August 18, 2005, - 12:13 pm
FBI Would Have Ignored Able Danger Warnings
By Debbie Schlussel
Many people have e-mailed asking for my opinion on the emerging Operation Able Danger story–in which army intelligence personnel were barred from notifying the FBI about Mohammed Atta.
While I agree that the Pentagon lawyers who stopped the Able Danger operatives from notifying the FBI are culpable, and their behavior is an outrage, my take is different from most conservative commentators.
I really don’t think the FBI would have acted on the information. Instead, today, we’d be sweeping under the rug yet more ineptitude by the, unfortunately, “lead agency” in the War on Terror.
Let’s look at what the FBI has done with other similar information they received before and, even worse, AFTER 9/11. Let’s look at what the agency and its sleazy allies have done to harm brave men who did what the Able Danger men did not–men like FBI , who warned the FBI to do something about the Al-Qaeda funding network.
Here’s the FBI record:
* Warnings about 9/11 hijackers Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi living in San Diego and behaving suspiciously according to their informant landlord. (Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer of Able Danger said his group had info on Al-Midhar and Al-Hazmi, too.)
THE FBI DID . . . NOTHING.
* about an extensive Al-Qaeda funding network in the U.S. (tied to HAMAS funding network). Wright told his FBI superiors that if something wasn’t done to stop them, more people would die. More people did die. Still . . .
THE FBI DID . . . NOTHING. THEN, THE FBI FIRED BOB WRIGHT. (It was Customs, now ICE, that fortunately acted on Wright’s info.)
* Warnings by FBI investigators about a man named Zaccarias Moussaoui who wanted to learn how to steer planes but not how to take off or land. Warnings by Canadian and French intelligence that Moussaoui was a terrorist who’d trained in Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. FBI agents, including counsel Coleen Rowley, begged to search the hard drive in Moussaoui’s computer.
THE FBI DID . . . NOTHING.
* Warnings by several operators of flight schools that mysterious Middle Eastern men wanted to learn how to steer planes, but again, not how to take-off or land.
THE FBI DID . . . NOTHING.
AFTER 9/11:
* Multiple, repeated requests to the FBI, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent in Charge for Houston, , for permission to conduct wire-taps and a full-fledged investigation into Al-Qaeda operatives in Texas. (Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who is investigating this says there are dozens of such investigations.)
THE FBI DID . . . NOTHING. WEBBER IS NOW BEING INVESTIGATED.
* A Southfield, Michigan which openly declared on its taxes that it gave millions to HAMAS, has personnel deported for being members of Qaeda, raised money at a Los Angeles fundraiser for “more uprisings like the one in Fallujah.”
THE FBI DID . . . NOTHING.
When the FBI did do something, it was equally distressing:
* Planned to give an award to a marriage fraud perpetrator and terrorist PFLP member , who openly praises Islamic terrorists, is believed to be involved in a money scheme with similarly illicit parties, and is closely tied to various terror-related deportees. After I wrote about it, the FBI , but then put out at least five different BS explanations for the revocation.
* FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that he will never use the words “Islamic” and “terrorism” together, according to Paul Sperry’s “Infiltration.”
* Top FBI brass, including Mueller, declared in lawsuit depositions that they , yet kept a patriotic Arab agent who knew a great deal from getting top terrorism-related jobs.
Given all of this, a very abbreviated list of FBI foul-ups, inaction, and transgressions in the agency’s non-War on Terror, do you really believe the FBI would have done a damned thing about Atta with Able Danger’s information?
If so, I have some land under a building named after J. Edgar Hoover to sell you.
Tags: Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, Anthony Shaffer, bin Laden, Bob Wright, Charles Grassley, Coleen Rowley, counsel, Debbie Schlussel Many, director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, French intelligence, Hamas, Houston, Imad Hamad, Iowa, J. Edgar Hoover, Joe Webber, Khalid Al-Midhar, Los Angeles, Lt. Col., member, Michigan, Mohammed Atta, Nawaf Al-Hazmi, Paul Sperry, Pentagon, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Qaeda, Robert Mueller, Robert Wright, San Diego, Special Agent, terrorist, Texas, United States, Zaccarias Moussaoui
You have established a pattern of inaction and timidity by the FBI which is worrisome. How do we get the FBI to investigate jihadis more vigorously?
Arthur Clements on August 18, 2005 at 11:20 pm