The dots are beginning to connect.
It now appears that Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the 9-11 plot, was actively working inside the United States with a New York-based sleeper cell, including three other future hijackers.
In 2000, a small, classified military intelligence unit known as "Able Danger" became aware of the active al-Qaida group based in Brooklyn.
But the Defense Department was prohibited by Justice Department lawyers from presenting the information to the FBI because of the Clinton administration's policy of strictly separating law-enforcement matters from national security concerns.
It seems Atta and company were, by the standards of the Jamie Gorelick-Janet Reno Justice Department, in the United States legally and not in violation of any laws. Therefore, the fact that known terrorists under the command of Osama bin Laden – who had declared war on America and attacked its interests repeatedly over a period of 10 years – were actively working inside the United States was of no concern.
How could 9-11 have happened? This is where the rubber meets the road.
This was not the only missed opportunity to save the lives of 3,000 Americans killed in the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
The FBI missed at least five other chances to detect the presence of the suicide hijackers in the country, according to a report prepared by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. In his 371-page report, Fine pointed out that the Central Intelligence Agency also knew the hijackers were in California 20 months before the 9-11 attacks, but never told the FBI. One CIA agent tried desperately to alert the FBI, but was told to stop by his superiors.
Why did top-level CIA officials decline to alert the FBI of the potential for terrorism by these suspects? Why did military intelligence fail to pass on information to the FBI that could have prevented the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks?
There is an obvious and glaring answer to these questions. The CIA and the Defense Department had been ordered not to share information with the FBI.
The FBI and CIA were deliberately blocked from this kind of cooperation by the "wall" erected between them through a set of Justice Department directives issued by Deputy Attorney General Gorelick. In effect, the Clinton Justice Department had made it illegal for that kind of sharing of information between the agencies.
"We believe 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," Gorelick wrote. "These procedures, which go beyond what is legally required, will prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation."
Gorelick wasn't some flunky in the Justice Department. She had been selected for the job by Hillary Clinton and had assumed the role held by Webster Hubbell before he was forced from his position to face Whitewater-related charges that landed him in prison. Gorelick, like Hubbell before her, essentially ran the Justice Department because of the gross incompetence of her boss, Reno.
Fine, too, by the way, was appointed by Bill Clinton.
Lee Hamilton, the Democratic co-chairman of the 9-11 commission, says members of that panel never learned that any U.S. government agency had knowledge of the activities of Atta and his cell prior to the attacks.
"Had we learned of it, obviously it would have been a major focus of our investigation," he said.
Why didn't the commission learn of these important facts? Could it have been because of Gorelick's presence on the commission? Could it have been because the commission's staff work was controlled by former Clinton administration hacks who sought to cover up the negligence of their colleagues? Could it have been because former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was playing the role of the "cleaner" in the National Archives – sanitizing the information that would be released to the commission?
When it comes to 9-11, there is no question the Clinton administration has blood on its hands. But so will the Bush administration if it doesn't hold officials accountable for this gross incompetence and negligence.