Posted on 04/14/2004 9:38:55 PM PDT by quidnunc
We predicted Democrats would use the 9/11 Commission for partisan purposes, and that much of the press would oblige. But color us astonished that barely anyone appreciates the significance of the bombshell Attorney General John Ashcroft dropped on the hearings Tuesday. If Jamie Gorelick were a Republican, you can be sure our colleagues in the Fourth Estate would be leading the chorus of complaint that the Commission's objectivity has been fatally compromised by a member who was also one of the key personalities behind the failed antiterror policy that the Commission has under scrutiny. Where's the outrage?
At issue is the pre-Patriot Act "wall" that prevented communication between intelligence agents and criminal investigators — a wall, Mr. Ashcroft said, that meant "the old national intelligence system in place on September 11 was destined to fail." The Attorney General explained:
"In the days before September 11, the wall specifically impeded the investigation into Zacarias Moussaoui, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. After the FBI arrested Moussaoui, agents became suspicious of his interest in commercial aircraft and sought approval for a criminal warrant to search his computer. The warrant was rejected because FBI officials feared breaching the wall.
"When the CIA finally told the FBI that al-Midhar and al-Hazmi were in the country in late August, agents in New York searched for the suspects. But because of the wall, FBI headquarters refused to allow criminal investigators who knew the most about the most recent al Qaeda attack to join the hunt for the suspected terrorists.
"At that time, a frustrated FBI investigator wrote headquarters, quote, 'Whatever has happened to this — someday someone will die — and wall or not — the public will not understand why we were not more effective and throwing every resource we had at certain 'problems.' "
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Braised Crow with Ashcroft BBQ sauce
Gorelick toast
Green Beans Ben-Vineste
Sensenbrenner pie with whipped Kean
Ah, well....
The Bush team knew, weeks ago, what was going to come out from Ashcroft's testimony and so they "agreed" to "cave" and let Rice testify. This little masterstroke of sandbagging was, in retrospect, magnificent. Gorelick now has no excuse - -she cannot refuse to testify without looking like the biggest hypocrite on the face of the earth. And the Democrats can only sit by silently and pout. All that's needed now is for the Republicans to duplicate the insidious Democrat catcalls that were directed at Bush when they were trying to force Rice to testify.
By the way, I haven't heard from the scumbag "9-11 widows" of 'Today Show' fame - - what do they have to say about the Gorelick memo?
Whoa! Thanks for the heads-up - - I missed that. Great freeping!
Today on Hannity's radio show he had Ashcroft on and he played the tape of Clinton talking about turning down Sudan's offer of bin Laden because he didn't have any legal reason to take him.
Stuff like this - - Kristinn's freep and Hannity playing the tape over and over - - make it impossible for the political elite and the Commission to claim they weren't "aware" of things.
How? What is their e-mail?
I urge you all to e-mail something along the following lines:
Honorable Senators:
The revelation today that a 9/11 Terrorism Commission member was instrumental in the promulgation of a regulation that, as testified to by virtually all witnesses before the Comission, resulted in the DOTS not only not being connected, but in the DOTS not flowing to any central clearing point to be analyzed, is frankly astounding.
The fact that the individual in question, Jamie Gorelick, when faced with the fact of her involvement in a regulation she authored while in government that is a linchpin to the investigation, did not resign from the commission is astounding. As Senator Sennsenbrenner has pointed out, the published rules of the Comission's call for resignation in the case of such a conflict of interest.
I add my voice to those calling for, not only her resignation, but for her to be a witness before the Commission to explain why the regulations she promulgated went far beyond the legal requirements in force at the time, of seperating areas of involvement of the FBI and the CIA.
Anything less than Ms Gorelick's resignation will taint any findings that this already far too partisan endeavor may set forth. For the 9/11 Commission to be of service to the public, it must be above reproach - and the inclusion of an individual whose acts in government, however sincere at the time, resulted in one of the key impediments to intelligence gathering that might have prevented 9/11 is impermissable. The potential for conflict of interest is far, far to obvious, and, yes, even probable.
I call on you, collectively and individually, to act to resolve this violation of the public trust.
Sincerely:
Name, e-mail, and location.
Freepers - we need to stop this commission from becoming totally usless and totally without credibility. I have watched much of it - it has a chance to do some good, but not with a Comissioner such as Gorelick in place. This is the pot investigating the kettle. Uhh uhh. No way! Help clean up the 9/11 Commission
Original Sources 3/9/99 Mary Mostert "… In 1996 Bill Clinton told reporters he was "not told about the June 1996 FBI warnings of Communist Chinese involvement in the 1996 presidential election." However, it was later learned that president Clinton not only KNEW about it, but that he subsequently made a thwarted attempt to obtain the counterintelligence information about what the FBI had learned of the Communist Chinese influence on the presidential election in November of 1996. Charles Ruff, Clinton legal counsel who most recently defended him in the Senate Impeachment trial, made the FBI contact. Ruff contacted Janet Reno's deputy JAMIE GORELICK and wanted to know what federal investigators knew or suspected about Chinese illegal contributions to the presidential campaign. However, when FBI director Freeh learned of the White House probe by GORELICK, he ordered the information not be provided to Clinton, federal law enforcement officials told the Daily Republican in 1997. In a New York Times story Ruff was quoted as telling Gorelick he was seeking the information on behalf of the National Security Council…. However, law enforcement officials pointed out that Ruff's request was received only after FBI director Freeh had left Washington on a trip to the Middle East. In his absence, attorney general Janet Reno and GORELICK quickly moved to obtain the secret FBI files. Before the Justice Department turned over the FBI files to Clinton's legal counsel, Robert Bryant, then head of the FBI national security division, picked up the telephone and informed Freeh of Clinton's probe for the secret files on the Chinese investigation. Freeh ordered the files withheld. And people wonder how come the Senate of the United States was never able to get Janet Reno to obey the law of the land and appoint an independent counsel to investigate the Chinese money that helped get Clinton and Gore elected…."
Note: David A. Wise, The Bureau and the Mole, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2002, page 179, Clinton, behind closed doors, says, "Louis Freeh is a g-dd-mn f--king -assh-le."
This ostensibly followed Freeh's public claim that the White House had victimized him [Freeh] and the FBI in Filegate.
Gorelick covered the waterfront for Hillary during the Whitewater heat and apparently helped defend Clifford and Altman in BCCI. Checking.
"Attorneys for Mr. Clifford and Mr. Altman included independent counsel Robert Fiske and Deputy Attorney General Jamie GORELICK, as well as Robert Bennett, president Clinton's attorney in the Paula Corbin Jones case."
Here is most incredible NEWS I find here:
In case anyone was in doubt, Janet Reno herself affirmed the policy several months later in a July 19, 1995, memo that we have unearthed. In it, the then-Attorney General instructs all U.S. Attorneys about avoiding "the appearance" of overlap between intelligence-related activities and law-enforcement operations.
Janet Reno just testified she didn't know about Gorelick's wall!
I continue to place lesser significace on the *plot* you identify than the risk that computers wouldn't recognize the date change and cause unimaginable bedlam, which was the canard the Klintoon administration allowed to fester, and which Gorelick offered as threat deserving of a 9/11-type category on her cable news appearances.
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