GORELICK GATE: Gorelick Memo Exposes 'Feckless' Clinton Policy

Insight On The News ^ | April 13, 2004 | By Kenneth R. Timmerman

[joinedafterattack]

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.

[joinedafterattack]

What else can Gorelick testify about.

[Diogenesis]

---

"You think you are gonna ask me why I dared refuse repeat DOJ requests for investigations of dangerous illegal aliens.
You think you are gonna ask me why I arranged to stovepipe intelligence to make intraagency effective communication useless.
You think you are gonna ask me why I illegal aliens who were felons became voters for our Democratic party.
You think you are gonna ask me why I OK'd the use of stolen FBI files onDNC computers.
Following LBJ, your gonads are in my fist. Now go away. "

[Baynative]

Having Gorelick on the commission is like letting a crime suspect pick his own jury.

Who was that guy in charge of airport security and safety since 1995?

[Blue Highway]

Remove Jamie Gorelick

If the 9-11 commission is wanting to investigate and reveal the reasons 9-11 occured it needs to look no further than one of it's own members of the panel: Jamie Gorelick (Deputy Attorney General 1994-1997 under former President Clinton)

[Chi-townChief]

She looks like a real gore-lick.

[MizSterious]

Or, letting the crime suspect be a part of the jury. Outrageous.

[ladyinred]

This commission is joke, and dangerous for our security and the safety of our troops. What is the matter with these people, and why doesn't someone shut this down?

[AmishDude]

Do you know how hard it is to keep reminding myself that her name has 3 syllables?

[muleskinner]

WTF? She was transforming herself into a Young Reno? Behold the power of Janet Reno.

Ia!Ia! Reno F'thagn

[kcar]

GORELICK: The new mouth of the Potomac.

[rundy]

Not only should this "babe" be off the 9/11 Commission,

She belongs in JAIL !

Dick Morris just said (on Hannity and Colmes) she is the individual most directly responsible for 9/11. I agree!

[MinuteGal]

Hey, let Gorelick stay on the commission. When it issues its bipartisan report and if it attacks GW in any way, her finger in the pie will completely discount it.

If the commissioners cannot agree on a bipartisan report and chooses to issue majority and minority reports, any report she has her oar in will also be discounted.

She's in a no-win position and is dragging Kerrey, Bin Venasty and the others right down with her. I love it!

Leni

[Libloather]

The original Gorelick memo can be found at - http://nationalreview.com/document/document_1995_gorelick_memo.pdf

[Howlin]

On H&C tonight, Dick Morris said that Jamie Gorelick was t blame for 9-11.

[auboy]

When questioned after today's hearing about Gorelick's removal, Chairman Kean had the unmitigated gall to said that she was one of the best commission members. He also said (paraphrasing) that folks should stay out of the commission's business.

I screamed at him that it was our business. Kean's arrogance overwhelmed me. The Dems got the gold and we got the shaft.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Chairman Kean had the unmitigated gall to said that she was one of the best commission members. He also said (paraphrasing) that folks should stay out of the commission's business.

He's right; it's none of our business. The commission has been established by Congress and it can run as constituted and nobody will force it to change. OTOH talk radio will simply refer to it not as the "Kean" Commission but the "Gorelick Commission." Not as the "September 11" Commission but the "Cover-up Commission."

Its recommendations will be DOA.

[Carolinamom]

On LKL tonight Ben Veniste said that the Commission Chairman, Keane, had ASKED the commission members to go on TV shows. He also said that he had only gone on 10% of those that invited him.

FN said last night that the commissioners had AVERAGED 6 TV appearances each. The only exception to all this was Fielding.

[auboy]

He's right; it's none of our business.

Kean may be correct, technically speaking, but he's not right.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

Posted earlier today on Freerepublic.com =


Nothing happened in the CLINTON White House without HILLARY knowing about it.


