By Debbie Schlussel
Now we know why “former” PFLP terrorist was once set to get an award from FBI Director Robert Mueller (it was revoked after a 2003 NY Post column I wrote). He didn’t know better. And doesn’t have a clue about terrorism and terrorists.
Pre-9/11, it was bad enough that the FBI was far behind the curve on terrorism. Terrorism was like the circular file for agents. It wasn’t “sexy,” and they dreaded being assigned to it.
Post-9/11, the FBI claimed that terrorism was its top priority. Don’t believe the hype. A story by AP’s excellent investigative reporter, John Solomon, shows how just how phony the FBI’s professed dedication to rooting out terrorists is. Depositions in a lawsuit by Bassem Youssef, the highest ranking Arab FBI agent, show how embarrassingly clueless the FBI–from the top brass on down–is. And none of the top FBI brass felt knowledge or expertise in terrorism was important in the least. No surprise, since it would disqualify all of them, who–shockingly–don’t know the most basic characteristics regarding Islamic terror.
That FBI Director Robert Mueller didn’t know how the blind cleric, Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, was linked to Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, would be hilarious–if it weren’t so pathetic and disturbing. (Rahman was the spiritual leader for the ’93 WTC terrorist attacks, and was convicted for it. Now, in prison, the attack he inspired was an Al-Qaeda attack. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, is the uncle of Ramzi Youssef, mastermind of the ’93 WTC attacks.) Ditto for FBI Counterterrorism director through 2003, Dale Watson, who could not tell the difference between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims. That is significant because the major Islamic terrorist groups are allied with particular Islamic sects–Hezbollah is Shi’ite and is funded by Iran’s Shia government; and HAMAS and other Palestinian terrorist groups, as well as Al-Qaeda, are Sunni. (Though, these days, the groups have started to work together. They hate each other, but they hate us more.)
When FBI agent Coleen Rowley exposed Mueller’s refusal to let agents look at the hard-drive of Al-Qaedan Zaccarias Moussaoui–which might have uncovered the 9/11 plot, top FBI brass countered that Rowley didn’t know much about terrorism. Pot. Kettle. Black.