Levin: Declassify The Other Gorelick Memo

NewsMax.com ^ | 4/16/04 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

The next shoe to drop in the Gorelick-gate scandal may be a still-classified report on the Millennium bomb plot that faults Gorelick's "wall" of separation between prosecutors and intelligence gatherers for nearly blowing the Millennium Bomb Plot probe.

Writing in National Review Online, Landmark Legal Foundation President Mark Levin notes that the Commission is sitting on a damaging post-Millennium-Plot report that chronicles the impact of Gorelick's terrorist-friendly directive, which Attorney General John Ashcroft alluded to on during his Wednesday testimony.

Dubbed the Millennium After Action Review by the Clinton National Security Council, Ashcroft said the report chronicles how al Qaeda's role in the Millennium plot was nearly missed because Gorelick's guidelines blinded U.S. prosecutors to critical intelligence in the case.

Though a hunch by an alert Washington-state Custom's agent led to the capture of would-be Millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam, when he was turned over to the Justice Department for interrogation, they "didn't have a clue who he was," Ashcroft told the Commission.

It took a French magistrate with full access to his own country's counterterrorism intelligence files to tip U.S. probers to the fact that they had nabbed one of al Qaeda's most dangerous operatives.

Ultimately, because of Gorelick's directive, the French magistrate had to travel to the U.S. and testify for seven hours to lay out Ressam's al Qaeda connection.

Said Levin:

The NSC's Millennium After Action Review — which, based on Attorney General Ashcroft's testimony, must be devastating in its analysis of not only this event but of the Gorelick policy — remains classified. . . .

"Given all the past intelligence information that has been made public by the 9/11 Commission — including the August 6, 2001, President's Daily Brief, which had never before been released — there appears to be no legitimate basis for the 9/11 Commission keeping the Review under lock and key. It's time to release it."

[kcvl]

Where are the PDBs from the Clinton Administration? If they can get them released from the CURRENT President, surely they can get them from the FORMER President, if they want the American people to know the TRUTH. Otherwise, this is nothing more than a PARTISAN attack on President Bush and his administration. Bill Clinton had EIGHT YEARS while President Bush had eight months.

******

Back in 1995, the government knew more about what al Qaeda might be planning against the U.S. than the president learned on his August 6, 2001 intelligence briefing. At that time the FBI was warned that terrorists were planning to hijack U.S. commercial aircraft and crash them into U.S. buildings. On September 18, 2001, just one-week after 9/11, CNN reported, in part:

The FBI was warned six years ago of a terrorist plot to hijack commercial planes and slam them into the Pentagon, the CIA headquarters and other buildings, Philippine investigators told CNN. Philippine authorities learned of the plot after a small fire in a Manila apartment, which turned out to be the hideout of Ramzi Yousef, who was later convicted for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Yousef escaped at the time, but agents caught his right-hand man, Abdul Hakim Murad, who told them a chilling tale.

"Murad narrated to us about a plan by the Ramzi cell in the continental U.S. to hijack a commercial plane and ram it into the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and also the Pentagon," said Rodolfo Mendoza, a Philippine intelligence investigator.

Philippine investigators also found evidence targeting commercial towers in San Francisco, Chicago and New York City.

They said they passed that information on to the FBI in 1995, but it's not clear what was done with it.

This is a far more accurate and specific description of the threat the U.S. faced than the August 6 PDB provided to President Bush. And yet, there has been precious little public testimony before the 9/11 Commission about this information, and precious little discussion about the Clinton administration's response to this information — including the inaction of the ever-prescient former National Security Agency official, Richard Clarke.

In 1999, a report for the National Intelligence Council mentioned that al Qaeda might use U.S. aircraft to fly into key government buildings. On May 18, 2002, the Houston Chronicle reported, in part:

A September 1999 report for the National Intelligence Council, an executive branch clearinghouse for data on terrorism, gave a chillingly accurate warning of the carnage that would strike the United States exactly two years later.

"Suicide bombers belonging to al-Qaida's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives...into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the CIA or the White House," according to the report.

