“This whole operation was a foolish waste of time and money,” claimed Terence Kindlon, a defence lawyer who represented the last terror suspect to be tried in New York state. “It is almost as if the FBI cooked up the plot and found four idiots to install as defendants.”
The other question that US security experts were debating was how much had been achieved by assigning more than 100 agents to a year-long investigation of three petty criminals and a mentally ill Haitian immigrant, none of whom had any connection with any known terrorist group. “They were all unsophisticated dimwits,” said Kindlon.The FBI's "inside man" is identified as Shahed Hussain, who seems to have been more-or-less blackmailed into working with the feds to avoid deportation to Pakistan. (While working for the DMV, he had helped immigrants cheat on tests.) He gave the lads dud bombs and a fake Stinger missile. (This story gives a full write-up on Hussain.)
Apparently, Hussain had spent a lot of time recruiting for jihad at a mosque in Newburgh. Anyone of any intelligence immediately pegged him as an agent provocateur. Four dummies didn't see the obvious.
I can't stop thinking about the tale of Special Agent Robert Fuller, the "hero" who ran this sting. Previously, Fuller blew the cover of one informant, who set himself on fire as a protest -- thereby telling all other informants not to trust the FBI.
Before that, Fuller mis-identified a Canadian citizen named Arar as a terrorist; the poor guy was sent to Syria, where he was tortured. Arar successfully sued Canada for $10 million, got the Prime Minister to apologize, and is now suing the U.S. government.
Before that, Fuller blew 9/11. His job was to find two (real) terrorists, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hamzi, who became part of the hijack team. Even though they were living openly in San Diego, even though they had bank accounts and a registered car, even though their phone number and address were listed, and even though they lived with (...wait for it...) a freaking FBI informant, Fuller could not find them.
I'm going to advise my nephew to join the FBI. Why? Because it's the one job in America from which you can't get fired.
(I promise to offer Special Agent Fuller a formal apology for this post, provided he sends a written request for an apology via snail mail. IF he can find my address. That's the tricky part.)
Added note: This story indicates that sales of fake Stinger missiles have played a big role in recent FBI operations. This ties in to an earlier post which asked why Stingers have not played a role in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
2 comments:
The COINTELPRO Rule - the person proposing violence is the FBI informant.
Fuller was doing his job. Just as Coleen Rowley's superior did his job.
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WASHINGTON (AP) _ An FBI whistle-blower alleges FBI headquarters rewrote Minnesota agents' pre-Sept 11 request for surveillance and search warrants for terrorism defendant Zacarias Moussaoui and removed important information before rejecting them, government officials said Friday.
Agent Coleen Rowley wrote that the Minnesota agents became so frustrated by roadblocks erected by terrorism supervisors in Washington that they began to joke that FBI headquarters was becoming an "unwitting accomplice" to Osama bin Laden's efforts to attack the United States, the officials said. --------
Later the joke was changed from unwitting to 'a mole, like Robert Hansen, working for UBL' in HQ.
That man was soon after promoted, and awarded a presidential citation:
FBI Director Robert Mueller personally awards Marion (Spike) Bowman with a presidential citation and cash bonus of approximately 25 percent of his salary. [Salon, 3/3/2003] Bowman, head of the FBI’s National Security Law Unit and the person who refused to seek a special warrant for a search of Zacarias Moussaoui’s belongings before the 9/11 attacks, is among nine recipients of bureau awards for “exceptional performance.” The award comes shortly after a 9/11 Congressional Inquiry report saying Bowman’s unit gave Minneapolis FBI agents “inexcusably confused and inaccurate information” that was “patently false.” [Star-Tribune (Minneapolis), 12/22/2002] Bowman’s unit also blocked an urgent request by FBI agents to begin searching for Khalid Almihdhar after his name was put on a watch list. In early 2000, the FBI acknowledged serious blunders in surveillance Bowman’s unit conducted during sensitive terrorism and espionage investigations, including agents who illegally videotaped suspects, intercepted e-mails without court permission, and recorded the wrong phone conversations. [Associated Press, 1/10/2003] As Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) and others have pointed out, not only has no one in government been fired or punished for 9/11, but several others have been promoted:XI
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