Posted on 06/24/2003 7:26:33 PM PDT by FairOpinion
The FBI wants to hear from you.
That’s what Tim Flynn, supervisory special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s field office in Wilmington, said Tuesday at the Pinehurst Community Watch block captain’s meeting held in the village hall.
Citizen involvement is ultimately integral to homeland security, in these days: post-Sept. 11, 2001, he said.
“You are the ones that are going to give us the information that’s going to prevent the next terrorist attack,” Flynn said.
There’s probably not going to be an attack here, in Moore County or the rest of North Carolina, he said. But terrorists can plan and finance an attack here. And he said Fort Bragg is the top terrorist target in North Carolina.
He commended the Pinehurst Community Watch for its efforts to keep the area safe.
A lot has changed in the FBI since the events of Sept. 11, 2001, he said. The FBI still has weaknesses though.
“At the time, we had about three Arabic speakers,” he said. “That’s still a weakness of ours.”
Also, the FBI is not as diverse as it needs to be, he said. It’s made up primarily of white men. Twenty-three percent of the agents are women, and about 15 percent are black or Hispanic.
“The Asian-Middle Eastern [contingent] is miniscule,” he said.
Through his work in different parts of the world, Flynn said, one of the things that he came to realize about terrorists was that they are extremely efficient.
He told the story of a terror attack in Kenya that happened while he was working there. The terrorists set up a business to fund the attack two years in advance. The attack was to be on the U.S. Embassy. The terrorist knew exactly where to place the bomb for optimal damage.
Plus, they planned to make a distraction, to draw people to the windows, he said.
“A lot of times, in these attacks, it’s the glass that ends up killing people,” he said.
The plan was to drive a truck full of explosives into the embassy parking area and then have the two drivers blow it up, with themselves in it.
In this case, the terrorists didn’t get to execute their plan, because the Kenyan guards stopped them (which Flynn said is rare in Kenya — security there is usually very easy to bypass). Plus, the two in the truck couldn’t defuse the situation.
“They have a hard time finding intelligent people willing to blow themselves up,” Flynn said.
The passenger fled and the driver detonated the truck. The explosion killed about 200 Kenyans, Flynn said. Agents later caught the passenger. They knew it was him, because he still had shards of glass embedded in his back.
The terrorists nearly accomplished their plan and destroyed the embassy, Flynn said.
“It was a tragedy,” he said, “but it could have been worse.”
Today, the priorities of the FBI have changed, Flynn said. It spends most its time now on terrorism, counter intelligence and cyber-crime. Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, the top three priorities of the Fayetteville office were violent crime, drugs and white-collar crime, Flynn said.
One of the members of the audience was upset that the FBI was “neglecting” drug crimes, but Flynn said it just didn’t have the resources.
The FBI relishes citizen tips now, he said. In the past, someone could have called the FBI and given a tip, and it would get filed away and never looked at again.
“Now, we run it down,” Flynn said.
It’s important that people provide the FBI with information, he said. That’s why he supports the Pinehurst Community Watch. It can prevent terrorist attacks. Terrorists operate everywhere, he said.
“Are there terrorist cells in the United States?” he said. “I’m sure that there are. As a matter of fact, I know that there are.”
http://www.fbi.gov
Gee that's nice.
Also, would you personally want to be responsible for not foiling the next attack, because you didn't report something suspicious, which may have prevented it?
Oh, I'll report it but not to the Fibbies. I actually saw something very suspicious involving Arabic men recently on a bridge near a major city. Normally I would have been armed but the city had wisely stripped me of my rights. Happily the poh-lice showed up in time and escorted the, uh, gentleman away.
I know what the failure rate will be if everyone except the terrorists is unarmed. So far, it's right at 100%.
The Israeli government has better censorship.
OK.
They've grabbed the cockpit while you dithered. The plane's diving down to nap of earth, looks like you're headed for a building. BTW, Tex, you'd better be REAL fast--the guy next to you got drilled before he finished getting his shooting iron aimed into the aisle, and his buddy whacked two guys in first class with a double-tap apiece.
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