Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “The 800 Pound Gorelick”

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October 22, 2005

The 800 Pound Gorelick

Hatched by Dafydd

I'm quite reluctant to run with this, considering the source -- actually, considering both the original and the reporting sources! -- but what the heck. Consider yourselves duly cautioned: objects in the mirror may be farther than they appear.

Newsmax.com alleges that Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA) now alleges that the staffer who actually blocked the 9/11 Commission from hearing testimony about Able Danger was none other than Dieter Snell, one of the chief investigating lawyers on the commission and a former prosecutor of Ramzi Yousef for the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 -- and that Snell, according to Weldon, was "the lead staffer for Jamie Gorelick." It's this last part that is a new claim, a supposed direct connection between Snell and Gorelick... and that is the part I cannot independently verify.

(I am guessing this is why Captain Ed has not yet commented on this: he is waiting for some verification of the central claim.)

It has been known for some time that it was Snell who did not pass along Navy Captain Scott Philpot's testimony to the commission; for example, consider these two postings on National Review Online's blog the Corner, two posts the same day (August 20th, 2005) by Andrew McCarthy:

This is a troublesome story, we don’t know all the facts, and I happen to know and be fond of Dieter Snell--the Commission staffer who did the interview of the naval intel officer [Scott Philpot] -- so if Snell found him unpersuasive, that carries a lot of weight with me. ("WANT TO REPHRASE THAT?," at 4:52 am)

As I've noted with respect to the former, we don't know enough about what happened, and the fact that someone as able as commission staffer Dieter Snell appears to have rejected the naval officer's information gives me cause for pause. ("THE POINT IS TRAINING AND FOCUS, NOT ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY," at 10:45 am)

But Weldon now claims that Dietrich Dieter Snell was "the lead staffer for Jamie Gorelick." Alas, I cannot find any definitive evidence that Snell was specifically working for Gorelick, as opposed simply to being the lead investigative staffer (or one of the leads) for the commission as a whole. Also, I'm not sure how much weight to give this even if true: I can't find any connection between Gorelick and Snell prior to the 9/11 Commission. If that is correct, then the mere fact that he was appointed her staffer -- if he actually was, that is -- wouldn't mean he would necessarily collaborate with her on some deep conspiracy to keep Able Danger out of the public eye in order to hide the damage caused by what I called "Jamie Gorelick's wall of separation between intelligence and law enforcement" back on Captain's Quarters.

Until I see much stronger evidence of some prior connection between Snell and Gorelick than the mere fact that he was an investigator on the commission that she (and many others) sat on, I'm not going to believe in a conspiracy arising between the two... despite the fact that Rep. Weldon has been right more often than wrong on this issue.

Commenters with knowledge of this specific question -- the actual connection, if any, between Snell and Gorelick -- are urged to share.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, October 22, 2005, at the time of 11:48 AM

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» The 800 Pound Gorelick? from Small Town Veteran
Rumor has it that Dafydd ab Hugh has been hearing some very interesting rumors about who kept the 9/11 Commission from hearing about the Able Danger project. I'll add my own speculation to Dafydd's rumors. It's been quite obvious for [Read More]

Tracked on October 22, 2005 1:59 PM

» Was Snell Gorelick's Staffer? from Captain's Quarters
Newsmax has an accusation from Rep. Curt Weldon that the 9/11 Commission staffer that ignored Captain Scott Philpott in June 2004 and his information on Able Danger was Dietrich Dieter Snell, one of the Commission's senior staffers. However, Weldon als... [Read More]

Tracked on October 22, 2005 2:54 PM

» Fly By 10/22/05 from The Strata-Sphere
UPDATE: Ed Morrissey is rightfully questioning whether Schnell was associated with Gorelick. We should know for sure this is the case before tagging Schnell with Gorelick. Does anyone have a solid link? Otherwise I am withdrawing this claim.] More... [Read More]

Tracked on October 22, 2005 4:36 PM

» While You Were Goofing Off... from Big Lizards
I see that Patterico has reinvigorated his own recap of the weekend's posts, This Weekend On Patterico.... doubtless because he was inspired by me. Few people know this, but I was the one who suggested the idea to him in... [Read More]

Tracked on October 24, 2005 2:41 PM

Comments

The following hissed in response by: Vi Adkins

My blog, QT Monster's Place, has an Able Danger only blogroll in the left column. Today I've posted links on that blogroll to a Jan. 2005 frontpagemag.com article and a Free Republic thread. Both of these have information/leads about Snell that could be helpful.

The blog is at: http://www.qtmonster.com

The above hissed in response by: Vi Adkins at October 22, 2005 12:19 PM