“Destined to Fail”: The attorney general on the fatal pre-9/11 intel wall.

National Review ^ | April 13, 2004 | John Ashcroft

[quidnunc]

Editor's note: This is the text of John Ashcroft's opening statement to the 9/11 Commission, delivered on April 13, 2004, as released by the Department of Justice.

Thank you.

It is with great sorrow that I join this Commission today in reflection on September 11, 2001. Even today, 31 months after the attacks, I struggle to learn the lessons of that day without being overwhelmed by the losses of that day. I feel sorrow for the loss of life, sorrow for the loss of promise, sorrow for the lost innocence of a nation forever scarred.

My sorrow for the victims of September 11 is equaled only by my rage at their killer. Usama Bin Laden is to blame for my anger. I blame his hatred for our values, his perversion of a faith, his idolatry of death. It was his hand that took the lives of nearly 3,000 innocents on September 11. It is his face that is the face of evil.

September 11 revealed not just our enemy's capacity for murder but our fellow Americans' thirst for justice. The men and women of the Department of Justice have embraced the cause of our time: the protection of the lives and liberties of Americans. Working within the Constitution, we fight any battle and shoulder any burden — no matter personal or political cost - to prevent additional terrorist attacks. And for the time being, al Qaeda's slaughter has ceased on American soil.

We have been aggressive. We have been tough. And we have suffered no small amount of criticism for our tough tactics. We accept this criticism for what it is: the price we are privileged to pay for our liberty.

Had I known a terrorist attack on the United States was imminent in 2001, I would have unloaded our full arsenal of weaponry against it — despite the inevitable criticism. The Justice Department's warriors, our agents, and our prosecutors would have been unleashed. Every tough tactic we have deployed since the attacks would have been deployed before the attacks.

But the simple fact of September 11 is this: we did not know an attack was coming because for nearly a decade our government had blinded itself to its enemies. Our agents were isolated by government-imposed walls, handcuffed by government-imposed restrictions, and starved for basic information technology. The old national intelligence system in place on September 11 was destined to fail.

-snip-

But somebody did make these rules. Someone built this wall.

The basic architecture for the wall in the 1995 Guidelines was contained in a classified memorandum entitled "Instructions on Separation of Certain Foreign Counterintelligence and Criminal Investigations." The memorandum ordered FBI Director Louis Freeh and others, quote: "We believe that it is prudent to establish a set of instructions that will more clearly separate the counterintelligence investigation from the more limited, but continued, criminal investigations. These procedures, which go beyond what is legally required, will prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that FISA is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation."

This memorandum established a wall separating the criminal and intelligence investigations following the 1993 World Trade Center attack, the largest international terrorism attack on American soil prior to September 11. Although you understand the debilitating impact of the wall, I cannot imagine that the Commission knew about this memorandum, so I have declassified it for you and the public to review. Full disclosure compels me to inform you that its author is a member of this Commission.

-snip-

[gcruse]

Ashcroft is just pissed that terrorism is getting in the way of his WOsD.

[CedarDave]

BANG!!!

This is the GORELICK memo!! Pubbies are fighting back!!!

[Maria S]

"Although you understand the debilitating impact of the wall, I cannot imagine that the Commission knew about this memorandum, so I have declassified it for you and the public to review. Full disclosure compels me to inform you that its author is a member of this Commission."


I would like to read the memo (written, I assume, by Jamie Gorelick) and I can't do PDF. Could someone post it in HTML (or whatever) so we can read it?

I am glad to see that Ashcroft is not taking this lying down (so to speak).

[SwinneySwitch]

John giving 'em hell!

[ConservativeMajority]

Chris Matthews is beside himself. He doesn't know how to explain it!

[CedarDave]

On Breaking News at this link:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1116962/posts?page=1

[GBA]

I just read the transcript. It's nice to see that patriotic, ADULTS are running the government again.

[vpintheak]

Never lay down for the Rats. Truth kills them faster than anything else.

[Zeppo]

Does this mean that the NYT and WP (as well as ABS, NBS, and CBS) will be hard-pressed to hide the fact that there is a member of the Commission who should be a witness instead? Probably not. No doubt they'll figure some angle for attacking Ashcroft and hiding the substance of his testimony. How about "Ashcroft brought partisanship into what was previously the Commission's totally non-partisan atmosphere of cooperation and fair inquiry", or, how about "Ashcroft, the Bush administration's strident right-wing defender of the Patriot Act, came out swinging, but even the Republican members of the Commission declared that his vicious attacks on members of the Clinton administration (with a mean-spiritedness that shocked the 9/11 victims' families who were present at the hearing) were totally out of bounds"...

[snarkpup]

I do know from my personal experience that those who take the kind of tough measures called for in the plan will feel the heat. I've been there; I've done that. So the sense of urgency simply may not have overcome concern about the outcry and criticism which follows such tough tactics.

Or (as I think Ann Coulter put it): "There are a lot of things Bush could have done - none of which the Democrats will let him do even now."

[r9etb]

Full disclosure compels me to inform you that its author is a member of this Commission.

LOL!!!!

That ought to make a few front pages. Not that it will, but it ought to.

Once again it appears that the D's have misunderestimated George W. Bush. The boy used to own a MLB team -- he knows about playing hard ball.

[MamaLucci]

Ashcroft is just pissed that terrorism is getting in the way of his WOsD.

You are smarter than that.

[af_vet_1981]

"Although you understand the debilitating impact of the wall, I cannot imagine that the Commission knew about this memorandum, so I have declassified it for you and the public to review. Full disclosure compels me to inform you that its author is a member of this Commission."

Excellent job AJ Ashcroft !

[Ditto]

You are smarter than that.

Not after that first joint of the day.

[CyberAnt]

"Ashcroft is just pissed that terrorism is getting in the way of his WOsD"

What ..?? And .. what is WOsD ..??

[Tribune7]

I just finished watching it. Ashcroft looked great.

Usama Bin Venista was actually polite. It looks he got a message.

[Wright is right!]

<kingfish mode=on>

Lemme seef Ah's got dis straigh. De reason da effbeeyih didunt cunneck togeddah all the dots an' catch de hahjackers is dis WALL tween de two seckshuns ofda effbeeyih, an dee person who put UP dat wall is ON dis heah commission.

<kingfish mode=off>

So it's this wall that's the culprit and now we have a smoking gun memo that sez zackly who erected this wall - X-42(i)'s asst atty gen. Let's see the media try to cover THIS up!

Michael

[gcruse]

Ashcroft's priorities

[af_vet_1981]

John Ashcroft is a great man and you make yourself smaller by attempting to smear him.