Who else is there? James Carville?
Can't be Grunwald, heh-heh!
Freeh was a beacon in the swamp that was the Clinton administration. Unlike that president's other appointees, Freeh performed his job fearlessly in the face of determined political opposition. He took office while the agency was reeling from its errors in the 1993 Ruby Ridge shootout and the 1994 assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Coming off the federal bench in New York, Freeh - a former FBI agent - worked mightily to restore public confidence in the bureau. On his watch, the agency cracked both the Unabomer and Oklahoma City bombing cases. Most important: Freeh refused to be cowed by the efforts of President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno to blatantly politicize the Justice Department. He confronted Reno over her stifling of criminal probes into Clinton-Gore fundraising scandals - including what he rightly called "compelling" evidence of Vice President Al Gore's "active, sophisticated" involvement in those schemes. NY Post, May 3, 2001
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Ronald Kessler, a journalist who has written several intelligence books, at least two of them about the FBI, argues that Louis Freeh should resign or be fired over the Hanssen espionage matter. Kessler faults Freeh for a number of things -- not using polygraphs to update FBI agent's security clearances, Ruby Ridge, and for the Richard Jewell and Wen Ho Lee fiascoes. He also claims that Freeh would already be gone except that the Director is very skilled at PR and self promotion. Finally, Kessler says that Freeh is disliked by rank and file FBI agents.
Kessler's book contrasts the respectful way George and Laura Bush treat Secret Service agents, military aides, and maids and butlers with the imperious, nasty way previous White House occupants Bill and Hillary Clinton treated them.
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Freeh Fall
By Shawn Macomber
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 16, 2004
Nothing about the deterioration of the FBI under Clinton-era FBI Director Louis Freeh was his fault. Just ask him.
Freeh, who served as the bureau’s Director from August 1993 to June 2001, testified before the 9/11 (It’s non-partisan! We promise!) Commission on Tuesday, repeating the now familiar litany of excuses for the agency’s poor performance and morale under his leadership: Congress didn’t give us enough money; the country wasn’t on a “war footing”; our hands were tied behind our backs…. The FBI, Freeh inexplicably said, “had a very effective program with respect to counter-terrorism prior to Sept. 11.” before adding his ever-present caveat, “given the resources that we had.” Last year, in a similarly bizarre comment, Freeh described “coordination between the FBI and CIA,” before Sept. 11, as “exemplary.” I’d hate to see this guy’s definition of “terrible.” But terrible is an apt description of Freeh’s leadership, endorsed by President Bill Clinton. The two, working in tandem, hampered the work of agents working to keep America safe from attack.
Freeh has tenaciously defended his pre-9/11 tenure as FBI Director. “In the absence of all the things that were appropriately done after September 11th, when the United States declared war back on al-Qaeda, we were left with alternatives which were better than no alternatives,” Freeh said Tuesday. “And as I said in my statement, sometimes they worked.”
More here...
http://tinyurl.com/87wc3