The first Gorelickian oration
The Washington Times brings us the latest revelation in the continuing saga of the Gorelick follies: "Gorelick role raised early":
Former acting FBI Director Thomas J. Pickard told the September 11 commission in a private interview earlier this year that he was surprised that Jamie S. Gorelick is serving on the panel because she had played a key role in setting the very counterterrorism policies being investigated.It's been roughly 40 years since I have thought of Cicero's first Catiline oration, but Gorelick's misconduct brings it to mind:According to a summary of that interview obtained by The Washington Times, Mr. Pickard said Ms. Gorelick — who was No. 2 in the Clinton Justice Department under Attorney General Janet Reno — resisted efforts by the FBI to expand the counterterrorism effort beyond simple law enforcement tactics and agencies.
"Mr. Pickard indicated that it was a growing concern that the international terrorism threat was 'bigger than law enforcement,'" according to the notes from a Jan. 20 meeting at the commission's New York office.
"Despite expression of these concerns by FBI executive management, Attorney General Reno and her Deputy Jamie Gorelick believed that a law enforcement approach was appropriate," the notes say.
In a footnote, the FBI employee who attended the meeting and kept the notes wrote: "Mr. Pickard stated that he finds her 'membership on your Commission surprising since it [the decision to counter international terrorism with a law enforcement-only approach] was her and Reno's policy.'"
When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now?The New York Times of course abuses our patience in its own way. Reader David Caplan alerted us to this "laughable assessment" from yesterday's Times: "Evaluating the 9/11 hearings' winners and losers." Caplan notes that he "especially laughed at the conclusion that it was his 'boundless energy' that made Bob Kerrey repeatedly screw up Condoleezza Rice's name."
