Ace of Spades HQ

« (Parody) Country Joe & the Fish To Join Cindy Sheehan in Crawford "Grief-In" | Main | Off Topic: Family Guy Is Really Funny »

August 12, 2005

Able Danger: Background On The Gorelick Wall

Andrew McCarthy (Class, Wild Horses) bugs his eyes out on the verge of tears over Gorelicks's absurd defense of her policy, and the Commission's refusal to call her as a witness.

The wall generally forbidding intelligence agents from communicating with their criminal counterparts was a suicidally excessive way to ensure that what little information intelligence agents were permitted to pass would be admissible in court. This is the product of a mindset that insists, beyond all reason and common sense, that terrorism is just a law-enforcement problem. The object of a rational counterterrorism approach is to prevent mass murder from happening in the first place, not to improve your litigating posture for the indictment you return after thousands of people have been slaughtered.

Ummm... what Blaine said.

For the more conspiratorially-minded, some speculation that the Gorelick Wall helped Clinton by preventing intelligence sharing in the Chicom Donations scandal.

Now, I don't usually buy those triple-bank-shot "who benefits?" sort of Internet Detective manifestos. But I guess if the other side can scream Halliburton, Halliburton 24/7, I can at least post that link, while noting my skepticism about the theory.

Much more likely it was the usual liberal urge to overprotect civil liberties at work. There is certainly some benefit to that urge -- protecting civil liberties at the expense of state power is not exactly a crazy idea, after all; a lot of conservatives agree with that idea in principle -- but, with the clear and very present danger of Al Qaeda operatives attempting to blow up the WTC (remember? first happened in 1993? ring any bells), perhaps this wasn't the best time to so severely choke off interagency communication.

As Burke from Aliens would say, "It was a bad call, Ripley."

Thanks to Sue Donhim.

posted by Ace at 02:27 PM

Comments

Able danger! Able danger! ABLE DANGER!!

Admit it, Ace: you just like how it sounds.

Posted by: Monty on August 12, 2005 02:37 PM

There was a good interview on the Laura Ingraham radio show today about Able Danger.

Posted by: Justin on August 12, 2005 02:38 PM

The ACLU is continuing to argue against all data mining techniques by the government.

That said, if Gorelick is actually proud of putting this wall up, then she shouldn't have any problem standing before a Congressional committee to defend her actions under oath. I'd like to hear her rationale for expanding the wall, when FISA permits the kind of interaction betwen agencies that would have let DoD share the information with law enforcement.

Posted by: lawhawk on August 12, 2005 02:43 PM

Woohoo! Thanks for the hat tip, Ace. My first ever! If you don't count those two honorable mentions on Wizbang's caption contests anyway.

Aaaaaaaaaable Daaaaaaaaaaaaanger!

Posted by: Sue Dohnim on August 12, 2005 02:52 PM

Jordan's piece merely notes a coincidence in timing between Chinagate and the wall memo. More than that is needed for this to become really combustible.

Posted by: quiggs on August 12, 2005 04:24 PM

All I have is Google and an addled brain. And Megan hitting on me. If only she'd fix dinner for my husband and kids, I might be able to break this AAAAABLE DAAAAAAAAAANGER thing wide open.

Posted by: Sue Dohnim on August 12, 2005 04:35 PM

This is kinda spooky - my middle name is Danger.

Posted by: John from WuzzaDem on August 12, 2005 04:58 PM

I just remembered - I have Barbara Olsen's Hell To Pay at home. I think I'll browse through it tonight and post any substantial goodies I can find about possible Chinagate-Gorelick's Wall connections.

Hopefully my spelling, grammar, and logic won't be too atrocious after a little wine.

Posted by: Sue Dohnim on August 12, 2005 05:09 PM

A bad call? A bad call?!?!

THESE PEOPLE ARE DEAD, BURKE!

Posted by: Steve in Houston on August 12, 2005 05:57 PM

How could I have been so blind? I have just found something that is going to rock, rock the foundations of this country. The link that could destroy the legacies of two, two Presidential administrations. A conspiracy the likes of which the world has never seen.

Jamie Gorelick. Her initials are exactly the same as Jeff Gannon! And James Guckert!

Do you know what this means? Do you? This means that... wait, I hear somet

Posted by: Sue Dohnim on August 12, 2005 07:58 PM

Oh dear.

Somebody call Oliver Stone.

Posted by: lauraw on August 12, 2005 08:16 PM

Clintons were advised by 'defense laywers'

Bush is advised by 'district attorneys'

Which set of advisors protect 'victims' ??

Posted by: Marvin on August 12, 2005 09:36 PM

Uh, those would be the Marines.

Ex post facto, unfortunately.

Posted by: lauraw on August 12, 2005 10:17 PM

If you need "protection" don't call a lawyer - they only show up for the legal post-mortem after you've been squashed like roadkill baking in the hot Texas sun.

Posted by: on August 13, 2005 05:17 AM