San Diego Islamic convert tells tales of extremists and the FBI

AP ^ | June 30, 2002 | SETH HETTENA

[Cultural Jihad]

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A chance encounter at a San Diego mosque led him to Kashmir and a meeting with the man later accused of killing journalist Daniel Pearl. Fighting with the mujahadeen in Chechnya cost him his leg. While working as an FBI informant, he was invited to chat with Osama bin Laden at a terror camp.

[WillaJohns]

Wow. This is numbing.

[HAL9000]

But a day before the camp's patrons were to arrive in Phoenix, Collins said then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno pulled the plug on the operation - a move the author calls "a colossal mistake."

"Florida" added to topic list.

[daviddennis]

Clinton knew of bin Laden as a dangerous guy; he hit him with cruise missiles, after all.

Words simply fail me regarding the stupidity of Reno's decision. And the FBI's not to keep him on for a relatively paltry sum of money.

Based on the quotes, I'd consider the author a sharp guy and well worth supporting. Granted, we don't have all the facts, and I'm sure this book was slanted to make him look good. But the bare fact of Reno's turndown is absurd, and I don't think there's any way to reverse my view there.

D