"Whenever BILL CLINTON was away, or out of town, HILLARY sat in the Oval Office" =


...stated Author Chris Andersen in his bestselling book titled:

..'BILL & HILLARY: The Marriage'


Now we know why..?

---

And now HILLARY coughs up GORELICK =


'MORRIS: GORELICK U.S. Official Most Responsible for 9/11'

http://www.Newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/4/14/224659.shtml

.

[xkaydet65]

If Kean's arrogance overwhelmed you then you have a lot to learn about the Bluebloods who feel they, not you, know what's best for you. This is not just a Democratic disease. The country club Republican crowd, whether they be Jersey types like Kean,or the Long Island Gold Coast types of the past always knew best. You still see this with the likes of David Rockefeller. Though I do say, having met his brother Nelson, that Nelson was a blueblood with a connection to the people. The rest??? They're no better than the nanny state Dems.

[Torie]

Dick Morris tends to be an all or nothing perverid type. But then you already knew that. But Morris is cetainly never dull - by design.

[Torie]

Oh cut the class warrior stuff, even though I have indulged in it a bit myself (because I have character flaws), even though I am a Kean type in many ways. Maybe the women has done a good job on the commission, certainly better than the Dem attack dogs. Don't fall into the trap of being an attack dog yourself. It won't sell.

[PhilDragoo]

Per the Wall Street Journal 1995 book Whitewater it was Gorelick who "pulled Whitewater into main Justice to protect the First Lady".

[onyx]

BUMP.
Exactly right.
The woman is a full-out Clinton lackey.

[Brian Allen]

<< On H&C tonight, Dick Morris said that Jamie Gorelick was to blame for 9-11. >>

Of course he did.

He's the obscene toe-sucking slut-for-hire who outed Moanica to distract the world and the Independant Counsel from the enormity of the cli'ton crime family's treason, lying, looting, thieving, mass-murdering and co-serial rapes!

Why wouldn't he attempt to distract from cli'ton's responsibility insofar as the activities of bin-ladin and al-queda are concerned?

Better that the gormless ["Kenny G" Gorelick's sister? -- and -- the mind boggles] Gore-supporter, Gorelick, be dumped than any of the inner cli'ton gang ever be afforded the dignity of the consequences of his own actions!

[risk]

Attorneys around the country to ensure they had "walled off" overseas intelligence information from domestic crime-fighters.... "Whenever BILL CLINTON was away, or out of town, HILLARY sat in the Oval Office" ... Now we know why...

Could it be they feared the people working in law enforcement and the military more than our true enemies? You know, the ones who swore to defend our Republic and its Constitution, the the ones who meant it?

[skinkinthegrass]

Per the Wall Street Journal 1995 book Whitewater it was Gorelick who "pulled Whitewater into main Justice to protect the First Lady".

...poor Gorelick (an $hrillary hack); she'll bring $hrillary's name back in the limelight...I expect to see Gorelick, lying dead, @ Fort Marcy Park soon...by the cannon, in an familiar spot.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Look, the fundamental premise of the 911 commission - that we need a committee full of Democratic operatives and RINOs to tell us that the Republicans are just as much at fault for our insecurity as Democrats are - is ridiculous on its face.

What was the Church Committee? A bunch of Democrats dedicated to the proposition that Republicans were a danger to civil liberties.

What was that Gorelick memo about? Preventing the appearance of impropriety in the process of investigating terrorist threats.

If Gorelick is half as worried about the "appearance of impropriety" now as she was then, she'll get her sorry behind off the committee and into a witness chair in front of it.

And if the committee is half as worried about affixing responsibility to those who have authority as it is about getting a sound bite for John Kerry's political ambitions, it will report that the Gorelick wrote that memo after the first WTC bombing and that it unnecessarily hindered the investigation of terrorists. The Democrats look at that August PDB and proclaim that "Bush knew." They look at the Gorelick memo and the cat has their tongue.

