Gorelick Memo Allegedly Impeded Probe of Clinton Fundraising Scandal

CNSNews | April 26, 2004 | Scott Wheeler

[YadaYada]

Gorelick Memo Allegedly Impeded Probe of Clinton Fundraising Scandal By Scott Wheeler CNSNews.com Staff Writer April 26, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - A senior U.S. government official has told CNSNews.com that the 1995 memo written by former Assistant Attorney General Jamie Gorelick and currently at issue in the 9/11 Commission's investigation of U.S. intelligence failures, also created "a roadblock" to the probe of the 1996 Clinton re-election campaign fundraising scandal.

The memo's relevance in the investigation of the fundraising scandal has received scant attention in the media, but four different sources, including the government official, have explained and corroborated details of the connection for CNSNews.com.

The CNSNews.com sources question whether the guidelines purportedly put in place by Gorelick in 1995 for Justice Department investigations were actually intended to shield President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and top Democratic campaign fundraisers from the subsequent congressional investigations of the illegal fundraising activities.

However, there appears to be no evidence at this point that the Gorelick memo was written for that express purpose.

Because the memo created a barrier for U.S. intelligence agencies to share information with the FBI, one of its unintended consequences may have been to prevent the FBI from receiving the necessary intelligence to stop the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the worst in American history.

Memo's link to fundraising scandal

The fundraising investigation involved the Clinton campaign's alleged acceptance of donations from operatives working for the People's Republic of China (PRC) as well as other foreign sources. But the Gorelick memo of 1995 prevented intelligence collected by U.S. agents overseas from being used in domestic criminal investigations.

Peter M. Leitner, a long-time employee at the Department of Defense and currently a senior strategic trade advisor at DoD, was responsible at one point for deciding whether to issue a license to a Chinese corporation seeking to buy a McDonnell Douglass machine tools factory.

At the same time, according to congressional investigations of the fundraising controversy, the Clinton campaign was receiving millions of dollars in donations from Chinese businessmen.

Leitner told CNSNews.com that he repeatedly saw investigations that would have led directly to foreign agents stymied by the wall erected by Gorelick in her 1995 memo.

"The Gorelick memo guidelines created a firewall that protected the [Clinton] administration" from the Justice Department's investigation into foreign campaign donations, Leitner said.

Gorelick's previously classified memo became public when Attorney General John Ashcroft sought to defend the Bush administration in recent testimony before the commission studying the intelligence breakdowns in the months leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Among those listening to Ashcroft's testimony about the memo he had just released was Gorelick, herself a member of the 9/11 Commission.

"The simple fact of September 11th is this," Ashcroft told the commission. "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."

Another DoD official, who requested anonymity, explained in an interview with CNSNews.com that, "the PLA (People's Liberation Army) used front companies to buy U.S. defense high technology and influence in the U.S. government." In many cases, the source said, "the operatives were dealing directly with the White House."

That type of intelligence might have been used in the prosecution of high-profile figures such as former Commerce Department official and Democratic National Committee fundraiser John Huang, as well as long-time Clinton associate Charles Yah Lin Trie, and ultimately may have led directly to President Clinton and Vice President Gore, sources said.

According to congressional investigations, Huang and Trie maintained close relationships with Beijing after Clinton was elected in 1992 and especially as they became major fundraisers for Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign and the legal defense trust fund established for the president and First Lady Hillary Clinton to fend off charges associated with the Whitewater controversy.

"It was a classic spy network, nothing exotic about it," Leitner told CNSNews.com . "It included compromised public officials paid off with illegal campaign contributions." But Leitner said it was frustrating to see Huang and Trie eventually plea-bargain "for petty offenses instead of being investigated for espionage."

Leitner testified five times before congressional committees attempting to get to the bottom of what ultimately became known as the China/DNC fundraising scandal. The Clinton administration Justice Department, headed by Attorney General Janet Reno, also conducted an investigation, even though many people accused the department of having a conflict of interest.

