The FBI is the Federal Bureau of something. We're just no longer sure what the something is. Other than being sure the something is not Investigation. At least not in relationship to investigating terrorism. Of course, there are those who never thought the war on terror was a "police action," something that required investigation; and of course, they were always wrong, ignorant of the enemy.
So bombs away. Hide your dishes and your daughters innocent bystanders. We're "fighting" terrorism, not "investigating" it.
Too many leads to be bothered with:
A US Senate panel is probing allegations that the FBI's office in Riyadh neglected thousands of leads related to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Although the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent reinforcements shortly after the attacks, "it appears that the bureau's team never got on top of the thousands of leads flowing in from the US and Saudi governments," Time magazine reported Sunday.
It "appears" they didn't follow up on leads? More:
An FBI supervisor sent to Riyadh nearly a year after the attacks found the Riyadh office in disarray with a backlog of documents piled up in a mountain of papers, it said.
Since the embassy must be able to destroy sensitive documents within 15 minutes during a hostile takeover, the supervisor ordered the destruction of hundreds or even thousands of pages, including many related to the September 11 probe, an FBI briefer told Congress, according to Time.
The FBI told Time the shredded material was "duplicative" or "only informational." But the Judiciary Committee's letter cites reports that some of the documents "had not been translated or reviewed," the magazine said.
Perhaps the FBI could have used a few of the dozens of highly trained specialists--Arabic speakers-- who were fired by the Pentagon for destroying the moral fabric of the armed forces-- in other words, for being gay. The FBI certainly could have used some help in Saudi Arabia after 9-11. They were swamped, buried with leads, scraps of information they didn't have the manpower to pursue or even interpret.
Perhaps, the FBI wasn't paying attention when Rumsfeld stressed the intelligence battle:
Mr. Rumsfeld, en route to his first stop in Saudi Arabia, said Wednesday that the goal is to find out exactly where Osama bin Laden and his hard-core supporters are hiding in the vastness of Afghanistan.
"It's not going to be a cruise missile or a bomber that's going to be the determining factor," he told reporters on his plane, speaking only in the broadest terms about preparations for military action.
"It's going to be a scrap of information from some person in some country that's been repressed by a dictatorial regime. That's going to enable us to pull this network up by its roots and end it."
Mr. Rumsfeld hinted that the U.S. military has some information on Mr. bin Laden's whereabouts but does not know his precise location.
(emph. added)
That was October 4th, 2001. There are so many questions, and there are several answers: Incompetent, Irresponsible, Ignorant. Any of these "I" words seem a better description for the FBI. It's astounding that we're shredding scraps of information about the 9-11 attacks. It's embarrassing. The President is quoted in the same article:
"People need to be able to look us in the eye and know that when we say that we're in this for the long run, that we're going to find terrorists and bring them to justice, we mean it," Mr. Bush said.
How can he look people in the eye and continue this charade about being tough on terror? He's a gift to extremists. Some of us know it, and all of the extremists know it. He didn't have the resolve for which he is known. Not with the temptation of a bigger, more impressive, political capital producing, far less important, war in Iraq. He took his eye off the ball, off the terrorists. He betrayed his nation, betrayed my memory of 9-11, and particularly, he betrayed the victims and their survivors. Remember Bush discussing the hunt for bin Laden?
"I don’t know where he is. Nor — you know, I just don’t spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you. I....I truly am not that concerned about him."
The Left loves to flaunt that quote. Kerry paraphrased it in debate, and Bush denied he'd ever said any such thing. Some thought he lied. I figured he forgot how little he really cared about 9-11 compared to Iraq. Then, in debate, the truth hurt. It was damning, and he went into denial, honest denial. Even his handlers had failed to prepare him. Unfortunately, the public laughed at Kerry for making such a crazy insinuation about their warrior president. Even though Kerry was right, even though the truth had been publicized for over two years. They didn't know the truth. Didn't want to know. So they laughed. But it's Bush's other spin, the way he explained the statement that really bugged me.
"We haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is," Bush said during the 2002 news conference. "I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run.
"I was concerned about him when he had taken over a country," Bush continued. "I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban. But once we set out the policy and started executing the plan, he became - we shoved him out more and more on the margins. He has no place to train his Al Qaeda killers anymore."
There is plenty of space to train al Qaeda, and that space has been expanding through the sympathetic, far right Islamic world, which cannot help but see al Qaeda's message vindicated through the actions of a war dishonestly named the Global War on Terror. Osama bin Laden never took over a country. He was not basically running Afghanistan. That's just how flawed and limited the President's world view is. It's all about overthrowing nation states. It doesn't matter if the ideas supporting this are utterly false, or if they in fact further empower those who sponsor terror and despise the US.
I'm criticizing the President in a post about the FBI because I believe the old Greek saying has merit: A fish stinks from the head down. I've experienced this while dealing with many businesses. Research would validate it in analyzing a number of governments, and it certainly applies to the war on terror. The whole thing stinks from the head down. That's why we get these kind of reports on the smelly state of the FBI.
