Selecting Gorelick to 9/11 Commission

Back in April 2004, before the world knew of Able Danger and spoke of walls of separation, Byron York wrote about Gorelick, the wall of separation, and includes some information on how Gorelick was chosen for the Commission.

When Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D., S.D.) and then-House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D., Mo.) selected Gorelick for the committee in December 2002, Gephardt said, of her and the other Democrats chosen for the job, "I can think of no individuals better suited to work on this project than the people we have announced today."

The Daschle-Gephardt announcement also noted that Gorelick had, since 1997, been a member of the National Security Advisory Panel at the CIA.

Gorelick was also, of course, the No. 2 official in the Janet Reno Justice Department in the mid-1990s. And, though few remember it now, she was at one time on Bill Clinton's short list to nominate as CIA director.

National Security Adviser Anthony Lake eventually got the nod, then dropped out after a contentious nomination fight. Tenet ultimately got the job.

At the Justice Department, Gorelick did a lot of work on the terrorism issue.

When she left, the department put out a press release saying, "One of Ms. Gorelick's principal priorities was to help prepare the Justice Department to be able to respond effectively to the new challenges of transnational crime and terrorism. To do this, she forged new relationships and administrative protocols with the Departments of State, Treasury and Defense, and with the intelligence community."

Republicans criticizing Gorelick's selection for the commission have focused on what is now called the Wall — that is, the traditional barrier separating law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

It was the Wall that made it so difficult — nearly impossible, actually — for the agencies to share information about the Sept. 11 hijackers, which might have allowed the government to break up the plot.

In his testimony before the commission, Attorney General John Ashcroft charged that Gorelick, during her time at Justice, had made the Wall higher.

Maybe she did — and maybe she didn't.

York goes on to comment that Gorelick and her supporters claim that she tried lowering the wall of separation though the reality is that she did nothing to lower the wall and may have significantly raised it. Further, he notes that the Commission could have included Max Cleland but for his accepting a job elsewhere.

How does all this weave together with Able Danger? Well, Gorelick should not have been on the Commission in the first place given her role in developing those policies under scrutiny. Now, one could argue that no one was more qualified to be on the Commission because of her intimiate knowledge of the subject matter, that is a double edged sword because she could frame questions to shield uncomfortable facts from seeing daylight, and could influence other panel members. Many criticized her selection when it was first announced, and the Able Danger revelations reinforce and amplify that criticism.