The Gorelick memo is a smoking gun, nothing less.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Maybe the women has done a good job on the commission

Maybe you haven't read this line in the Gorelick memo:

These procedures, which go beyond what is legally required, will prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that FISA is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation.

It was Ashcroft and not Gorelick who revealed the memo to the committee; Ashcroft testified that failure to comply with this memo, requiring that the left hand of the FBI not know what the right hand was doing, was known as a "career ender" within the Bureau.

Gorelick's "profile in courage" memo cost four airliners, the twin towers, a wing of the Pentagon, and three thousand lives. Far more surely than anything else the committee is likely to find.

I await your explanation as to how the author of that memo could possibly be helping it find the truth if she did not disclose that memo while the committee was spending endless hours trying to find out the causes of the intelligence failure of 911.

[Arrowhead1952]

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.

Well, well, well. How about Ms. GWhorelick getting off the 9/11 commission and in hot seat for a while. This should be consiered treason.

[Libloather]

Per the Wall Street Journal 1995 book Whitewater it was Gorelick who "pulled Whitewater into main Justice to protect the First Lady".

What did Hillary know, and when did she know it? Its time to connect some dots...

[MinuteGal]

The only problem with Gorelick moving to the witness seat is that I can't think of a Republican commission member who isn't bewitched, bothered and befuddled who would ask the incisive questions of her.

This Gorelick scenario is prime evidence of how the appalling choices of GOP 911 commissioners is coming back to bite us you know where.

We're going to have to keep the pressure on this Clintonista woman ourselves, folks. Don't depend on the commission.

Thank God for the courage of John Ashcroft the other day. He didn't look at all recovered from his surgery yet, but he had the most steely look on his face as he forcefully came right out with the truth.

Leni

[auboy]

If Kean's arrogance overwhelmed you then you have a lot to learn about the Bluebloods who feel they, not you, know what's best for you.

I went to high school with Hubert Green. Hubert came from "old money", but Dr. Green taught his sons well. There was not an arrogant bone in Hubert's body. He treated everyone with respect, including those of us from the other side of the tracks.

IME, arrogance is not limited to "bluebloods". Often, the biggest snobs are those with new found wealth. They suddenly become too good to breath the same air.

Maybe it was not Kean's arrogance than overwhelmed me. Maybe, it was the stupidity of telling the rest of us to butt out, on national TV. A sound bite he will rue. Kean assassinated his own character.

[Gritty]

I saw Gorelick and Slade Gorton last night with Hissy Matthews. Gorton was completely covering for Gorelick, saying she was the most valuable and bi-partisan member of the 911 Omission and warning everybody to "butt out" of the Omission's business. They have closed ranks behind her.

There is something more than "funny" going on here. This is a deliberate coverup of something much larger than 911, if that is possible.

Two questions concerning Gorelick that need to be answered:

1. How did she get on this Commission? She didn't just fall down from Heaven. Somebody wanted her there and put her there. Why?

2. Why did Gorelick institute the "wall" memorandum? Was she ordered to do it (and who ordered it) or did she do it on her own. Either way, there was a real motivation behind it. Get to the bottom of this and the 911 Omission will have the answer to it's questions on the "why" 911 happened,... not that it really wants to uncover any deep truths.

IMHO, this was a setup by the clintons to cover their criminality in other areas and prevent our own intelligence and investigative agencies from either connecting the dots or prosecuting their blatant criminality often disguised as incompetence. One need only start naming off events of those days to see why,... Waco, Whitewater, Mena Airport, Vince Foster, Oklahoma City, the Riadys, Charlie Trie, Johnny Chung, Wen ho Lee, the looting of Los Alamos secrets, Ron Brown, China money, LORAL, Livermore Labs and the loss of W-88 nuclear warhead designs, etc. etc., ... what was there that needed "covering up" in those days that required both eyes to be gouged from the FBI and CIA?

