Ashcroft: Clinton Neutered FBI

ContraCostaTimes.com via Frontpagemag.com ^ | April 14, 2004 | ContraCostaTimes.com

[stylin_geek]

Pretty good read.

[soozla]

Good read...but should the author have used "Clinton" and "neuter" in the same heading?? ;^)

[rageaholic]

OK so the FBI was eroded over 8 years of the Clintons. How come its only an issue now that Bush got embarrassed by former White House counter-terrorism coordinator Richard Clarke?

I'd give Bush & Ashcroft credit for calling for reform if they had done it within a year of Sept 11, 2001. Instead, Bush was saying that everyone was doing a hunky-dory job, and refused to fire a single FBI or CIA bureaucrat who makes six-figures off of my tax dollars. Now, that he has been exposed by Clarke as fiddling over Saddam when he should have been looking for Al Kaida agents, he is trying to blame the CIA and FBI bureaucrats.

[Condor51]

After yesterday, GORELICK HAS TO GO!

Her staying the commission makes it farcical at best. Recusing herself from questioning a couple 'witnesses' AIN'T gonna cut it.

That skank should be AT the witness table answering questions, NOT asking them.

[An.American.Expatriate]

Cross Reference IC21: The Intelligence Community in the 21st Century [More Gorelick conflict of Interest]

[dd5339]

Well worth the read.

Semper Fi

[rudy45]

I don't understand: was Ms. Gorelick afraid at all that this memo would come out? Why did the Ds put her on the commission, knowing (or did they?) about her involvement in buidling the wall?

[Gun142]

Bump for later read

[stylin_geek]

It's possible to do a good job while being hampered by regulations. According to what John Ashcroft said, the FBI and the CIA were doing their job, unfortunately, due to government regulations, they were unable to share information neccessary to pursue these people.

[New Horizon]

Clinton could have save everybody a whole lot of trouble if he would have neutered himself first.

[M. Thatcher]

he has been exposed by Clarke

The only one "exposed" by Clarke...is Clarke.

Although if I were you, defending the odious Clinton administration, I'd use the word "exposed" quite sparingly.

[bvw]

As Ben-Veniste was told yesterday by the FBI's ex-acting director, it was Travelgate that made the Clinton White House toxic and off-limits to the FBI.

Travelgate occured in 1993, two years prior to the Gorelick "Walls" memorandum. Ex-Acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard seemed to suggest under oath in yesterday's testimony that the results of the Travelgate fiasco on WH-FBI cooperation were devastating -- that even without the Gorelick Walls, Travelgate --- Hillary's fiasco Travelgate was -- would have had the sufficient chilling effect to have blinded our national counter-terrorism effort to domestic threats.

Independent Counsel Robert Ray seems to have suggested that Hillary lied before the Travelgate Grand Jury, yet given political and media bias towards the Clintons he could not effectively prosecute that perjury.

Since Ray thought that, given his close association with the FBI, imagine what career-fear and ten-foot-poleism distance existed between the rank-and-file FBI and the Clinton WH and its extended operatives.

[Delta 21]

The commision has probly realized that by giving creedence to Clarkes book it tightened the noose around its own neck. These hearings were only to be found on C-Span with very little coverage in the mainstream press until they started waving Clark's book around like it was the end all story what happened pre-9/11.

Now that every other TV in the country is watching at least some part of the hearings, the commision has forced itself to do a competent job (I know its a stretch), and for most of the politicians on the panel, they will have to get over the fact that the truth that they find is most likely not the truth that they wanted.

[uncbob]

Let's see the GOP DEMAND that Buzz Patterson " Dereliction of Duty " testify IN PUBLIC

[bvw]

It's possible to do a good job while being hampered by regulations.

No. It is not. At some point the regulations become so cumbersome that in immdeiate effect even adept A-grade people are egregiously hampered by them, and there are worse effects over time. Over times the hampering regulations trip up the good, and serve to make the good look as incomptent or misfeasant as any -- so in hiring and promotions, the incomptent and the gold-bricking con-artist, are not filtered out --and as the aggravating, grinding down effect of hampering regulation is most sensed by the good and diligent, it is that group that leaves for greener pastures. What remains then are the incomptent and the corrupt.

[uncbob]

Now that every other TV in the country is watching at least some part of the hearings, the commision has forced itself to do a competent job (I know its a stretch), and for most of the politicians on the panel, they will have to get over the fact that the truth that they find is most likely not the truth that they wanted.

And now that the Clinton cabal is being exposed look for the left wing pundits in the media to start pontificating " IT IS TIME TO STOP THE PARTISAN FINGER POINTING AND GET ON WITH FINDING SOLUTIONS"

It is the tactic they always use when the GOP starts to fight back against the Dem slime machine

[Delta 21]

Were the clintons and Reno and others working on the inside together to establish a framework of regulations to thwart legitamate law enforcement form finding and sharing information of posible crimes? Did this, in fact, facilitate the terrorists of 9-11 in carrying out their attacks on America?

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy wants to know !

[ModelBreaker]

Bush was saying that everyone was doing a hunky-dory job, and refused to fire a single FBI or CIA bureaucrat who makes six-figures off of my tax dollars. Now, that he has been exposed by Clarke as fiddling over Saddam when he should have been looking for Al Kaida agents, he is trying to blame the CIA and FBI bureaucrats.

According to Ashcroft's testimony, the problem was not the CIA or the FBI. It was the Justice Dept. and the previous administration who prevented them from doing their jobs with regulations, firewalls, and inadequate funding.

Janet Reno, Hillary and the Zipper-in-Chief are the ones to blame.

[mabelkitty]

I don't think they knew - they padded the Commission (Dashcle and Gephardt) in the mistaken belief that she would be the water carrier to damage Bush for Hillary.

She either forgot about the memo, or was convinced it would never see the light of day.

[mabelkitty]

There was an article posted on how Gorelick tried to get FBI files to determine how much information the FBI had on Clinton Chinese fund-raising. This was in 1996, and I believe it is somewhere in a thread about the 9/11 Commission here.