Posted on 08/09/2005 11:50:47 AM PDT by areafiftyone
More than a year before the 9/11 attacks, Clinton administration intelligence officials had identified four of the 19 9/11 hijackers as a terrorist threat - including al-Qaida team leader Mohamed Atta and his partner Marwan al-Shehhi, whose planes destroyed the World Trade Center and killed over 2,700 people.
But the critical information was not acted on, at least in part, because of prohibitions against intelligence sharing implemented by former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, who was reportedly installed in her post at the insistence of then-first lady Hillary Clinton.
In the summer of 2000, a military team, known as Able Danger, had prepared a chart that included visa photographs of Atta and al Shehhi and recommended to the military's Special Operations Command that the information be shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Rep. Curt Weldon and a former intelligence official told the New York Times.
"We knew these were bad guys, and we wanted to do something about them," the former intelligence official said.
However, the recommendation was rejected and the information was not shared, in part, said the Times, because the four suspects had entered the United States on valid entry visas.
But Rep. Weldon and the unnamed intelligence official also cited what the paper described as "a sense of discomfort common before Sept. 11 about sharing intelligence information with a law enforcement agency."
In fact, such intelligence sharing was strictly prohibited under Ms. Gorelick's policy, known at the Justice Department as "The Wall," which, in the spring of 2000, had also prevented the CIA from tipping off the FBI that two additional 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, had entered the country.
Al-Midhar and al-Hamzi were identified by the Able Danger team as well, the Times said.
In its final report, however, the 9/11 Commission made no mention of the fact that the Clinton administration had identified key members of the hijack team, even though, the Times noted, that information had been shared with 9/11 Commission members.
The account by Weldon and the Times intelligence source is the first assertion that Atta and al Shehhi - who caused the most destruction in the worst attack ever suffered on U.S. soil - had been identified by the Clinton administration.
In testimony before the 9/11 Commission last year, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft blasted Gorelick's "Wall," saying, "The single greatest structural cause for September 11 was the wall that segregated criminal investigators and intelligence agents"
"[Ms. Gorelick] built that wall," said Ashcroft, "through a March 1995 memo."
The Gorelick memo stipulated, in part:
"We believe that it is prudent to establish a set of instructions that will more 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 [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation."
Ms. Gorelick is expected to be a leading candidate for attorney general should Mrs. Clinton win the 2008 presidential election.
BTW, what WAS in those papers Sandy Berger stuffed down his pants?
Gorelick/Clinton combo sounds very dangerous to me.
It'll still be Bush's fault. Even if Gore had won the election in 2000, it would still be Bush's fault.........
WHY MISSUS CLINTON IS DANGEROUS
FOR THE CHILDREN,
FOR AMERICA,
FOR THE WORLD
madhillary.com (coming soon)
madhillary.blogspot.com
COPYRIGHT MIA T 2005
Very interesting but ultimately ignored, I bet, is the fact that Jamie Gorelick's wall was instrumental in keeping anyone from connecting the dots...before 9/1l (and before Bush's election, BTW)....
AND, since Gorelick was on the 9/11 committee, DID NOT get put in the commission report as a SIGNIFICANT intelligence breakdown prior to 9/11...and she is in line for a cabinet position with HIllary?
If this wasn't so dastardly, it would be funny...but when I think of what the commission's fans put the Bush Administration through, and now THIS....my blood is boiling!
Too bad this is on NewsMax. The world will never know.
OH---I forgot to add that Rummy was asked about this report during his presser this morning...
He said that since he had NO KNOWLEDGE of this before today, he would have to check it out before giving his opinion!
Of course Clinton having people like Larry Johnson on board telling everyone that al Quaeda was no threat did not help.
I just heard Rush mention it...and will be discussing it next hour...
If RUSH gets ahold of this...it WILL get attention. He even mentioned Jamie Gorelick's name...
I will let you know what he says...ok?
>>But the critical information was not acted on, at least in part, because of prohibitions against intelligence sharing implemented by former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, who was reportedly installed in her post at the insistence of then-first lady Hillary Clinton.<<
The fact that Gorelick (what a fitting name) was a member of the 9-11 Commission is an outrage. Let's see if the Republicans will have the stones to make this a presidential campaign issue in '08. I'm sure Queen Hillary's sycophants in the press won't bring it up.
......This has NOTHING to do with the ,.....al-Qaeda U.N or 'INS'....move on....
And how interesting the 9/11 Commission, which admits they knew about this, didn't include it in their report!
Where's you hear Rummie's press conference?
liberal-speak for: "We care more about being sensitve to foreigners than protecting US Citizens (plus we don't trust our own law enforcement agencies to play fair)."
How DOES Hillary manage to sleep at night? What's the word - psychopath, sociopath?
So when will this be splashed across the front page of the Post and Times in big letters? Ha ha. Of course even if the Clinton media flunkies were to accurately report on this (and we all know that wouldnt happen if hell froze over) there STILL would be a huge contingent out there saying Clinton was the best president ever. The economy was the best it's ever been when he was president, blah blah blah. They are blind to the truth.
The Cost of Life (Clinton/Gore Sellout of Security for Campaign Contributions) **FR EXCLUSIVE** #2
CIA Officials Reveal What Went Wrong – Clinton to Blame
Is Bill Clinton Responsible for September 11?
Catastrophic intelligence Failure - Clinton's Bin Laden GATE
Thanks. I'm a work and can't listen to Rush so I miss out all the time. If Rush is mentioning it that is a good thing!
I heard it Txsleuth and now it will be on Fox News with Shep Smith AFTER this boring news conference with the astronauts. Sorry, but it IS boring!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
