Gentlemen,Your commission's credibility is now in tatters.
Now that it's been revealed that Commissioner Gorelick was herself the architect of the dreaded wall of silence that paved the way for the 9/11 attacks, you must do these things to restore some semblance of credibility:
- Remove Jamie Gorelick from the commission.
- Subpeona Jamie Gorelick to testify before the commission, in public and under oath.
- Ask her, under oath, who directed her to come up with a policy to go beyond the requiremements of the law.
- Ask her who worked with her in formulating the policy.
- Ask her if there had been any infringements of citizens' rights, or attempts to exploit the differences between a FISA warrant and a criminal warrant, that may have made this policy necessary - or were the fears of FBI investigators gaming the system merely hypothetical?
- Ask her if anyone had suggested other ways of mitigating the risk of investigators gaming the system, and if so why were those options rejected?
- Ask her if anyone had warned that erecting a wall of silence could lead to an unwarranted chilling effect on investigators?
- Ask her if, in her judgement, the Patriot Act contains sufficient protections against such gaming of the system, or does America still need her wall?
- Ask her if she's willing to apologize to the American people for setting in motion the system that prevented the 9/11 terrorists from being caught in time?
Regardless of the political sniping and gamesmanship, I can tell that elements of your commission - especially the staffers - are honestly attempting to produce findings that the country can use to move forward. But only if you take the steps outlined above will your commission have any chance of regaining the kind of reputation it needs for your recommendations to be taken seriously.
Sincerely,
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