Meet Jamie Gorelick-9-11 and Fannie Mae

If you don't know the name Jamie Gorelick, you should. This mover and shaker in Democratic circles has shown up in two major American disasters since the 1990s (9-11and now Fannie Mae). And how she has moved and shaken!

Gorelick, in case you didn't know, was a political appointee to the position of Deputy Attorney General (number 2 position) under the incompetent Janet Reno during the Clinton Administration. In fact, she was the eminance gris behind the scenes.

In 1995, Gorelick authored a memo to then-FBI Director Louis Freeh and then US Attoney for the Southern District of New York, Mary Jo White that, in effect, set up a (pre-Patriot Act) wall separating the exchange of information between the FBI and intelligence agencies, principally the CIA. This came in the wake of the 1993 attack of the World Trade Center. After 9-11, the memo and resulting policy were blamed in part for the break-down of terrorist investigations that led to 9-11 happening. It was specifically blamed for the delay in arresting Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker" and possibly uncovering the 9-11 plot.


"We believe that it is prudent to establish a set of instructions that will more clearly separate the counterintelligence investigation from the more limited, but continued, criminal investigations. These procedures, which go beyond what is legally required, will prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that FISA is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation" (Gorelick memo dated March 4, 1995 entitled; Instructions on Separation of Certain Foreign Counter Intelligence and Criminal Investigations)

This memo, in effect created additional barriers between agencies than had already existed under the 1978 FISA Act.

So, one would have thought that Gorelick would have been a prime candidate for subpoena when the 9-11 Commission hearings got under way. Think again. Instead of being called to testify under oath as to her prominent role in handcuffing the agencies tasked with countering terrorism against the US, Gorelick was actually appointed as a 9-11 Commissioner!

This appointment was almost tantamount to appointing Hermann Goering to a judgeship on the Nuremberg Tribunal. In legal terms, this would be called a "Conflict of Interest".

Many voices were raised as to the irony of Gorelick serving on the Commission instead of being a subpoenaed witness. John Ashcroft specifically brought up Gorelick's memo during his testimony, much to Gorelick's chagrin.


"In the days before September 11, the wall specifically impeded the investigation into Zacarias Moussaoui, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. After the FBI arrested Moussaoui, agents became suspicious of his interest in commercial aircraft and sought approval for a criminal warrant to search his computer. The warrant was rejected because FBI officials feared breaching the wall.

"When the CIA finally told the FBI that al-Midhar and al-Hazmi were in the country in late August, agents in New York searched for the suspects. But because of the wall, FBI headquarters refused to allow criminal investigators who knew the most about the most recent al Qaeda attack to join the hunt for the suspected terrorists.

"At that time, a frustrated FBI investigator wrote headquarters, quote, 'Whatever has happened to this — someday someone will die — and wall or not — the public will not understand why we were not more effective and throwing every resource we had at certain 'problems.'" (John Ashcroft testimony)


Typically, however, Gorelick refused to step down and continued to sit on the Commission. When asked about the memo by CNN's Wolf Blitzer, she said,

"No, and again, I would refer you back to what others on the commission have said. The wall was a creature of statute. It's existed since the mid 1980s. And while it's too lengthy to go into, basically the policy that was put out in the mid-nineties, which I didn't sign, wasn't my policy by the way, it was the attorney general's policy, was ratified by Attorney General Ashcroft's deputy as well in August of
2001. So we are just going to move on from this. This is not a basis for resignation."


One would have thought that, given this embarrassment, Gorelick would have slipped out of town and disappeared forever. Like Forest Gump, however, she continues to show up at the scene of historical catastrophes. Been reading about the collapse of Fannie Mae lately? Try this on for size.

From 1997-2003, Gorelick served as Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae and reportedly earned 26 million dollars during that period (in spite of the fact that she had no previous financial experience). In 1998, Fannie Mae was involved in a 10 billion dollar accounting scandal that resulted in a false report of the company reaching its earning target-which reportedly resulted in Gorelick receiving a bonus of $800,000.

On March 25, 2002, Business Week interviewed Gorelick about the health of "Fanny Mae". Gorelick was quoted as saying, "We believe we are managed safely. We are very pleased that Moody's gave us an A-minus in the area of bank financial strength -- without a reference to the government in any way. Fannie Mae is among the handful of top-quality institutions."

One year later, Government Regulators accused Fannie Mae of improper accounting in the amount of $9 billion in unrecorded losses.

Last reported, Gorelick was working for the Washington law firm of WilmerHale and involved in defending Duke University in a lawsuit brought by its former lacrosse players accusing the school of unfair treatment of them during the rape accusation.