Gorelick Agonistes Her refusal to resign taints the 9/11 Commission.

WSJ ^ | 4/24/04 | WSJ editorial

[Elkiejg]

Jamie Gorelick has now issued her defense for staying on the September 11 Commission, and the usual media and Democratic suspects are rallying behind her. So let's put the issue as simply as possible: If Clinton-era Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick were not already a Commission member, does anybody doubt that she would be called to testify before it?

The Commission is interviewing nearly every major law enforcement and defense figure in two Administrations, and surely a Deputy AG was one of them. More than that, Ms. Gorelick was the author of a memo that has now become central to the debate over what went wrong before 9/11 in the way the U.S. dealt with terror threats.

Yet Ms. Gorelick now claims she can judge everyone else as a Commissioner because her now famous 1995 memo was no big deal and merely codified existing procedures. Even if we grant her this point, which many others dispute, shouldn't she be required to explain it under oath? What gives her an Olympian exemption?

No serious person on either side of the aisle doubts that the "wall" of separation between intelligence agents and criminal investigators that was memorialized in her memo was a problem. Everyone also now agrees that poor intelligence sharing was one of the key reasons U.S. authorities failed to detect the September 11 plot. We can think of several questions for Ms. Gorelick that would prove far more illuminating than anything that emerged from the Condoleezza Rice show. Such as:

• Ms. Gorelick, you write in the Washington Post that you did not invent the wall, which you argue was just "a set of procedures implementing a 1978 statute (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA)." Yet your 1995 memo to the FBI and World Trade Center bombing prosecutor asked for procedures that "go beyond what is legally required." Is it possible to merely implement the law and at the same time go beyond what it requires?

• Follow-up: Ms. Gorelick, no doubt you know that when the Ashcroft Justice Department finally challenged guidelines of the type you issued, the FISA Appeals Court agreed with your own 1995 assessment that those guidelines had never been necessary. In other words, the court said we didn't need the Patriot Act to permit greater intelligence sharing than your memo had allowed. Then why write a memo that imposed such restrictions?

Far from being unnecessary, Ms. Gorelick's testimony goes to the heart of the U.S. government's 1990s' failure to get its antiterror act together. She is right that before 9/11 the Ashcroft Justice Department endorsed her "wall" policy, but so what? They were wrong too.

What is clear is that for some reason the nature and height of "the wall" underwent a qualitative change in the 1990s, as any investigator or prosecutor who dealt with it now says. Whereas previous interpretations of the FISA statute had limited the ability of prosecutors to produce certain intelligence in court, the new rules effectively prohibited people from communicating at all. There seems to have been destructive tension among Justice, the FBI, and the lower FISA court at the time of the 1995 memo, tension that may in the end explain Ms. Gorelick's behavior. But we won't have a clear picture until she and some of the other major players--including members of the FISA court--testify.

The 9/11 Commissioners are only undermining their own credibility in rallying to Ms. Gorelick's defense. Her conflict of interest can't be solved merely by recusing herself from discreet portions of the probe, since as a Commissioner she will still serve as judge and jury on everyone else in government. She should have recused herself entirely from even questioning John Ashcroft. We also take no comfort in Republican Orrin Hatch's endorsement, since one of Ms. Gorelick's former law partners represented him in the BCCI case and he whisked her through Senate confirmation in 1994. The 9/11 Commission was supposed to be a fair-minded, non-partisan probe that would help our democratic government learn from its mistakes. Ms. Gorelick's failure to resign and testify herself in the face of a clear conflict of interest is reason enough for the American public to distrust its ultimate judgments.

[not2worry]

My intuition tells me there is something more going on between Kean and Gorelick. I abhor rumors, but their body language in the "grooming session" spoke louder than words.

If she does testify I think Condi Rice should be added to the Commission so she can ask Ms. Gorelick some of the real questions relating Gorelick's involvement in 9/11.

Based on what I have seen, Gorelick's testimony won't mean squat. She's probably already written the questions for the Commissioner's to ask. I WANT MY MONEY BACK!

[gitmo]

I think the 9/11 Commission will have been a waste of time if they fail to investigate OKC bombing, TWA800 among others. If there was a coverup of international terrorism in these cases, that was a major contributor to the 9/11 attack. International terrorists knew from these experiences that America would stick her head in the sand no matter how large an attack she suffered. They could rest assured that the American people would be fed a line of bull fesces that the attack was an accident, or some fraternity prank gone awry.

[Just mythoughts]

I agree, since she has worked so hard in shaping "The Commission.

[Just mythoughts]

"Add "Chuck Hegel" and I would say: "Dittoes! Dittoes! Dittoes!" "


You are correct, how could I have forgotten that little "corn husker".....

[Just mythoughts]

"The 9-11 Omission-- the final Hoax"


Good one, I really like that word "Omission" sure fits what has taken place with this HOAX of an investigation....

[Coroner]

Do you mean she is Keanlick????

[Just mythoughts]

"Nail Bush/ Save Clinton Legacy Commission"

"Acronym would be NB/SCL Commission"


This is a good description of what was set in motion before the fires were put out. Amazing how quickly when the "WHY" and "WHO" questions started, these liberals were planning how to blame President Bush in the attempt to win an election.

[libstripper]

A serious problem is that neither of our two "Republican" senators from Tennessee, Frist and Alexander, signed this letter. About a week ago I telephoned Frist's office to request him to do all he could to get Gorelick to recuse herself. The staffer I spoke to said the Gorelick situation was disgraceful, but Frist couldn't do anything about it because the Senate didn't have jurisdiction over the Commission. That was so much of a cop-out, I knew Frist wasn't about to do anything.

I just wish we had one pubbie senator with the aggressive determination of Charlie Schumer(D, NY). That guy's a real pit bull who supports all the wrong causes. If he supported the right ones, he'd be great.

[CyberAnt]

No! They're not - but people like Hatch make it difficult for people to support the GOP.

I have felt for some time that somebody (and we know who) has some tidbits on Hatch, and he's just doing a CYA.

And .. I believe the dims PUT GORELICK ON THE COMMISSION FOR 2 REASONS - TO PROTECT THE DIMS - AND TO KEEP HER FROM TESTIFYING.

If they don't allow her to testify .. the rumors will never stop. People will begin digging and digging into her past and discovering all sorts of stuff. I'm especially interested in her lovey-dovey smooching on TV with Kean. It might be better to let her testify .. then people would put it behind them .. after all .. Clarke lied through his teeth and got applauded.

[CyberAnt]

You're expecting him to do something he's not responsible for .. that's not realistic.

There are House and Senate Committee's who have responsibility for the Commission. Judicial and Intelligence. Those are the people we need to hammer, not Frist.

[softengine]

Great links.

Too bad no one has the courage to put this in the spotlight where it might stand a chance of doing some actual good for us all.

[ChevyZ28]

DITTO

[VOA]

My humble suggestion (made on another thread)--
any report issued by the 9-11 Commission should henceforth be referred to ONLY as
"The Gorelick-Clinton Report"

[antaresequity]

Vote

COUNTYPRESSONLINE.COM - READER POLL

Jamie Gorelick instituted a policy in 1995 while serving as deputy assistant attorney general for Bill Clinton that restricted communications between intelligence agents and criminal investigators. Ms. Gorelick now sits on 9/11 Commission which is seeking to find the reasons that tragedy happened. Should she step down?

Yes
	96.4%
No
	3.6%
Total votes: 443

[softengine]

Outstanding posting. I gotta bookmark all these......

[nopardons]

bttt