WP: Gorelick Defends Information-Sharing Policies

[DeepModem Mom]

Gorelick Defends Information-Sharing Policies

By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 18, 2004; Page A09


Jamie S. Gorelick, the embattled Sept. 11 commission member who served as a deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration, fired back at critics who said she erected the "wall" between the FBI and the CIA that kept them from sharing intelligence and possibly from doing more to prevent the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In an opinion piece written for today's Washington Post, Gorelick says that a memo she wrote in March 1995 about information sharing between the two agencies "permits freer coordination between intelligence and criminal investigators than was subsequently permitted" by two other guidelines.

Gorelick's opinion comes five days after Attorney General John D. Ashcroft partly blamed the 2001 attacks on her memo during his testimony before the commission, and four days after Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) called on Gorelick to resign, citing "an inherent conflict of interest."...

***

But Gorelick, like other researchers, traced the statutes limiting intelligence sharing to the administrations of former Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in the 1980s. Under those presidents, intelligence sharing was permitted for spying on foreign suspects, but not criminal prosecutions.

Later, former attorney general Janet Reno issued guidelines on how information could be shared. "The point was to preserve the ability of prosecutors to use information collected by intelligence agents," Gorelick wrote.

(Gorelick also argues that deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, in an August 6, 2001 memo, "upheld the guidelines in her own.")


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20691-2004Apr17.html

[freetobegay]

1. The blame game in Washington D.C.

Has really become an art!

[Isere]

2. Here's the link to Gorelick's piece:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20786-2004Apr17.html

It is well worth the read. Gorelick is now the victim of a witch hunt by the right. Limbaugh is one of the ringleaders in the "get Jamie" campaign. It is all so sick!

[robbedvoter]

3. "The Wall" is now the slogan for "keep Patriot Act"

From a local Buffalo paper re: W's visit to push Patriot Act:
snip

Bush has been urging Congress to renew 16 key sections of the controversial post-9/11 law that are due to expire at the end of next year. They deal with roving wiretaps and broadening the government's powers to keep possible terrorists under surveillance.
snip
Support for renewal of existing parts of the Patriot Act may grow in the wake of hearings by the 9/11 commission in which many witnesses complained the government was late in dealing with al-Qaida because of a "wall" that barred the Central Intelligence Agency from sharing data with the FBI.

The act removed part of that wall. However, many civil libertarians fear the president will not only ask for renewal of the existing law but will back new proposals that Attorney General John H. Ashcroft has advanced.

Ashcroft wants Congress to allow judges to deny bail for terrorism defendants and permit federal agents to use "administrative" supoenas for search and seizure, which don't need prior sanction from a judge.


Washington Bureau assistant Matthew Kibler contributed to this report.


e-mail: [e-mail]
I already e-mailed the author - I suggest we organize ourselves to spread the truth on this - because Ascrack's lie is spreading like the hatred of france through the wingnut sewers. It's no less important than opposing the war.
I would hope kerry will address it as well

[DBoon]

4. No domestic spy agency!

Isn't this what the cold war was about - putting the KGB and the Stasi out of business?