[Man of the Right]

The bureaucratic imperative that no agency, however functionless or incapable, can ever be allowed to go out of existence, overrides national survival and common sense.

The FBI is a living lie. This is an agency that counts abandoned stolen cars as felony arrests and chases petty bank robbers. Within the agency there is no management, technical, counter-intelligence, or Arab language expertise, no doctrine, no sources, no morale, and no desire to get any.

This is an agency that has let America down repeatedly: at Ruby Ridge, Waco, Oklahoma City, the FBI lab, Hanssen. As a society, we'd lose nothing if we turned responsibility for counter-intelligence over Worldcom or K-Mart, compared to the FBI. Turning any responsibility over the FBI is flushing it down the toilet. Mueller has nothing to offer. Another lawyer looking to get out of practicing the law.

Until America has a counter-intelligence capability, potentially every city in the U.S. is Hiroshima's and Nagasaki's sister city. Duck and cover. Thanks, Bob Mueller.

[expatpat]

I agree with most of your views on the Fibbies. However, I'm not sure you can lay most of it on Mueller. IMHO, the top leadership should fire all the management-level people, especially at HQ, and hire good local-LEO managers to reform the FBI.

[Asmodeus]

"The FBI is a living lie. This is an agency that counts abandoned stolen cars as felony arrests and chases petty bank robbers. Within the agency there is no management, technical, counter-intelligence, or Arab language expertise, no doctrine, no sources, no morale, and no desire to get any."

It was complaints about FBI Assistant Director James Kallstrom's unprofessional conduct during the TWA 800 investigation that led to The Grassley Hearing. The following is from that hearing:

[quote]
This is a story about how the world's preeminent law enforcement agency, at least in terms of image and expectation, sometimes acted like it did not even have a clue. I believe that each and every FBI agent and employee who showed up on the scene of that tragic crash did the best job they could and had the best motives. The same goes for the employees of the other agencies and groups that worked so hard. Many volunteered to do that, and they sacrificed their time and their commitment to a greater and humanitarian good.

There was a basic problem, however. In my view, it was one of leadership. FBI leadership in the case of the TWA Flight 800 was a disaster. The FBI says that its investigation in this case is a model for the future. The FBI believes that even now. I say that because of their testimony they submitted for this hearing. If the FBI still believes that after this hearing, then I think the American people should be very alarmed about whether or not the FBI gets the message, because this investigation, which by statute was supposed to be run by the NTSB but which was commandeered by the FBI, is a model of failure, not success. And anyone who doubts that is not confronting reality.

The testimony that we will hear today will describe three things. First, it will show how the FBI lacked the proper training to handle an investigation of this type and violated the most basic standards of forensic science in terms of collecting evidence, handling that evidence, and preserving the evidence. It is the kind of thing that would make even rookie cops wince.
[end quote]