Chinese weapons development and smuggling

Leitner said one of the most important investigations hindered by the Gorelick memo involved a Chinese state-owned corporation's activities after it had purchased a McDonnell Douglass high-tech machine tools factory in Columbus, Ohio.

The factory, known as Plant 85, had previously been used to manufacture the bodies of U.S. Air Force C-17 strategic transport planes and MX intercontinental ballistic missiles.

In 1994, the China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corp. (CATIC) offered to buy Plant 85 from the financially troubled McDonnell Douglass Corporation and relocate it to China where CATIC officials said it would become a civilian aircraft-production facility, according to court documents.

The sale required a government export license, which Leitner was in charge of either approving or denying. Leitner denied the license, arguing that once the machine tools from Plant 85 were exported to the People's Republic of China, they would be used to produce missiles for China's People's Liberation Army as well as nations unfriendly to the United States.

Leitner was eventually overruled, but according to court documents, within months of the plant being exported to China, U.S. officials learned that the sensitive machine tools had been diverted to a Chinese factory manufacturing Silkworm missiles.

Leitner told CNSNews.com that he informed the federal prosecutor in the case that the CATIC license was approved over his objections because of "pressure from Vice President Gore." That testimony, however, was never heard in court.

A criminal investigation was launched in 1995, but Reno resisted calls from congressional Republicans to appoint an independent counsel in the case. Instead, she named career prosecutor Charles LaBella to head up the Justice Department's own task force investigating President Clinton and the sources of the foreign contributions.

LaBella acknowledged that the wall established by Gorelick was "cumbersome" to the investigation but that he was ultimately able to work around it.

"Clearly there was a line between the criminal and the counter-intelligence side," he said. LaBella added that one of the Senate committees was frustrated because "briefings from intelligence didn't match up with the criminal investigations."

After LaBella's work was completed, he recommended the appointment of a special prosecutor, an idea Reno again rejected. In the end, indicted suspects in the investigation, including CATIC and McDonnell Douglass, were able to plea bargain for lesser offenses. The plea bargains eliminated the need for Leitner to testify about the alleged "pressure" exercised by Gore.

In another case that spanned the mid 1990s, U.S. Customs ran a sting operation against a Chinese-owned company known as Poly Technologies. The company was attempting to smuggle thousands of AK-47 automatic rifles into the U.S.

Customs agents posed as buyers for the illegal weapons and the undercover operation eventually led to the indictment of five Chinese nationals. Senior Customs Field Agent Michael Goldsmith told CNSNews.com that "there is absolutely no doubt that it (the Gorelick memo) made things tighter and tighter" in terms of "not having critical data available and not being able to use it."

"Operation Dragonfire," the name of the sting operation, ended with the indicted suspects pleading guilty to less serious weapons-related charges.

Gorelick's alleged conflict of interest

Gorelick, as a member of the 9/11 Commission, is currently fighting the perception that she has a conflict of interest since the lack of intelligence cooperation between the FBI and the intelligence gathering agencies has been widely cited as the reason for the U.S. government's inability to stop the attacks of Sept. 11.

In his April 13 testimony before the 9/11 Commission, Ashcroft said the wall was "the single greatest structural cause for Sept. 11. Government erected this wall. Government buttressed this wall. And before September 11th, government was blinded by this wall," Ashcroft told the commission.

Leitner went a step further. "What is disturbing is that that memo served to protect the administration from exposure in its dealings with the PRC and the unfortunate consequence may be the death of 3,000 Americans."

[swilhelm73]

The Clinton defense, or more accurately, explanation, for why he took money from the PRC was that he didn't realize that he was taking illegal funds - even though the FBI had warned him the PRC was planning on attempting to influence the election.

If in fact, as now looks likely, Clinton started setting up roadblocks to investigating such a crime so far before the election, there is little question that Clinton approved of the illegal donations. Further, this makes arguing against an explicit quid pro quo exceedingly difficult.

Why would China funnel Clinton so much money for nothing in return???

Overall this Gorelick memo, and Gorelick herself, really is becoming more and more the centerpiece of Clinton's failures and crimes.

