From a spanking I laid on a freeper "moran".
Download a copy of the memo and check it out.
Freeper bellowed:
>The real problem was the law that forbade the CIA and FBI and
>other intelligence agencies from sharing information with one >another. Guess who instituted this law?
The wall.
In testimony to the Sept. 11 Commission on April 13th Attorney General John Ashcroft stated:
"Government erected this wall, government buttressed this wall. And before September 11, government was blinded by this wall."
What wall? He was refering to this memo "Instructions on Separation of Certain Foreign Counterintelligence and Criminal Investigations" written by then- Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick. Here is the memo:
http://www.justice.gov/ag/testimony/2004/1995_gorelick_memo.pdfThis memo sought to prevent intelligence gathered abroad, sometimes in ways extra-constitutional, from contaminating evidence in domestic criminal prosecutions, which might cause a mistrial or a reversal on a technicality. It did not effect intelligence from moving the other way. In effect a legal safety valve, one that had been understood for many years. The memo was written as a reminder and specifically mentioned the case "United States v. Rahman, et al" The memo states:
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 a compelling need to further develop and expand that foreign counterintelligence information. Consequently, the FBI has
initiated a separate full field counterintelligence investigation. Although the counterintelligence investigation may result in the incidental collection of information relevant to possible
future criminal prosecutions, the primary purpose of the counter-intelligence investigation will be to collect foreign
counterintelligence information. Because the counterintelligence investigation will involve the use of surveillance techniques
authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) against targets that, in some instances, had been subject to
surveillance under Title III, and because it will involve some of the same sources and targets as the criminal investigation, we
believe that it is prudent to establish a set of instructions that will clearly separate the counterintelligence investigation
from the more limited, but continued, criminal investigations.
So, during the investigation of the World Trade Center bombing, investigators began to unravel a world-wide terrorist conspiracy. They began to see the need for increased intelligence-seeking and the need for an expansion of the investigation beyond that required for the criminal prosecution. This widened investigation would develop intelligence for the identification of other terrorist operatives and cells, help identify "home bases' and perhaps prevent future plots and attacks. Investigators were to use Fisa warrants for surveillance of possible terrorist suspects. Clinton later expanded FISA to include wiretapping and physical searches.
The memo then does not hinder the investigations of terrorist or their plots, but rather moves the counter-terrorism investigations from the realm of judicial warrants, which must meet criminal standards, to the FISA - which must meet a different, and lower, set of standards. Under the law as it was then applied, this meant that FISA rulings could be classified, and thus immune from Freedom of Information requests. Thus, intelligence gathered with FISA warrants could be kept secret. Damn smart.
By moving intelligence gathering to FISA, the effect of the "wall" was to increase, not decrease the ability of the FBI to secure warrants for wiretaps and searches.
Naturally, intelligence that is gathered with a method that does not meet the judicial standards should not be used in criminal prosecutions. If it were to be directly injected in a domestic criminal proceeding, the result could be a mistrial. An oversight step was established to handle the dissemination of intelligence to criminal prosecution personnel. The memo made sure that the World Trade Center bombers didn't get let off because the FBI or the CIA cut corners.
Now, a Deputy Attorney General wrote this memo. If, when assuming office Attorney General Ashcroft was troubled by the memo, he could have changed it. He had that authority. He did not change it. He did propose in his Sept. 10 2001 budget request to reduce supplemental funding of counter-terrorism. He did ignore the FBI's request for $58 million for 149 additional field agents, 200 intelligence analysts and 54 translators to deal with the huge backlog of intelligence data. He did fail to list counter-terrorism in his May 10, 2001 memo of top priorities for the Department of Justice. He did curtail the support for the issuing of FISA warrants (perhaps most notably in the Moussaoui case). He did purchase a whole lot of blue curtain material.
It's no wonder why Attorney General Ashcroft might now, after Sept. 11th, lie to cover his ass.
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