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And on Sept. 11, 2001, that wall probably cost us 3,000 American lives.

BS! There were FBI agents who knew about Arabic students taking flight lessons learning how to fly jumbo jets but not land, and there was an FBI informant who was a roomate of one of the 9-11 hijackers. The superiors to the first agent dismissed the importance of the case, and the FBI let the 9-11 hijackers slip away. FBI incompetence and not a wall between LE and intel is what killed 3000 people. The FBI is a lot better at gassing and killing women and children in Waco than protecting national security from known and identified threats.

In August 2001, the New York FBI intelligence agent looking for al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi didn't have the computer access needed to do the job alone. He requested help from the bureau's criminal investigators and was turned down. Acting on legal advice, FBI headquarters had refused to involve its criminal agents. In an e-mail to the New York agent, headquarters staff said: "If al-Midhar is located, the interview must be conducted by an intel[ligence] agent. A criminal agent CAN NOT be present at the interview. This case, in its entirety, is based on intel[ligence]. If at such time as information is developed indicating the existence of a substantial federal crime, that information will be passed over the wall according to the proper procedures and turned over for follow-up criminal investigation."

The wall got in the way on this one.