The FBI vowed to build national expertise for fighting terrorists after the Sept. 11 attacks, but the supervisors who crafted that war plan now say Middle East and terrorism experience haven't been important for choosing their agents. [...]
The lawsuit, brought against the FBI by one of its most accomplished pre-Sept. 11 terror-fighting agents, provides sharp contrasts between the bureau's public promises and the reality of how it has chosen the agents who run its war on terrorism.
In hundreds of pages of sworn testimony obtained by The Associated Press, senior FBI managers argued repeatedly that Middle East and anti-terrorism experience aren't required for promotion and that they see little difference between solving a traditional crime and a terror attack.
"A bombing case is a bombing case," said Dale Watson, the FBI's terrorism chief in the two years after Sept. 11, 2001. "A crime scene in a bank robbery case is the same as a crime scene, you know, across the board."
Swell. So, investigating a crime requires no expertise beyond basic CSI, and expertise in specific fields is unnecessary. What about preventing terrorism? Would a little expertise in the field come in handy, maybe prevent the need for CSI by preventing crime scenes? More:
Watson couldn't describe the difference between Shiites and Sunnis, the two major groups of Muslims. "Not technically, no," Watson answered when asked the question.
Bald, the FBI's current anti-terrorism chief, said his first training in that area came "on the job" when he moved to headquarters to oversee anti-terrorism strategy two years ago. when asked about his grasp of Middle Eastern culture and history, he replied: "I wish that I had it. It would be nice."
FBI agent Bassem Youssef has questioned under oath many of the bureau's top leaders, including Director Robert Mueller and his predecessor, Louis Freeh, in an effort to show he was passed over for top counterterrorism jobs despite his expertise. Testimony from his lawsuit was recently sent to Congress.
Those who have held the bureau's top terrorism-fighting jobs since Sept. 11 often said in their testimony that they — and many they have promoted since — had no significant anti-terrorism or Middle East experience.
What is this? Just climbing the old ladder of bureaucracy? The Peter Principle vs. al Qaeda? It certainly isn't a serious counterterrorism organization, and it doesn't sound like a very professional investigative organization. It's as if the testimony was an homage to the Greek saying:
Watson testified he could not recall a single meeting in the aftermath of Sept. 11 in which FBI leaders discussed the type of skills or training needed for counterterrorism.
Youssef's lawyer, Steve Kohn, pressed further.
"What skill sets would they need to better identify, penetrate and/or prevent a future Osama bin Laden-style terrorist attack?" Kohn asked.
Watson answered: "They would need to understand the attorney general guidelines for counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigation."
"Anything else?" the lawyer inquired.
"No," Watson answered.
It defies parody.
-- Zap
Additional reading:
And DoD was ready to blame the FBI if the torture stories from Gitmo ever came out--which is why agents wrote the memos that Durbin read on the floor last week. Not to say that the Feds didn't fock this one up royally, but if there would be political mileage in blaming Hoover's Boyz for the misdeeds of the administration, they'd surely do it.
Posted by: Torridjoe | June 20, 2005 at 15:32
The CIA and the FBI have historically enjoyed an indepenced the NSA and DIA haven't. The need for that independence is long established and part of what protects us from being a police state. I'm not suggesting Bush desires a police state, but I think it's pretty clear the independence of criminal investigation and intelligence gathering has not worked well when his desires were contradictory to independent fact finding. So, the CIA finds itself getting retooled by Bush insiders. Negroponte gets a new position trumping them all. And the FBI is ignored, underfunded, and undermined.
I wish the Feds had arrested those impersonating Feds while conducting interrogations. Their testimony might have been very revealing.
Posted by: Zap | June 20, 2005 at 16:46
Very good job Zap!
A good blog makes you think outside the lines.
This may lead me to see the failures of some investigations lacked any skills.
While I don't hold any of the 9/11 conspiracies after looking at much of the information available, I wonder if investigators failed miserably by incompetence in the anthrax scare and the DC sniper or a coverup occured in the first incident?
I also believe that the US knows where Osama Bin Laden is located at exactly. The US may believe ,rightly or wrongly, that having him hide in a cave is better than having to put him on trial or having him be a martyr. I can not believe that the power of US can not find a man with satelites, drones, eaves dropping equipment and money to burn. Over 4 years bin Laden has been releasing audio and video tapes, I would assume there must be some clues as to where he is.
Zap, are you going to do a post on where bin Laden is?
Do you and TJ have the same e-mail address?
Posted by: Ronald Rutherford | June 20, 2005 at 16:51
For blog purposes, yes, we use the same address. [email protected]. Torrid is more responsive than me. I always forget to check it. Give me a heads up here if something is there, and I'll be sure to see it.
I can write a short post on the likely places to seek bin Laden. I would need a little lighter personal schedule, and the motivation, to write a highly detailed post on the topic. But "my thinking" will be included in response to Porter Goss's very recent compelling comment, his "excellent idea."
Posted by: Zap | June 20, 2005 at 17:49