THE CRIME:

Jamie Gorelick had been at the heart of developing a policy that inhibited the discovery and pursuit of terrorists. Jamie Gorelick had been a prime player in helping to create some of those vulnerabilities.

(As stated by former Attorney General John Ashcroft, under oath, to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, more popularly known as the  9/11 Commission. John Ashcroft, Never Again: Securing America and Restoring Justice, Center Street- Hachette Book Group USA, 2006, pg. 245-6)

The single greatest structural cause for September 11 was the wall that segregated criminal investigators and intelligence agents.  Government erected this wall. Government buttressed this wall. And before September 11, government was blinded by this wall.

In the days before September 11, the wall specifically impeded the investigation of into Zacarias Moussaoui, Kalid al-Mihdhar, and Nawaf al-Hazmi.  After the FBI arrested Moussaoui, agents became suspicious of his interest in commercial aircraft and sough approval for a criminal warrant to search his computer.  The warrant was rejected because FBI officials feared breaching the wall.

When the CIA finally told the FBI that al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were in the country in late August, agents in New York searched for suspects. But because of the Wall, FBI headquarters refused to allow criminal investigators who knew the most about the most recent al Qaeda attack to join the hunt for the suspected terrorists.

At that time, a frustrated FBI investigator wrote to Headqaurters, “Whatever has happened to this-someday someone will die- and wall or not-the public will not understand why we were not more effective in throwing every resource we had at certain ‘problems.’ Let’s hope National Security Law Unit will stand behind their decision then, especially since the biggest threat to us, UBL, is getting the most protection.

FBI headquarters responded, “We’re frustrated with this issue…These are the rules. NSLU does not make them up.”

But somebody did make these rules.  Somebody built this wall [former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, see below].

The basic architecture for the wall in the 1995 Guidelines was contained in a classified memorandum entitled “Instructions on Separation of Certain Foreign Counterintelligence and Criminal Investigations.” The memorandum ordered FBI Director Louis Freeh and others, “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.”

This memorandum established a wall separating the criminal and intelligence investigations following the 1993 World Trade Center attack.  The largest international terrorism attack on American soil prior to September 11.  Although you understand the debilitating impact of the wall, I cannot imagine 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 the author is a member of the 9/11 Commission.


THE BACKGROUND:

In the decades prior to 9/11, the U.S. Congress and Department off Justice officials had designed a system that actually made it more difficult for our nation to protect itself against terrorism.  Indeed, it was a tragedy waiting to happen, a system destined to fail.

As recently as 1995, the Justice Department had arduously augmented the separation of law enforcement and intelligence agents, strengthening and reinforcing the “wall” between the two groups charged with the responsibility of keeping our nation secure. For example, prosecutors- who had the power to take potential terrorists off the streets – were generally restricted in their ability to communicate with or receive information from intelligence officials who were keeping terrorists under surveillance. It wasn’t simply that the CIA could not share information with the FBI or the military; the FBI intelligence division could not even freely share information with the criminal arm of the Bureau. Ostensibly, this dividing “wall” was put in place in an effort to make sure that various agencies didn’t taint evidence that later be used in court to prosecute effectively cases involving foreign intelligence gathering. But Justice officials kept raising the invisible wall higher and higher.

John Ashcroft, Never Again: Securing America and Restoring Justice, Center Street- Hachette Book Group USA, 2006, pg. 144

THE CRIMINAL COMPLAINT:

Jamie Gorelick had been at the heart of developing a policy that inhibited the discovery and pursuit of terrorists. Jamie Gorelick had been a prime player in helping to create some of those vulnerabilities.


THE EVIDENCE:

Jamie Gorelick served as deputy attorney general under Attorney General Janet Reno during the Clinton Administration.  A Bright, articulate woman who left the Justice Department in 1997, Gorelick was working the private sector prior to being tapped by Democrats to serve on the 9/11 commission…Even most Republicans considered her a logical choice to be included on the commission.  But Jamie Gorelick knew something the other members of the commission either didn’t know or ad chosen to ignore.

