Excellent article. You argue your case well.
I wonder, though, whether the importance of "the Wall", Gorelick's part in erecting it, and effective communication between the CIA and the FBI in hindering terrorist activities aren't being exagerated for political purposes.
In 1992 terrorists had no trouble detonating a bomb in the basement of the towers - long before Gorelick played her role. The neocons' dissatisfaction with the performance of our intelligence agencies began even earlier.
Actually, the bombing was in 1993 and the Gorelick memo came into play, hindering that investigation and then ultimately led to 9/11:
The memo grew out of the Justice Department's prosecution of the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center -- the act that apparently gave Osama bin Laden the idea to try again in 2001.
"During the course of those investigations," wrote Gorelick in 1995, "significant counterintelligence information has been developed related to the activities and plans of agents of foreign powers operating in this country and overseas, including previously unknown connections between separate terrorist groups." But Gorelick wanted to make sure that the left hand didn't know what the right was doing. "(W)e believe that it is prudent to establish a set of instructions that will clearly separate the counterintelligence investigation from the more limited, but continued, criminal investigations. These procedures, which go beyond what is legally required, will prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation."
The problem, of course, is that the inability to share information is precisely what hampered federal agents in tracking down the 9-11 hijackers. As Attorney General Ashcroft testified, this artificial wall impeded the investigation into Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, who was arrested prior to the 9-11 attack, as well as Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, both of whom were identified by the CIA as suspected terrorists possibly in the United States prior to their participation in those terrible attacks. "Because of the wall, FBI Headquarters refused to allow criminal investigators who knew the most about the most recent al Qaeda attack to join in the hunt for the suspected terrorists," Ashcroft told the commission.
More on Gorelick:
On Aug. 22, 1996, just a few days before the start of the Democratic National Convention, Ms. Gorelick oversaw a critical Justice Department meeting with the FBI. Immediately after this meeting, as it happened, all serious inquiry into the fate of TWA 800 came to an end.
On the next day, for instance, the FAA began to inquire whether any dog-training exercises had ever taken place on the plane that would become TWA 800. On the same day, as CNN reported, the FBI now claimed publicly for the first time that the explosive residue found along the right wing "could have been brought on the plane by a passenger and was not part of a bomb." Likewise, after the meeting, the FBI would do no more eyewitness interviews, at least not for the next two months. The Bureau only did a handful after that – and all of those for the wrong reasons.
"Evidence strongly suggests it was Gorelick – not the ineffectual Freeh – who not only misdirected the FBI's investigation into Oklahoma City, but also the FBI investigation into TWA Flight 800. The parallels between the two cases are shocking. And in each case, the Clinton administration constrained the FBI for the same reason: to advance the re-election chances of its standard bearer. "
Although [Jayna]Davis does not document Gorelick's role in Oklahoma City, media accounts routinely describe her as the director of the Oklahoma City task force, the so-called "field commander." As Davis has told me, someone in Washington called the FBI in Oklahoma City and issued a two-word directive on its investigation into Islamic terrorism: "Kill it."
John / Billybob
In 1992 terrorists had no trouble detonating a bomb in the basement of the towers - long before Gorelick played her role. The neocons' dissatisfaction with the performance of our intelligence agencies began even earlier.<<<
I did a "huh, what" on your comment above. Evidently you are not aware that the prohibition between FBI and CIA communication on cases involving both criminal and intelligence data preexisted the 1993(sic) WTC bombing.
I believe that the wall came in somewhere around 1976. (Result of the Church Committee hearings)
Gorelick's action was to increase height of the wall and increase the severity of penalties for violating the wall. Essentially she put a non-involved (read uninterested and uninformed)US Justice Department attorney in between any communication between the FBI and the CIA. The purpose was to insure that human rights of defendants in criminal cases weren't being violated by information collected outside the "criminal investigation community"; ie: the intelligence community.
Simply put, she made it so no FBI or CIA agent would ever attempt to communicate across the divide put in place by FISA - Federal Information Surveillances Act. The process was simply too intimidating - involving weeks of effort to get the right hearings and by the time any contact for info sharing was granted - the reason for it had evaporated or morphed into something else.
And Jamie Gorelick did this after 1993 WTC!
Read up on FISA: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/Terrorism/fisa_faq.html