The Gorelick Rosetta Stone

Hats off to the Wall Street Journal for a spectacular observation, perhaps the Rosetta Stone of postmillennial national security.

Let its boiled-down essence not escape your attention: the ongoing dividends of Chinagate may well have included 9/11.

To set the stage, recall that Bill Clinton ensured his loyal minions populated the US Attorneys' offices nationwide when he fired every last US Attorney at the dawn of his Administration, then appointed his own. Next, as we have seen through Jamie Gorelick's startling memo[1], he saw to it that domestic law enforcement was blinded to foreign intelligence information. He then methodically offered up White House access and key strategic technologies to the highest bidder: China, and Indonesian/Chinese billionaire donors with close ties to China's dictatorial regime. Intriguingly, Clinton's Department of Justice's signature assault on Microsoft also appears to have been to the benefit of Indonesian/Chinese billionaires, who just happened to be the originating funders of the private venture fund which was the largest shareholder in lead plaintiff Netscape at the time[2]

With the declassification of former Deputy Attorney General Gorelick's memo, the picture comes into sharp focus: the Clinton Administration was not just:

Yes, the economy, Clinton's vaunted economy, with its skyrocketing stock-market and spectacular 5.6% 1996 unemployment rate (which of course puts George W. Bush’s dismal 2004 5.6% unemployment rate to shame). This unstoppable economy screeched to an ignominious halt in the second half of 2000 as the tech sector imploded[4] - a multi-trillion-dollar evaporation of shareholder wealth driven in significant part by the DOJ's pursuit of tech bellwether Microsoft, which put a measurable damper on enthusiasm for big-cap technology stocks and funding for new tech ventures alike.

Follow the money. The legacy of that Administration is not just one of incompetence and inattention culminating in an innocence-crushing September morning once it was safely out of office. It is one of malevolent, calculated wholesaling of loyalty for political gain, with Gorelick's Wall providing cover by blinding law enforcement efforts that might have made a difference.

Still, Chinagate was exposed, and in a sane world it would have hit the political world like one of the Chinese ICBMs it facilitated. But Clinton was untouchable - immunized! - after the Lewinsky obstruction-of-justice mess fizzled like the captivating but comparatively feeble bottle-rocket it was. Today the damage extends far beyond the smoldering pits of lower Manhattan and the Pentagon. The world now stands on the cusp of decades of global turmoil in the face of emboldened and metastasized radical Islamism, most recently including al Qaeda’s successful gambit towards reestablishing Moorish dispensation in Andalusia[5].

Is Chinagate old news? Water under the bridge? Something for the 9/11 Commission's Democrat partisans to pooh-pooh and ignore as they recklessly paint their anti-Bush pastiche?

Not if you continue to mourn the thousands dead on that grim September morning. And not if you consider what other reflexively anti-Defense politician currently angling for the Presidency has financial ties to some of the same scandalous campaign donors as Bill Clinton: John Kerry is today's victorious campaign-donation choice of Chinagate's Huang-linked George Chao-Chi Chu, described as having "unusual access to high-ranking Communist officials in China" [6]. And that is old news, in a way: for in 1996 John Kerry received cash from Johnny Chung and Liu Chaoying, daughter of a powerful Chinese military official, for providing high-level access to Federal securities regulators. Kerry's cash came from transfers sent to Chung on orders from the chief of Chinese military intelligence[7].

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." - George Santayana

2 At the time of the DOJ's action against Microsoft was initiated, lead plaintiff Netscape's largest shareholder was the private venture fund of Amerindo Investment Advisors. "The name Amerindo came from the fund's first investors, a group of Indonesian Chinese who wanted [the founder, Cuban expatriate Alberto] Vilar to call the firm American Indonesian Singaporean Investment Co. but settled for an abbreviation." -- Fortune, October 25, 1999

3 Caspar Weinberger, Washington Times, Sept. 2, 2003, reviewing Miniter: "The president never supported Mr. Woolsey's urgent request for Arabic-language translators for the CIA in 1994. A separate feud between Mr. Woolsey and Sen. Dennis DeConcini, Arizona Democrat, was allowed to run its course without direction by the Clinton White House, which further set back the CIA director's appeal for Arabic translators." So, as the author concludes, "a bureaucratic feud and President Clinton's indifference kept America blind and deaf as bin Laden plotted."

