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.
The question is, why did this Republican Administration allow him to get off with probation?
Can you explain why the Justice Department let him go without one second of jail time?
Why we're spending more time investigating steroids in sports than treason in our government?
Wow...you signed up yesterday just to post THAT?
it's so quiet I hear crickets... .
Jamie Gorelick may be facing a federal indictment before too long. The Justice Department is investigating Fannie Mae and its accounting shenanigans, some of which were aimed directly at manipulating its stock price in order to maximize bonuses to Fannie Mae executives. Jamie Gorelick was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Fannie Mae while this took place and received a bonus of almost a million dollars. Frank Raines, active Democrat and friend of Bill and Hillary, was the CEO who hired Gorelick and he is also facing possible indictment. DOJ is throwing the book at corporate wrongdoers these days and getting indictments and winning convictions. I suspect Ms. Gorelick will plead out if she is indicted, but she will likely be disbarred as a result and will not be serving as anyone's Attorney General in the future.
Naw, get outta town, how can this be? Slick had prior knowledge, naw, I don't believe it for a minute. This is Bush's fault, hands down, no question about it.</sarcasm>
Don't ever buy the line that the Clinton admin. took terrorists seriously.
1. The Clinton admin. final intelligence report to Congress barely mention bin laden or Islamo-terror
2. If fighting terror was so high a priority in the
Clinton admin., how come Gore never mentioned it during the
2000 campaign?
Jeeze I thought it was Rove's fault? Wait - It's Bush's fault! Nah It's gotta be Roves' fault! Wellll maybe it's Cheney's fault!
Cause if it's not in the Whore it's not discussed.
Hey look, over here!
Anything to protect the clintons--screw the rest of the US.
That is the clinton motto.
or is it that little mouse running around the troll's head?
Because of the narcisistic sociopath Clinton's overwhelming need to be re-elected in '96, 3000 Americans lost their lives on 9/11. Countless more lives were ruined. How many children lost a parent or both parents? In the coming nuclear war with China millions more will die because of his treason. THE DEPTH OF CLINTON'S DEPRAVITY IS BREATHTAKING.
Geez, how many folks can get into bed together? It's a regular orgy.
Exactly. Hence the odor.
Rove, Bush, Cheney, hell let's throw in Bush 41 and Nixon too just to be safe!!! LOL @ your tagline, good one!!! I can see uncle teddy hiccup in a diaper now, oh the humanity!
Our former impeached president Clinton was probably paid to keep his mouth shut about the coming terrorist attack.
Couldn't we have played with him awhile before he got zotted? I feel a little wicked today, and I'm bored. Oh, well, where there's one, there will be another.
Our former impeached president Clinton was probably paid to keep his mouth shut about the coming terrorist attack.
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.