Gorelick Memo Exposes 'Feckless' Clinton Policy

insightmag.com ^

[Sub-Driver]

Gorelick Memo Exposes 'Feckless' Clinton Policy Posted April 13, 2004 By Kenneth R. Timmerman

In a dramatic moment of his testimony before the 9/11 commission this afternoon, Attorney General John Ashcroft released a previously classified memo from 1995 that instructed the FBI and U.S. Attorneys around the country to ensure they had "walled off" overseas intelligence information from domestic crime-fighters. The separation between overseas intelligence gathering and domestic criminal prosecution has been widely criticized by both Democrats and Republicans on the committee for having helped make the 9/11 attacks possible.

"[T]he simple fact of Sept. 11 is this," Ashcroft testified: "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, handcuffed by government-imposed restrictions, and starved for basic information technology. The old national intelligence system in place on Sept. 11 was destined to fail."

Ashcroft went on to explain the "wall" that had been erected between criminal investigators and intelligence agents was "the single greatest structural cause for Sept. 11 [successes by al-Qaeda]." He said, "Government erected this wall. Government buttressed this wall. And before Sept. 11, government was blinded by this wall."

Ashcroft then described the 1995 memo that initially established the wall, which later impeded the investigations of the 9/11 hijackers and their accomplices. When frustrated field agents complained to headquarters about it in August 2001, Justice replied: "'These are the rules.' ... But somebody did make these rules," Ashcroft said. "Someone built this wall."

Then the attorney general dropped his bombshell: "Although you understand the debilitating impact of the wall, I cannot imagine that the commission knew about this memorandum, so I have declassified it for you and the public to review. Full disclosure compels me to inform you that its author is a member of this commission."

The 1995 memo by then Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick - now a member of the 9/11 commission - explains that the new rules dictated by the Clinton administration to separate criminal investigations from intelligence gathering "go beyond what is legally required." The Gorelick rules were meant to ensure that "no 'proactive' investigative efforts or technical coverages" of terrorist suspects be carried out on U.S. soil.

The result of the 1995 Gorelick rules, Ashcroft said, were devastating, and hampered the ability of U.S. intelligence agencies to communicate the identify of two of the 9/11 hijackers to law-enforcement agencies, even after they had entered the United States. That failure specifically contributed to 9/11.

[mrsmith]

Why did she write the memo?

It's not unreasonable to assume that something must have happened that caused her to write the memo, like an outrageous illegal use of FISA.
I'd sure like to see that questioned answered. But heck, it'll never be asked.

[fatrat]

they did not show her on fox, i don't know whether some other network had a camera on her or not. watching fox, the camera never left the attornery general for several minutes before and after that statement.

[airedale]

When can we expect her to testify under oath and in public? I also remember the flap that the media raised when Ashcroft appealed this decision to the FISA court. The media was all up in arms about how dare Ashcroft do this. I wonder if this is going to be reported.

[Smartass]

Link to Jaime Gorelick's 9-11 Memo

[MHGinTN]

When? ... Never, it is too potentially dmaging to the clinton-gore feckless follies of 8 long years. Why would she issue such a document/guidelines?... What might potentially arise in international investigations that would expose sinkEmperor's feckless administration of this nation's forces in fighting and preventing terrorism?... Well, there was TWA 800, and Oklahoma City, and the myriad of terrorist attacks for which sinkEmperor answered with missiles up camel's butts. And then there is the issue of possible negatives during election cycles. Oh, you say American citizens died because of such ass-covering? Well, that shouldn't alarm you regarding the democrats. They are, after all, the politicial party that has built their powerbase on defending the slaughter of alive unborn children. Don't let their 'for the children' crap confuse you ... they do everything 'for the vote, for the power' reagrdless of whom it kills in the process. Fat Teddy showed his colors with his aiding and abetting the enemy seeking to kill our Soldiers in Iraq.

[airedale]

This is the e-mail I sent to the commission:

From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 7:23 PM
To: 'info@9-11Commission.gov'
Subject: When will Commissioner Gorelick testify in pubic and under oath about the letter Ashcroft mentioned?

When can we expect Commissioner Gorelick to testify in pubic and under oath about letter on "Instructions on Separation of Certain Foreign Counterintelligence and Criminal Investigations which was declassified and presented to the commission today?

We need to know the full information on who developed and approved this policy as well as which members of the Clinton administration knew about it. Did the members of the Clinton administration testify accurately under oath when this memo is taken into account.

Did Commissioner Gorelick disclose this memo to the Commission before Ashcroft informed you? If so when? If not then why not? If it was recently then it's probably a CYA. If not why hasn't it been addressed in the earlier public hearings?

[StriperSniper]

Just replay that loop over and over and over...

[Real Cynic No More]

This is putting the dims on notice that there're likely many more memos available which could be brought to light if the unfairness continues. Such memos could likely be disastrous not only to former officials of the Clinton administration, but members of Congress, too!

[Howlin]

Don't you LOVE the title of this article? "Feckless."

[Fester Chugabrew]

"Wait a minute. I can explain everything."

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

The only answer Ms. Clintonservicer deserves to any of her questions is " you should know".

[mickie]

Just a thought.

I read that the subject line should say THOMAS KEAN.

Maybe that will get some action.

[Syncro]

It's about time this came to the surface.

Many here know about Clinton separating the agencies from each other and squelching any information sharing.

And making it harder to hire more FBI and CIA personnel.

I hope they dig deeper on this.

[Waco]

The only committee Gorelick should be on, is the one deciding if she sits in Levenworth or Marion.

[Mo1]

Ping Again

[GopherIt]

Dontcha know this has been sitting on the back burner waiting till Aschcroft's day, and then, what do you know, the press conference day. I think there's more to come. Isn't it fun to watch the grown-ups in action? We're at war, sweetie.

[Republican Wildcat]

No surprise. She was the most bizarre appointment to this commission. As I've stated on other threads, she was charged with investigating herself.

[FairOpinion]

Speaking of feckless Clinton policy:

"The Church and Pike committees undermined the ability of our intelligence agencies to do their job, Romerstein said. "Prior to Sept. 11, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] made it impossible for the FBI, which had possession of one of the hijackers' computers to get a warrant from the court to get into that computer and know what the terrorists were planning."

FISA was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 and followed congressional investigations into the covert domestic surveillance activities of the FBI during the Vietnam era.

Former President Bill Clinton signed an executive order in Feb. 1995, expanding the law. It barred the physical searches of members of groups designated threats to national security if there was no probable cause to suspect a crime had been committed."

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/7/2/54013.shtml

[prairiebreeze]

ping!

[Utah Girl]

I'm listening to John Ashcroft right now. He hit a grand slam home today. Gorelick should feel ashamed of herself, she is one of the architects of the paralysis of the FBI and CIA and was one of the major contributors to stopping any sort of investigation going on for terrorism.