the Patriot Act.