Gorelick allowed to draft final 9-11 Commission report.

http://www.crushkerry.com/video/Gorelick.movGorelick Plan To Block Action on 9/11 Panel Findings

Satire by Scott Ott:

(2004-04-14) -- Despite calls for her resignation from the 9/11 commission, former Clinton administration deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick today announced an "innovative plan" to prevent the commission's eventual recommendations from being put into practice.

The proposal, reminiscent of Ms. Gorelick's now-famous 1995 finding which protected potential terrorists from uncomfortable legal proceedings, would place "a wall between the commission's findings and actual implementation."

"We must maintain the constitutional separation between testimony and action," said Ms. Gorelick. "If the 9/11 commission findings resulted in organizational or procedural changes in government, it would have a chilling effect on such panels. How could you get qualified people like me to serve on commissions if they feared that their speculative theories and ideas would be proven impractical through implementation?"

Clinton Wants Probe Of Possible Chinese Involvement

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Feb. 13) -- President Bill Clinton called today for a "vigorous" and "thorough" investigation into reports that representatives of the People's Republic of China tried to direct financial contributions from overseas sources to the Democratic National Committee.

At a press conference today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the president stopped short of calling for an independent prosecutor, saying that was the decision of the Justice Department alone.

"This is a serious set of questions raised here, and the first I knew about any of it was last evening," Clinton told reporters. "They obviously have to be thoroughly investigated and I do not want to speculate or accuse anyone of anything. I know nothing about it other than what I heard last night.

"But obviously it would be a very serious matter for the United States if any country were to attempt to funnel funds to one of our parties for any reason whatever," Clinton added.The Washington Post reported that Justice was reviewing U.S. intelligence obtained through electronic monitoring that suggests contributions to the DNC from foreign sources were coordinated at the Chinese embassy in Washington. Sources told the Post the evidence was "serious" and could raise the importance of the investigation of Democratic fund-raising practices.

While not directly confirming the report, Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick told reporters, "I'm not going to have any comment on the story except to say we're always concerned with the security of our investigations, and we have, and have had, a number of leak investigations ongoing."

The Chinese Embassy denied the charges, telling CNN they are "groundless and irresponsible" and another example of demonizing China. Mccain

Gorelick appeared to question a suggestion in the Post's story that such a development might trigger appointment of an independent counsel, which by law occurs when a top White House official is implicated. Attorney General Janet Reno has so far turned down repeated requests for an independent prosecutor.

Gorelick said, "The task force has standing instructions that if it finds any information that would lead it to believe that there should be an independent counsel they're to bring this to our attention immediately and that has not occurred in this case."

Solomon That didn't stop Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has been rebuffed twice, from trying again. "I would think that today's information ... and other information we've had since her refusal should help her to appoint an independent counsel to examine this situation," he told reporters today.

The possibility of Chinese government involvement in Democratic fund-raising was raised in January by Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-N.Y.) who wrote FBI Director Louis Freeh requesting an investigation into possible "economic espionage" involving former DNC fund-raiser John Huang, who, records show, attended policy events at the Chinese embassy in October 1995. A former employee of the Indonesian Lippo Group and a former Commerce Department official, Huang is at the center of the inquiry into Democratic fund-raising.

"The potential finding is that our foreign policy has been sold for a price, national security has been sold for a price and certainly American business and industry has been penalized for what might have taken place in this political context," Solomon said earlier.

Twenty-five FBI agents have been assigned to the Justice investigation, though not as a direct result of Solomon's letter.

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