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Old 04-14-2004, 12:13 AM   #1387
Not Me
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9/11 is Gorelick's fault for setting up "the wall"

Quote:
Originally posted by Shape Shifter
Ashcroft's statement was absurd on its face. Are you saying there were no covert snatches under Clinton (this one's yours, Hank. Go to town)? Mir Amal Kansi may disagree with you if you say there were none.
Did you even read the quote I posted from the NYT? It was about the wall between law enforcement and intelligence agencies (put in place in 1995) and how that impeded the transfer of information inter-agency (something many people think hurt our ability to protect ourselves from terrorists). Stay on point.

Quote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/p...03ff212&ei=5062

Why is Gorelick on this panel?!?!? Hardly unbiased.

I would say the Patriot Act has a good chance of being renewed.
  • NYT quote: Mr. Ashcroft said that to the contrary, he personally went to the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, on March 7, 2001, and urged her to scuttle what he characterized as an ineffective policy of the Clinton administration specifying that Mr. bin Laden had to be captured, and only in a way that lawyers would approve.

    "Even if they could have penetrated bin Laden's training camp, they would have needed a battery of attorneys to approve the capture," Mr. Ashcroft said sarcastically.

    Mr. Ashcroft said that he wanted "decisive, lethal action" and had told Ms. Rice, "We should find and kill bin Laden."

    The attorney general sounded almost contemptuous as he spoke of a "legal wall" put into effect in 1995 to separate criminal investigators from intelligence agents in an effort to safeguard individual rights.

    Far from protecting individual rights, Mr. Ashcroft asserted, the wall has been an obstacle to protecting the American people.

    Referring to the 1995 document that constructed the figurative wall, Mr. Ashcroft went on to say, "Full disclosure compels me to inform you that the author of this memorandum is a member of the commission."

    Mr. Ashcroft was a referring to Jamie Gorelick, a Democratic member of the independent, bipartisan, 10-member commission, who was deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration.

    Under questioning, Mr. Ashcroft said he differed with former Attorney General Janet Reno, who testified earlier today that the so-called wall did not, in fact, bar the sharing "the vast majority of counterterrorism information."

    "No," Mr. Ashcroft said firmly. "I believe that the understanding of the wall that was prevalent in the Justice Department and among attorneys was that individuals who shared information from a criminal file or from an intelligence file to a criminal file might be subject to serious discipline."

    Eventually, court rulings and the passage of the "Patriot Act" in 2001, after Sept. 11, effectively lowered the wall — but that was too late, Mr. Ashcroft said.
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