Again, this report, based on publicly available information, contained more accurate and specific information than the August 6 PDB. When asked about the 1999 report in May 2002, Bill Clinton played down the information. He told the Associated Press:

That has nothing to do with intelligence. All that it says is they used public sources to speculate on what bin Laden might do. Let me remind you that's why I attacked his training camp and why I asked the Pakistanis to go get him, and why we contracted with some people in Afghanistan to go get him — because we thought he was dangerous.

I wonder if this is what Richard Clarke meant when he lauded the aggressive focus on terrorism by the Clinton administration.

In any event, the August 6, 2001, PDB isn't the political weapon with which George W. Bush's detractors had hoped to undermine his presidency. The briefing did not provide the president with the information he would have needed to stop the terrorist attacks, which came less than five weeks later.

[Ken H]

BETH WILKINSON married David Gregory this past summer on Nantucket. Beth, a partner at law firm Latham & Watkins, was a prosecutor for the Justice Department in the Oklahoma City bombing trials. If David looks familiar, he should. He's a political correspondent for NBC, and he spent much of the past few months covering the presidential campaign."

Is this the same Gregory who used to be at PMSNBC and is now at Fox?

[HurricaneD]

"What makes you think O'Reilly will cover this? So far, he's much more into bashing Ashcroft by saying he is more interested in "covering up naked statues" than in fighting terrorism. O'Reilly is not our friend--unless he thinks it will advance his career and ratings."

Thank you. Bill O'Reilly is a pompous windbag. One of the local radio stations just moved O'Reilly into the evening time slot previously occupied by Laura Ingraham's program. Time for me to find another station.

[risk]

'As [Jayna] Davis has told [Jack Cashill] , someone in Washington called the FBI in Oklahoma City and issued a two-word directive on its investigation into Islamic terrorism: "Kill it."'

One day we will understand just how far the left went to undermine constitutional patriots and traditional, suburban American political values after the OKC bombing. The danger isn't over. They're much more desperate now.

[holden]

Watch for regulation of search engine providers, though I don't think it'll happen, given how extremely unpopular and tough to justify it would be.

Get nervous if at the same time the Library of Congress gets into the generalized search engine business.

HF

[kcvl]

The *ss on the right. He trashes President Bush every chance he gets. He says that he THINKS President Bush is calling around town and trashing him. Does that sound like something President Bush would do?! NO! He could care less what that little prick "reports" about him. He is also on the the old fart, IMUS show some mornings. He is one nasty little creep.

[Lancey Howard]

I wish this headline said "Mark" Levin, because I hate confusing him with liberal hack Carl Levin. Anyway, I think Bush is going to keep an ace up his sleeve.... or several.... for the time being. Case the scumbags get out of line again.

[Ken H]

Oh yeah, I remember who the twirp is now. Thanks.

[Fracas]

Oh come on. Tell us whether or not you like Davey. Please? Pretty Please?

ROFL!

And while we're on the subject of 'liking', I tried to reach through the t.v. to slap Tom Keane when Jamie Gorelick was brushing off his suit. I expected her to whip out a comb and tidy his hair...and then wipe his fevered brow.

[onyx]

Gets more incestuous all the time, doesn't it?

[kcvl]

You noticed that too?! These people are incestuous.

[onyx]

See #48.

[OKSooner]

bttt

[LADY J]

"And while we're on the subject of 'liking', I tried to reach through the t.v. to slap Tom Keane when Jamie Gorelick was brushing off his suit. I expected her to whip out a comb and tidy his hair...and then wipe his fevered brow."

No fool like an old fool!

[Saundra Duffy]

LOL!

[krunkygirl]

"This needs more attention." BUMP

[Fracas]

I lost couth and cool watching Keane and Gorelick.

And don't forget Gorton and Hatch....their comments were equally maddening.

[Libloather]

...faults Gorelick's "wall" of separation between prosecutors and intelligence gatherers for nearly blowing the Millennium Bomb Plot probe.

I look forward to all the Sunday shows leading with this story.

Weekend bump!

[onehipdad]

If that's Slade Gorton's impression of Lon Chaney's Phantom, it's pretty darn good!

[Fracas]

Read this 1999 FR thread w/r/t Mz. Gorelick.

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a379c1ada7cac.htm