[BykrBayb]

Actually, I already knew some of this stuff, but there's a limit to what I can accept as reality. That limit keeps getting stretched.

[timydnuc]

Of course this is true. Why it amazes anyone is beyond me. There are so many moles left in the government. We should return to the "spoils system". that way the majority would have some control over the bureaucracy.

[jocko12]

THE CLOWNS ARE OFF AND RUNNING THIS WEEK.ALL OF THEM.

[GregoryFul]

Clinton was nurtured by the PRC even as Governor of Arkansas. They recognized his potential.

[ladyinred]

I have always thought the real author of the "wall" is Hillary Clinton.

[spycatcher]

Jamie Gorelick is on the 9/11 Commission for the exact same reason she was put into the position of Deputy Attorney General. It's all about the Clintons.

As for who really ordered the wall erected, thankfully we have Senators who do their jobs and will find out:

http://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=220753

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft Monday requesting that the Department of Justice “produce any records relating to Deputy Attorney General (Jamie) Gorelick’s involvement in the development and promulgation of Attorney General Reno’s Procedures for Contacts Between the FBI and the Criminal Division Concerning Foreign Intelligence and Foreign Counterintelligence Investigations.”

[Only1choice____Freedom]

I hate to say it but you are catching on.

Keep reading. Check out the archives.

Look for Flight 800,

John Doe #2

OKC bombing

WTC bombing #1

Be afraid, but don't blind. That's just scratching the surface.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[CyberAnt]

Actually .. Rush was blabbing about it on his show today .. and it's on his website. 20 mil people may not be "the public as large" but it's a good start.

[CyberAnt]

"as large" = at large

But .. you knew that!

[capecodderathome]

Thanks all, for keeping this thread alive. I've known in my heart that the whole Clinton administration was was a definition of sleeze. Living in Massachusetts, I've seen AF1 flying in and out so many time for fundraising events. The most disturbing was an event in the Boston area, where a known terrorist organization held a fundraiser. It was so blatant and well reported, the Clintons returned the money; claiming ignorance. I pray to God that justice is brought to all these despicable people. One can only wonder how deep the septage is.

[Lancey Howard]

((ping))

Don't miss this one.

[AnimalLover]

Jamie Gorelick will never testify to the commission

I understand 10 senators/congressmen signed a letter that went to the commission demanding that Gorelick testify. They were told - no way - she was not on the original list of witnesses.

OK fellow Freepers - does anyone have any ideas how WE can get her into that witness chair?

[calcowgirl]

Oh Ma-a-aaa-n....
Just when you thought it couldn't get any better! LOL.

Thanks for the ping!

[Mo1]

Who was the guy from the FBI at the 9/11 hearing that said he thought the memo started because of what happen with Travelgate?

[Lancey Howard]

Close. You see the investigations hadn't begun yet as they were post election.

The winds of scandal begin blowing long before investigations are launched. I agree that "the wall" may have been erected to clear the path for future Clinton foreign-money grabs, but the Clintons were involved with more than just the PRC. For example, I believe the Clintons' relationship with the Riaddys (Indonesia) goes way back.

I have no doubt that Gorelick wrote the "wall" memo at Hillary Clinton's direction (she was, after all, Hillary's "eyes and ears" at justice after Web went down), and I think the Republicans are holding some cards up their sleeves. This is the part of the story that could blow up in Hillary Clinton's face. If it turns out that the Clintons' efforts to shield themselves from prosecution can be tied directly to the deficient national security conditions that allowed 9-11, all hell will break loose.

Fasten your seatbelt.

[Mia T]

Reverse Gorelick_BUMP

Reverse Gorelick

by Mia T, 4.15.04

e would have it backwards and miss the point entirely if we were to attribute The Gorelick Wall and the attendant metastasis of al Qaeda during the clintons' watch, (which, incidentally, was then in its incipient stage and stoppable), to the '60s liberal mindset.

Rampant '60s liberalism was not the underlying rationale for The Gorelick Wall.

