This from James Sensenbrenner:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.) released the following statement:
“Yesterday, a 1995 memo written by 9/11 Commission Member Jamie Gorelick, in her former role as the second in command at the Justice Department, revealed her actions in establishing the heightened ‘wall’ prohibiting the sharing of intelligence information and criminal information. Scrutiny of this policy lies at the heart of the Commission’s work. Ms. Gorelick has an inherent conflict of interest as the author of this memo and as a government official at the center of the events in questions. Thus, I believe the Commission’s work and independence will be fatally damaged by the continued participation of Ms. Gorelick as a Commissioner. Reluctantly, I have come to the conclusion that Ms. Gorelick should resign from this Commission.
“The Commission’s Guidelines on Recusals state, ‘Commissioners and staff will recuse themselves from investigating work they performed in prior government service.’ Commissioner Gorelick’s memo directing a policy that ‘go[es] beyond what is legally required’ indicates that her judgment and actions as the Deputy Attorney General in the Reno Justice Department are very much in question before the Commission. Indeed Attorney General Ashcroft called this DOJ policy, ‘the single greatest structural cause for September 11 … [and] embraced flawed legal reasoning.’ Commissioner Gorelick is in the unfair position of trying to address the key issue before the Commission when her own actions are central to the events at issue. The public cannot help but ask legitimate questions about her motives.
In a related vein, the usual suspects (check the comments- the meme will spread and I will find it later when it catches on) are already spinning the Gorelick memo as ‘nothing more than codifying already existing policy.’
Fine- I am glad the Democrats are now on record admitting that their first response after the WTC bombings in 1993 was to work to codify a policy that makes pre-emption of terrorist attacks more difficult. I am glad they have decided to go on record with that gem.
Peter
Jamie Gorelick’s culpability in creating the barrier within the FBI that made catching terrorists impossible is the real finding of the 9/11 commission. They can now publish their findings, point the finger at Gorelick, and go home.
What a brazen slut.
Terry
Has anyone in the media asked her to apologize for 9/11?
Billy Hank
IIRC, shortly after 9/11 Gorelick was quoted as saying something to the effect that the Clinton administration has made some grave mistakes. I thought it was in an article quoting Sandy Berger saying approximately the same thing. Dan’t find it now.
JKC
Gorelick may indeed bear some responsibility for poor interagency communication, but before some of you on the right get your underpants all sticky, remember that the FBI ignored Colleen Rowley- an FBI agent. I don’t think you can blame THAT on Gorelick.
shark
Maybe she’s smiling that creepy smile of hers because she knows the media bootlicks will continue to give her a free pass on the issue…
CadillaqJaq
Apparently at 6:12pm today the Chair of the 9/11 Commission is giving her a pass too.
(we can’t rile the leftists you know.) Kudos to Ashcroft!
Mark L
CadilaqJaq, did you notice *why* he gave her a pass? Because she was the hardest-working member of the commission. Yep, you have to be hard-working to slap on all of the whitewash she needs to cover over her culpability. And, I cannot think of *anyone* who would be more motivated to work hard than someone that stepped in it as deep as Gorelick has.
(We’re going to brush, brush, brush . . . )
narciso
So she sabotages the FBI & CIA in their intelligence work; in a sign
that showed she clearly did not understand the issues of the first
WTC bombing (such as the question of the waived visa for the sheik in Khartroum) now she scapegoats
everybody else. And she will leave
this job to be the flack for Mohammed Al Faisal; chairman of the
Islamic Banking Association; one of
the key defendants in the pending
9-11 litigation; from her perch at
Cutler & Pickering. Of course, if
Gorelick were to resign; it would
cast doubt on the impartiality of
Committee Chair Kean; former board
member of Amerada Hess; which in turn was in partnership with Saudi
Delta Oil;as recent as two years
ago; whose board includes two of the other 9-11 defendants; Bin Mahfouz & Alamoudi
cathy
Gorelick’s resignation would be completely inadequate. The fundamental task of the Commission is to answer 4 questions about the government’s policies before 9/11:
1) what did we do wrong?
2) what did we do right?
3) have we stopped doing the things we did wrong?
4) have we kept doing the things that we did right?
There is very strong evidence that Gorelick was directly responsible for policies which caused the government to do some of the wrong things that were done, and caused the government to stop doing some of the right things that they had been doing before she got there. She has been a member of this Commission for months and months and months now. The entire Commission must now recuse themselves from the entirety of their task because of their close association with and friendship with someone who appears to have played a role in allowing 9/11 to happen.
Forget demanding Gorelick’s resignation. The entire Commission must resign. This has gone far past a situation where the Commission has politicized the “investigation” to get George Bush. It has now become obvious that this whole charade is simply a cover-up of a Commission member’s actions as deputy AG which made it easier for 9/11 to happen. If the Commission is allowed to continue to falsify the lessons of 9/11 in order to protect the careers and reputations of their friends, then it will make it easier for the next terrorist attack to succeed.
Fabius
Think about this a little more. You do realize that FBI – CIA rivalry predates anything Gorelick (there must be somebody in the blogoshere having a field day with this name). And when people don’t know what the rules are it’s a good thing when somebody sorts it out for them. These rules, codified or not, do need to be debated. We can do that without the unsightly image of the Bush administration trying to hide behind Gorelick’s skirts.
black tgirls
Isso fede – This stinks