In 1995, Jamie Gorelick wrote a memo in which the justice department reinforced and heightened “the wall” inhibiting communication between criminal investigators and intelligence officers investigating terrorists.   The idea of the “wall” originally followed the enactment of the Foreign Intelligence a Surveillance Act of 1978. The deputy attorney generals memo raised the wall higher than the law required.  The wall impeded our law enforcement and intelligence agents from sharing the vital information that might have led them to hijackers before the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Knowing this, one might wonder how Jamie Gorelick could fairly serve on the commission. The answer was simple: her memo was classified.  Few people knew that Gorelick had actually caused information not to be shared between intelligence and law enforcement agents.

In the 1995 Memo, classified as SECRET and addressed to U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, FBI Director Louis Freeh, Richard Scruggs of the Council of Intelligence Policy and Review and Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Jo Ann Harris, regarding the investigation and prosecution of terrorists involved in the 1993 World trade Center Bombing  cases and others, Gorelick wrote:

“During the course of those investigations, significant counterintelligence information has been developed related to the activities and plans of agents of foreign powers operating in this country and overseas, including previously unknown connections between separate terrorist groups, Although information and evidence relevant to possible future criminal prosecutions is still being sought, it has become overwhelmingly apparent that there is compelling need to further develop and expand that foreign counterintelligence information. Consequently, the FBI, has initiated a separate full filed counterintelligence investigation.”

Clearly, The deputy Attorney general understood that potential terrorist groups existed within the Untied States, maintaining connections with other terrorist groups abroad. Yet She felt compelled to raise the wall higher.

“Because the counterintelligence investigation will involve the use of surveillance techniques authorized under the FISA against targets that, in some instances had been subject to surveillance under Title 3, and because it will involves some of the same sources and targets as the criminal investigation, we believe that it is prudent to establish a set of instructions hat will 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 and unwarranted appearance that FISA is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation.”

In theory, the memo’s enhancement of “the wall” was supposed to help avoid legal challenges to terror prosecutions. But with the simple phrase “which go beyond what is legally required,” the memo acknowledged that this enhancement of the wall was not necessary.

Mary Jo White (a fellow Clinton appointee and U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York) knew what the risks were…White recognized that “the wall” made it more difficult to disrupt and stop terrorist attacks.  In a memo responding to Jamie Gorelick’s instructions, White pleaded with the deputy attorney general to tear down the wall between intelligence and prosecutors. “This is not an area where it is safe or prudent to build un-necessary walls,” White cautioned, “or to compartmentalize our knowledge of any possible players, plans or activities.”

In an almost prescient warning, Mary Joe White stated bluntly the reason for her concerns:

“The single biggest mistake we can make in attempting to combat terrorism is to insulate the criminal side of the house from the intelligence side of the house…Excessive conservatism…can have deadly results.”

She added:  “We must face the reality that the way we are proceeding now is inherently and in actuality very dangerous.”

Enlisting the help of her team, U.S. Attorney White presented (to Attorney General Janet Reno) six pages of detailed reasons why it was a mistake to create too much of a wall between intelligence ad prosecutions. White forwarded that analysis to Gorelick and added her own notes.  “What troubles me even more than problems we have encountered,” Mary Joe White revealed, “are the undoubtedly countless instances of unshared and unacted upon information that reside in some file or other, or in some head or other, or in some unreviewed or not fully understood tape or other.” She concluded, “these can be disasters waiting to happen.”

Unfortunately, no one in the Clinton Justice Department acted on their career prosecutor’s warning.

John Ashcroft, Never Again: Securing America and Restoring Justice, Center Street- Hachette Book Group USA, 2006, pg. 236-240

THE KEY QUESTIONS:

1) WHERE WAS ERIC HOLDER WHILE THE WALL WAS BEING BUILT?

2) WHERE WAS THE MEDIA WHEN ASHCROFT’S BOOK CAME OUT?

3) WHERE WAS THE OUTRAGE WHEN ASHCROFT TESTIFIED WITH THIS EXPLOSIVE MATERIAL?

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