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| Ashcroft nails Clintonite |
| 2004-04-14 |
| EFL one of the Anon crowd posted the transcript that included Ashcroft’s grenade late yesterday. I think it will cause a stir on talk radio and should be picked up by Fox. I guess we’ll see. 9-11 Commission member Jamie Gorelick wrote a 1995 memo that established a "wall" between the criminal and intelligence divisions, hindering the ability of the U.S. government to detect the Sept. 11, 2001, plot, according to testimony today by Attorney General John Ashcroft. The document by Gorelick, who served as deputy attorney general under President Clinton, helped establish the "single greatest structural cause" for Sept. 11, which was "the wall that segregated criminal investigators and intelligence agents," Ashcroft said in his prepared statement Gorelick was a Democratic appointee to the commission probing how the government handled the threat to terrorism leading to the 9-11 attacks. "Government erected this wall," Ashcroft said. "Government buttressed this wall. And before September 11, government was blinded by this wall." The attorney general, who declassified the document for the commission, said he believed panel members were not aware of it, even though it was written by one of their own. "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," he said. "Full disclosure compels me to inform you that its author is a member of this commission." The memo, entitled "Instructions on Separation of Certain Foreign Counterintelligence and Criminal Investigations," contained orders to FBI Director Louis Freeh and others. It said: "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 FISA is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation." -snip- repeat of Ashcroft sttements from yesterday’s post linked above. The Landmark Legal Foundation, a national public interest law firm, has formally requested that Gorelick step down from the commission because she is "hopelessly conflicted" in her role as a member. The group, headed by Mark Levin, contends there are "numerous issues about which she has knowledge" resulting from her service as deputy attorney general from 1994 to 1997. As the second most powerful Justice official, Landmark notes, Gorelick oversaw the management, budget and policy objectives of the department, including the FBI, which are a key focus of the commission. Gorelick recused herself from testimony today by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, but Landmark said this is no substitute for her testimony. "Moreover, as a commission member," the group said, "Ms. Gorelick will have input into the commission’s findings, including those related to areas involving her past role. If Ms. Gorelick does not immediately step aside, many in the public will undoubtedly conclude that the commission’s work has been compromised." As an example, Landmark quotes former Chief Assistant United States Attorney Andrew C. McCarthy, who said Gorelick was "an architect of the government’s self-imposed procedural wall, intentionally erected to prevent intelligence agents from pooling information with their law-enforcement counterparts." McCarthy stated in a National Review column Gorelick was "committed to the bitter end to the law enforcement mindset" of addressing terrorism. Writing in National Review Online, Ethan Wallison, notes during questioning of National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Gorelick pointed to a report from 2001 that indicated, in her own words, that "we have big systemic problems. The FBI doesn’t work the way it should, and it doesn’t communicate with the intelligence community." In the ensuing dialogue, however, Rice apparently implicated Gorelick in the allegation. Gorelick: Now, you have said that your policy review was meant to be comprehensive. You took your time because you wanted to get at the hard issues and have a hard-hitting, comprehensive policy. And yet there is nothing in [the policy review] about the vast domestic landscape that we were all warned needed so much attention. Can you give me the answer to the question why? Rice: I would ask the following. We were there for 233 days. There had been a recognition for a number of years before – after the ’93 [World Trade Center] bombing, and certainly after the [thwarted] millennium [attack in Los Angeles] – that there were challenges inside the United States, and that there were challenges concerning our domestic agencies and the challenges concerning the FBI and the CIA. We were in office 233 days. It’s absolutely the case that we did not begin structural reform at the FBI. Popcorn please. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #7 Hey Super Hose. No didn't, but followed up, thnx. I would still like to see homeland security put under the UMCJ with the Coast Guard finally becoming a true military force. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-04-14 11:40:26 PM |
| #6 [utters sympathetic groan for Gorelick, sounding exactly like what would be uttered upon seeing a male sports figure taking a hit on the cajones. Or being asked to get circumcised after the age of 30...] |
| Posted by: Ptah 2004-04-14 12:25:45 PM |
| #5 Anon, it was a good catch. I hope it has legs. Here is a taste of the reaction from another link that was titled Gorelick Licked: Not only did Ashcroft add to the growing pressure on Gorelick to testify before the commission rather than serve on it, specifically about what she and the administration she served failed to do about terrorism. Above all, he discredited her in the eyes of her fellow commissioners. Clearly she had never informed them of this memorandum. Now they were caught by surprise and made to look foolish. One could detect the power of Ashcroft's bombshell in the subsequent questioning. Richard Ben-Veniste's edge turned to smarm. He greeted the two surprise guests who had accompanied Ashcroft to the hearing, his respected former deputy Larry Thompson and Solicitor General Ted Olson. Ben-Veniste referred to him as "Mr. Olson," and offered renewed condolences on the death of Barbara Olson on 9/11. With Olson on Ashcroft's side, there was no way he could look bad. Ben-Veniste's only pointed question proved an embarrassment, repeating as it did morning press stories fed by Democrat leaks to the effect that Ashcroft would be asked about why he had started flying in government planes and not commercially before 9/11. When Ashcroft replied that all his personal flying had continued to be done commercially, as was his wife's, Ben-Veniste was left red-faced, grasping at a dwindling number of straws. But he couldn't have been more red-faced than Gorelick. Initially she tried mouthing denials to fellow commissioners that she was author of the memo. But when a copy was handed to her, listing her as initialed author, she had nowhere to hide. Her round of questions came last. Unlike Bob Kerrey, say, who was cordial with Ashcroft and even said it was good to see the AG "on the mend" after his recent hospitalization and operation, Gorelick established no human contact during her half-hearted queries -- none of which engaged the central point of Ashcroft's opening statement. The Democrats wanted to play hardball, but ended up clubbed on the head themselves. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-04-14 12:14:48 PM |
| #4 As the "Anon" who posted this yesterday, I just wanted to get some more input from the world, and give the Atty General a few kudos! There are all kinds of PDBs, and various and sundry extraneous acronyms for reecyclable paper. In fact some career bureaucrats put out so many memos and directives they forget even the important ones which should have a bearing on one position in a future commission. Hmm... |
| Posted by: Anonymous4052 2004-04-14 11:22:12 AM |
| #3 Kucky, I posted an article late concerning Trilogy. Did you get a chance to look at it? |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-04-14 3:51:20 AM |
| #2 McCarthy stated in a National Review column Gorelick was "committed to the bitter end to the law enforcement mindset" of addressing terrorism. Stuff in the National Review will make it into radio talk and Drudge had an article from CNN that gave the Gorelick memo a paragraph or so in a two page article. It's hard to say whether it will fly. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-04-14 3:30:38 AM |
| #1 I missed this today. After watching the blame game going on in the press I wonder how much of this gets out. Problem is, that it's not a big story when a hack is compared to a president. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-04-14 1:40:51 AM |