An unprecedented indictment

Mpls (red)Star Tribune / New York Times ^ | 5/29/02 | William Safire

[Valin]

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Why did FBI Director Robert Mueller desperately stamp "classified" on last week's memo to him from the Minneapolis agent and counsel Coleen Rowley?

Answer: Because he is protecting the bureau's crats who ignored warnings from the field before Sept. 11, and because he is trying to cover his own posterior for misleading the public and failing to inform the president in the eight months since.

[goldstategop]

Tear down the wall, Mr. President. The FBI is totally incompetent at the job of intelligence. Let the CIA spooks run the agency. Its a whole new era after 911 and the last thing we need are bureaucracies protective of their turf.

[Bill Davis FR]

remove the incompetent bastards...

[Arkie2]

It's time for a general house cleaning and if the head of the FBI and John Ashcroft are in the way they have to go. It's amazing to me that in the wake of 9-11 there's been no general house cleaning at the intelligence agencies and the FAA. It's almost traditional in the armed forces to see political horse holders pushed aside in favor of war fighting Generals in time of war. It's time the same thing happened at FBI and CIA.

[capt. norm]

The FBI has just suffered 8 years of being totally chained and shackled by political correctness. So it can be said that the individuals working under the oppression of Clinton's liberals had few choices, and the dedicated among them are now speaking out.

It now proveable that political correctness has cost American lives. It was, after all, political correctness that put an end to profiling. Go ahead and random-search that 83-year-old grandmother, but don't even think about checking out those guys with beards wearing turbans and carrying violin cases.

The PC crowd wants us all dead, but at least we'll all feel better (warm and fuzzy) about being dead.

[AdA$tra]

To this day, Mueller -- Eric Holder's gift to Justice,

So far all the incompetitence I have witnessed comes right back to Clinton hold-overs and career bureaucrats. Who appointed Mueller anyway? Why are they calling him Eric holder's gift to justice? I realize some stuff these guys find cannot be released for national security reasons. Conversely, It is all too convenient to be able to hide behind the "national security" cloak. Somehow I smell a rat here.

[bvw]

It's almost traditional in the armed forces to see political horse holders pushed aside in favor of war fighting Generals in time of war.

That happens in war but never so fast as needed. Takes a lot of losses first. Removing the "time servers" with do-ers is like an a attack on a well-fortified position. Believe me, the time-servers have a lot of babies and hot bathwater to throw down on the attacking do-ers.

[Valin]

It's time for a general house cleaning and if the head of the FBI and John Ashcroft are in the way they have to go.

Agree. Now I don't know if anything could have been done to stop the killers but someone dropped the ball and they must pay. I'm not calling for a witchhunt but we must find out where we (as a nation) screwed up and take steps to see it doesn't happen again.

[Balding_Eagle]

Isn't the FBIs primary job that of an historian? You know, drawing the chalk outline around the dead body and then investigating who did it? In that respect they aren't equiped to give advanced warnings. Isn't that the job of the CIA?

It would seem to me that it's the CIA that should be on the hot seat, not the FBI.

[patriot_wes]

"In an example of gutsy news-magazine journalism"

.......so rare from the media! Someone's head will roll.

[Attillathehon]

Let the CIA spooks run the agency.

Sure, they can teach the feebies how to make "Diversity Quilts" as they do over at CIA.

[Arkie2]

At this point it's not a question of whether or not the attack could have been prevented. Rather, we need effective leadership that will aggressively pursue the enemy, not some political appointee protecting his turf. If we're caught by surprise again the public will lay the responsibility at Bush's feet and rightly so.

[Gig]

"Tear down the wall, Mr. President. The FBI is totally incompetent at the job of intelligence. Let the CIA spooks run the agency.

I don't think your suggestion is either prudent or wise. First, you assume that the "spooks" are more effective at domestic intelligence than the FBI. Keep in mind that the same government that trains the FBI special agents trains the "spooks". In addition, the CIA is equally, if not more heavily, weighted toward political and bureaucratic intrigue. Second, your assertion that the FBI is totally incompetent is simply rhetoric. While politicians in charge of the Justice Department may, themselves, be proven to be inept, the experienced field agents have proven themselves countless times over.

"Its a whole new era after 911 and the last thing we need are bureaucracies protective of their turf." I do agree with your last sentence. However, all government, be it FBI, CIA, or HUD is a bureaucracy. Turf protect is the de-rigeur.

[ravingnutter]

Last summer, the Phoenix field office, on the trail of a couple of radical Islamists, recommended strongly that FBI headquarters examine flight schools around the nation for potential terrorists; the Washington bureaucrats did nothing.

Ummmmm...not to defend the FBI's inaction, but this is simply not true...it never made it to the "Washington bureaucrats"...

The memo, which mentions concerns about Osama bin Laden in the first sentence, did not go past mid-level officials at the FBI. It never reached the director or the head of the counterterrorism unit.

The memo was approved by Williams' supervisor, Bill Kurtz, and forwarded to the Radical Fundamentalist unit at the FBI, which is part of the bureau's counterterrorism division.

A copy of the memo was sent to the bureau's unit that concentrates on bin Laden and another went to the bureau's New York field office, which had been the main field office coping with terrorism.

Lawmakers asked Kurtz if he made any further inquiries about the memo. He was told that the memo was being evaluated and that it might be referred to the FBI's field office in Portland, Maine.

Source

[Gig]

I think the FBI is tasked with domestic intelligence.

It appears that someone up the food-chain not only may have dropped the ball, they may have hidden it as well.

Seems we keep playing this instant replay over and over . . . Waco, Ruby Ridge, and now 911; politicians make an armchair call and screw up, then want to either cover it up or skewer the lower eschelon to save their own arses. Of course, there's nothing surprising in that, is there?

[Alberta's Child]

I heard Mark Levin on the radio yesterday, and his take on the situation is much different than I would have expected. For very specific legal reasons, he seems to think that Coleen Rowley is less competent than anyone she has criticized, and he sees her recent memorandum to Meuller as nothing more than an attempt to cover her own @ss. The fact that she prepared this memo last week (after the story of FBI incompetence first hit the airwaves, as opposed to September 12th of last year) lends some credence to his assessment.

[Alberta's Child]

Good point. It's also worth noting that the Phoenix agent who originally raised the concerns about the flight schools has stated emphatically that the September 11th suicide attacks surprised him as much as anyone else.

[PISANO]

Someone......anyone please explain to me WHY Mueller is being charged with all of this. If my memory serves and FOX NEWS is correct he became the FBI Director just TWO DAYS prior to 911. I am missing something, I guess. I would hope someone who is up to speed on the chronology of this disaster can post it here. I am thoroughly confused by this.

[Harrison Bergeron]

"For very specific legal reasons, he seems to think that Coleen Rowley is less competent than anyone she has criticized, and he sees her recent memorandum to Meuller as nothing more than an attempt to cover her own @ss. "

Spin. Sheer unmitigated spin. And irrelevant to boot. It matters not one thimbleful of warm mucous why the memo was written - it's out there and the FBI and the DOJ have questions to answer.

[Valin]

If I'm not mistaken the FBI is responsible for investigating domestic terrorism and the CIA for foreign terrorism. I believe they are prevented by law from even talking to each other. In light of 9/11 this may change.