Rather, The Gorelick Wall was the underlying rationale for--The Gorelick Wall was (insofar as '60s liberalism was the Wall's apparent impetus) a cynical cover for --the willful, methodical malpractice and malfeasance that was the product of the virulent clinton strain of rampant '60s liberalism.

While it is true that The Gorelick Wall was the convenient device of a cowardly self-serving president, The Wall's aiding and abetting of al Qaeda was largely incidental, (the pervasiveness of the clintons' Nobel-Peace-Prize calculus notwithstanding).

The Wall was engineered primarily to protect a corrupt self-serving president. The metastasis of al Qaeda and 9/11 were simply the cost of doing business, clinton-style.

Further confirmation of the Wall-as-cover-for-clinton-corruption thesis:

• Gorelick's failure to disclose the fact that she authored the memo that was the efficient cause of 911
• Gorelick's surreal presence on the 911 commission investigating Gorelick's Justice Department, a maneuver that effectively removes from the universe of witnesses a central witness, Gorelick, even as it uniquely positions a central player, Gorelick, to directly shape the commission's conclusions. (Is there any question which two people are responsible for Gorelick's insertion on the commission?)

Conversely, that it never occurred to anyone on the commission that Gorelick's flagrant conflict of interest renders her presence on the commission beyond farce calls into question the commission's judgment if not its integrity. Washington's mutual protection racket writ large, I suspect.

The Gorelick Wall is consistent with, and an international extension of, two essential acts committed in tandem, Filegate, the simultaneous empowering of the clintons and disemboweling of clinton adversaries, and the clinton Putsch, the firing and replacement of every U.S. attorney extant.

Filegate and the clinton Putsch,
committed in tandem,
the product of a careful criminal calculus,
at once empowered clinton
and disemboweled his opponents.
clinton was now free to betray with abandon
not only our trust,
but the Constitution as well.

The Common Man
Mia T
February, 1998

Allegations of international clinton crimes swirling around the White House in 1995 and beyond support The-Wall-as-cover-for-international-clinton-crimes thesis.

Once the clintons' own U.S. attorneys were in place, once the opposition was disemboweled by the knowledge that their raw FBI files had been in the possession of the clintons, once domestic law enforcement was effectively blinded to foreign data by Gorelick's Wall, the clintons were free to methodically and seditiously and with impunity auction off America's security, sovereignty and economy to the highest foreign bidder.

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[BigSkyFreeper]

Thomas Pickard, Former acting FBI Director

[BigSkyFreeper]

BEN-VENISTE: I understand that, sir. But if you had known, would you not have -- I think you've answered my question -- you would have pulsed the FBI.

Let me ask you this. Did the president or the attorney general of the United States ever ask to meet with you following August 6th?

PICKARD: No. There was a policy that I was not to go to the White House unless the attorney general or the deputy attorney general or someone from the Department of Justice, either I had informed them or they went with me, and that was as a result of the Travelgate scandal where the FBI asked for information...

BEN-VENISTE: The request never came.

And finally with request with -- Mr. Black -- to the kill or capture answer that you gave earlier to Secretary LEHMAN: Are you confident that you saw all of the instructions signed by President Clinton as of late 1998 before you took up your duties at the CT center in mid-1999?

PICKARD: All of the memorandums of notification...

BEN-VENISTE: Yes.

PICKARD: ... were retained by our lawyers. And I did have access to them.

BEN-VENISTE: Are you confident that you saw all of them, because, sir, you are mistaken with respect to your answer.

PICKARD: Well -- well, I don't know the universe of what -- I don't know what, necessarily, all the ones. I know the ones that were made available to me -- put it that way.

BEN VENISTE: The problem was that the one that we are referring to here was not made available to us until very recently. It was in the Clinton archived materials and was held very closely.

PICKARD: Yes. I don't know what you're referring to, so I would have to see it to confirm that I was aware of it. So I don't know, sir.

KEAN: Gentlemen, thank you very much. We appreciate your government service and your attendance here and your help with our commission today. Thank you very much.