Take THAT, Ashcroft! (WP column by Jamie Gorelick)

[baby_bear]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20786-2004Apr17.html
The Truth About 'the Wall'

By Jamie S. Gorelick
Sunday, April 18, 2004; Page B07

<snip>
At last week's hearing, Attorney General John Ashcroft, facing criticism, asserted that "the single greatest structural cause for September 11 was the wall that segregated criminal investigators and intelligence agents" and that I built that wall through a March 1995 memo. This is simply not true.
...
(N)othing in the 1995 guidelines prevented the sharing of information between criminal and intelligence investigators. Indeed, the guidelines require that FBI foreign intelligence agents share information with criminal investigators and prosecutors whenever they uncover facts suggesting that a crime has been or may be committed. The guidelines did set forth procedures, but those procedures implemented court decisions and, as noted, were reaffirmed by the Ashcroft Justice Department.
...
</snip>

The record has to be set straight. It's too bad the record was not set straight during the hearing while Ashcroft was still there. Instead he stated lies that went unanswered during that hearing.
There is a dreadful LTE in this morning's Seattle P-I that repeats Ashcroft's lies about Gorelick and "the wall," suggesting that the Clinton administration is entirely at fault for 9/11 and owes America an apology.

Lies and more lies, and too many people believe them. Get out the truth, and get out the vote.

s_m

[RainDog]

1. so Ashcroft lied under oath?

then he should be forced to resign, and if the 9-11 Commission means anything, it better make sure that it's findings include the finding that Ashcroft lied under oath.

In fact, there should be an ongoing investigation as to whether or not Bush lied to Congress about the invasion of Iraq as well.

And since it is already known that he did lie under oath, he should be impeached.

And because those lies mean that the U.S. invaded a nation which was not threatening us, Cheney, Bush, Rice, Wolfowitz, Perle, Rumsfield, Feith, Powell, and a host of lesser neocons should be tried as war criminals.

[sjgman9]

5. As much as id like ashcroft to resign

I dont think it will ever happen. I'll just wait until November

[Shadowen]

2. Part of what he said was true.

There is no wall *preventing* them from working together, but management strongly disinclines the agents on either side to do so, and has for a long time. A combination of paranoia and not wanting to share credit, methinks. Not necessarily the worst traits among criminal investigators and (especially) intelligence agents, but still...

Ashcroft becoming Attorney General is one of the dumbest things Bush has done at home, and that's saying a lot.

[0007]

3. Now if the freepers will read this statement and accept the truth

for what it is, not what they want it to be.

Ashcroft must be embarrassed by now.

[Hand]

4. Hate to disappoint you...

But freepers can't HANDLE the truth, and Ashcroft has a giant, pious vacuum where normal sentient beings have a conscience.

It's up to us, not them.