Looking for unconnected dots and and asking why the lines weren't connected? Well, there are lots of dots to connect, but no way to connect them if connecting them is prohibited. This was not a "unfortunate" slip-up. It was deliberate policy by deliberate people for deliberate reasons.

The fact terrorists finally slipped through the broken net and caused 911 is only a side and final result of the vast and sinister Clinton Legacy. The 911 dots all emanated from this, and the keystone of the plot has been outed by Ashcroft.

[auboy]

I commend you for your post. Well stated!

[Travis McGee]

info@9-11commission.gov

This was my email; please write your own and send it along. Let's bury them in mail!

Subject: Consider Your Reputations

It's an absolute disgrace that you are not asking the 100% compromised Ms. Gorelick to resign from your panel, and instead to sit as a witness under oath for her part in the 9-11 disaster.

Your commission is becoming a national laughingstock. All of your personal reputations will wind up in the sewer with Ms. Gorelick's if you cannot bring yourselves to demand that she step down.

America is watching this travesty!

Signed

My Real Name,
San Diego

[blackie]

The Clinton administration is the most corrupt in our nation's history!

We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!

~~ Bush/Cheney 2004 ~~

[Gritty]

Thanks.

You keep up the good work!

[js1138]

Don't fall into the trap of being an attack dog yourself. It won't sell.

Your post makes no sense. What are you trying to say?

[The Wizard]

she must step down

[Gritty]

Here is my letter:

Dear Commission Members,

It is obvious to all, and it should be obvious to every one of you, that Jamie Gorelick is hopelessly compromised in her role as a Commission member. She and her policies are is a strategic piece of the mysterious puzzle you are obliged to investigate.

Mrs. Gorelick needs to be brought under oath to testify if you want to get to the bottom of the "who, what, when, where, why and how" of 9/11. The key words here are "if you want to get to the bottom". Otherwise, continue on as a thoroughly discredited body, whitewash this entire sordid mess and fade into the ignominious oblivion you will then deserve.

You have the key to this entire mystery right in your hands, indeed, right within your own company of deliberations. The American People demand a thorough accounting and airing.

I propose six questions for Mrs. Gorelick you can ask, if you can't think of any;

1. Why did you institute the "wall" memorandum?

2. Did you do this on your own initiative, or were you ordered to do so by a superior or superiors?

3. If you were so directed, who ordered it done, what reasons did they give, and did they indicate they were acting on their own or on other direction?

4. If you did this on your own initiative, why?

5. What advice and from whom did you gather it before instituting the final policy?

6. Why did you not take steps to rescind this memorandum when you saw it was inhibiting crucial intelligence collection efforts and terrorist prosecutions?

If you need more questions, I will be happy to oblige.

Get to the bottom of this, and now. Your duty demands it!

A Very Concerned Citizen,

(My Name)
(My city)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[dmzTahoe]

"These procedures, which go beyond what is legally required, will prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that FISA is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation."

The key here is "criminal investigation"".

Clinton created the "wall" and Gorelick strengthened it. The real reason was to impede any investigation into Clinton scandals and crimes (Chinagate, Koreagate, illegal campaign financing...)

Clinton and Gorelick never imagined the problems it would impose with terrorism. It is coming back to bite them in the ass in a way they never imagined.

Now we need an aggressive journalist to investigate, bring down the Clinton machine, and win a Pullitzer.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Now we need an aggressive journalist to investigate, bring down the Clinton machine, and win a Pullitzer get expelled from the community of "objective journalists."

[dmzTahoe]

"Now we need an aggressive journalist to investigate, bring down the Clinton machine, and... get expelled from the community of "objective journalists."

LOL

[Arrowhead1952]

Cy, Check this link to see the memo. This is one of the better threads, but I'll find more.

[jmstein7]

Write a Letter to the Editor DEMANDING Jamie Gorelick's Resignation from the 9/11 Commission

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

LOL

You have a better sense of humor than I . . .