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Sat. May 25, 2002

Questionable Investigations, Part Two

Questionable Investigations, Part Two – They didn’t take field reports seriously, nevermind coordinate them. They altered affadavits in ways that denied the search warrants sought. They denied requests for manpower to track terrorist threats. They were so so September 10th.

They’re the FBI.

"The FBI operates in ’a climate of fear which has chilled aggressive . . . law enforcement action,’ whistle-blower Coleen Rowley charges in the 13-page letter that faults the FBI’s leadership for hindering the investigation of a suspected terrorist prior to Sept. 11, according to excerpts of the letter obtained yesterday."

And now a woman who was at the center of the Zacarias Moussaoui investigation has come forward to make clear what many suspected: the behavior of command at the FBI was often a joke. "She wrote that resistance to requests from Minneapolis was so fierce that agents there joked that Osama bin Laden must have infiltrated FBI headquarters.

"In one example, Rowley alleges that officials in Washington removed crucial information from an affidavit in support of a search of Moussaoui’s computer, causing FBI lawyers to ultimately reject the application, according to several sources who have read the letter."

Despite this resistance, the team in Minneapolis was getting the goods: "The interviews with Mr. Attas, which have not previously been made public, show that federal agents investigating Mr. Moussaoui were quickly developing a disturbing portrait of the man who officials now believe was meant to be the 20th hijacker. But the interviews also raise new questions about whether top officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were aggressive enough in responding to that information."

And since then, there is the faint whiff of coverup: "Rowley, said one source, made it clear that the FBI headquarters ’was misrepresenting what Minneapolis was telling them.’ "

Here’s a telling reaction: "Another federal law enforcement official who asked not to be identified Thursday night vented his anger not at Rowley or the FBI, but at the lawmakers who leaked portions of Rowley’s letter. ’We were shocked and disappointed that congressional committees showed reckless disregard in leaking her classified letter,’ the official said."

Yes, it is shocking and disappointing to hear about such reckless disregard: ”On September 10 last year, the last day of what is now seen as a bygone age of innocence, Mr Ashcroft sent a request for budget increases to the White House. It covered 68 programmes, none of them related to counter-terrorism. He also sent a memorandum to his heads of departments, stating his seven priorities. Counter-terrorism was not on the list. He turned down an FBI request for hundreds more agents to be assigned to tracking terrorist threats.”

Prior to thousands of Americans being killed 9-11, the Justice Department and FBI did not make domestic terrorism a priority in terms of manpower and departmental capital. It’s clear as a bell, and though things may have changed since then, we are seeing typical bureaucratic butt covering and defensive posturing. All entirely counterproductive to correcting past mistakes.

I’m still not convinced the FBI could have stopped the New York and Washington attacks with anything less than a staff of psychics. However, the inefficiency and bungling in the system that existed in that "bygone age of innocence," and which wasted the efforts of good field agents, has certainly not all been expunged. And thus, it threatens us daily. Are there agents somewhere in the US jumping up and down in vain attempts to get the attention and support of their superiors to this day?

Will we hear about this again someday?