A very interesting memo from former US Attorney for Manhattan Mary Jo White apparently escaped being smuggled out of the National Archives in Sandy Burglar's pants. It turns out that White, who aggressively prosecuted terrorists responsible for the first WTC attack, told Jamie Gorelick that the infamous wall she built between intelligence and criminal justice would lead to disaster.

"This is not an area where it is safe or prudent to build unnecessary walls or to compartmentalize our knowledge of any possible players, plans or activities," wrote White, herself a Clinton appointee.

"The single biggest mistake we can make in attempting to combat terrorism is to insulate the criminal side of the house from the intelligence side of the house, unless such insulation is absolutely necessary. Excessive conservatism . . . can have deadly results."

She added: "We must face the reality that the way we are proceeding now is inherently and in actuality very dangerous."

In fact, the memo made it to the 9—11 Commission, but nobody took much note of it. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have a person implicated in the memo sitting on the Commission. Conflict of interest is obvious here.

We are now into cover—up territory. And it is a huge story. The 9—11 Commission was charged with a responsibility of utmost seriousness. Instead of reporting honestly on the problems which led to the 9—11 plotters remaining unmolested by those charged with protecting us, the Commission ignored serious evidence of a major flaw.

Remember that we undertook a huge reorganization of government based on the recommendations of the Commission. Recommendations that were inherently flawed because of a cover—up of as yet unknown dimensions.

The media Democrats will have no interest in pursuing the story, of course, because it implicates the entire Clinton Administration, highlighting its fundamental unseriousness about the terror threat. But they won't be able to bottle—up the story. It is far too juicy. By downplaying the story, they are slitting their own throats, losing audience and convincing more people that they are not to be trusted.

The average voter is worried about terror, and remains deeply offended by the atack. Decades of media obsession with Watergate have taught us all the cover—up scandals are fascinating and important. And the mascot of the whole affair, portly Sandy Berger with documents stuffed in his pants, is just far too funny an image to be ignored.

Thomas Lifson   8 17 05