-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: April 7, 2007 3:23:35 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Another "Unaccountable Error" by the FBI
Did the FBI Flub a Major Terror Investigation?
April 06, 2007 10:48 AM
Vic Walter and Justin Rood
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/04/did_the_fbi_flu.html
FBI agents downplayed evidence of burgeoning cooperation between a
domestic white supremacist group and an Islamic terrorist
supporter, documents reviewed by ABC News show.
By curtailing its undercover investigation of the two groups, the
bureau lost a "golden opportunity" to infiltrate a potentially
deadly union between two violent radical organizations, according
to a former FBI agent involved with the case.
The document reviewed by ABC News contained several redacted
excerpts of a 157-page FBI transcript from a secret recording on
Jan. 23, 2002 between a known Islamic terrorist supporter and an
established member of a white supremacist group in Florida. It
shows the two men discussed killing Jews and journalists, praised
Hitler and Palestinian suicide bombing efforts in Israel and
discussed general ways the two men could work together by using
front companies and sharing resources.
"[T]he enemy of my enemy is my friend," the Islamic terrorist
supporter said to the white supremacist at the 2002 meeting,
according to the transcript, which was recently obtained from the
FBI and entered into congressional testimony by Sen. Charles
Grassley, R-Iowa.
"That's where we're comin' from," the supremacist responded.
"Anybody that's willing to...to shoot a Jew or to hit a Jew is my
friend. Automatically," the transcript shows the Islamic terrorist
supporter saying in response.
ABC News was allowed to take notes from the transcript excerpts,
which are set for imminent publication in the Congressional Record,
but was not allowed to make a verbatim copy of the entire document.
The FBI and the Department of Justice Inspector General have
insisted the conversation had no significant connection to
terrorism. But one veteran FBI counterterrorism agent told ABC
News that's hard to fathom.
"There's no way you can discount this," Jack Cloonan, an ABC News
consultant, said. Cloonan, who spent 27 years with the bureau and
was the senior agent of its bin Laden unit, cautioned that it was
hard to make conclusive statements about the transcript after
reading only excerpts, but that he was alarmed by what he saw.
"I'm shocked, frankly, that this is the position the bureau is
taking," Cloonan said. A discussion between known Aryan and
Islamic extremists in which they praise violence and talk warmly of
working together -- "this is what the FBI has said it's worried
about," Cloonan said. "As a counterterrorism agent, this is what
you live for."
The FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Months after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a secret FBI
informant helped agents from the Tampa, Fla. FBI office
surreptitiously record the meeting between a man the bureau knew to
be a known Islamic terrorist supporter and another man, an
established member of a white supremacist group, in Florida.
Neither the men's identities nor the identities of the groups they
represented were included in the transcript. At one point, the
supremacist referred to the Palestinian group Hamas, which has
staged suicide attacks against Jews in Israel.
"Just like Hamas. Not everybody in the occupied territories has
that determination, that will, to do what has to be done," the
supremacist states, according to the transcript.
After an FBI agent who was called in to consult on the operation
raised concerns about how the recording was made and how the case
was being documented, the office cut short the undercover
investigation.
At first, agents from the case denied any recording had been made,
according to a January 2006 Justice Department Inspector General's
report.
The Inspector General concluded that FBI agents mishandled the
case, falsified records and made misleading statements in
connection to the recording. The report also confirmed that senior
FBI officials had retaliated against the agent who had called
attention to the problem, Michael German.
German, a veteran undercover FBI agent who specialized in
infiltrating white supremacist groups, left the bureau in 2004,
after being barred from helping train new FBI recruits in
undercover tactics. German has said that the FBI lost a "golden
opportunity" by failing to conduct further investigation into the
possible union.
The transcript "flatly contradicts statements made by bureau
officials trying to downplay the incident and discredit Michael
German," said Sen. Charles Grassley at a recent hearing. Grassley
also challenged the reasoning of Inspector General Glenn A. Fine,
whose report agreed with Tampa FBI officials that "no terrorist
threat was missed."
User Comments
The FBI breaks the law in listening in our phone conversations, all
in an effort to "combat terrorism," and then when they have the
chance to actually follow through on it the war and do something
they DON'T?!? Instead they punish the agent for bringing it to
their attention!
Posted by: David Conklin | Apr 6, 2007 7:34:54 PM
See what's free at AOL.com.
www.ctrl.org
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