Posted on 12/05/2006 11:48:07 AM PST by Flavius
WASHINGTON - Bassem Youssef is the FBI's highest-ranking Arab-American agent. He's fluent in Arabic, ran the FBI's offices in Saudi Arabia and is a terrorism expert. In fact, Youssef's undercover work helping to infiltrate the terror organization of the so-called "blind sheik," Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, earned him the intelligence community's most-prestigious award, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal.
But now, for the first time, Youssef is speaking out against the agency he loves.
"I don't believe that the FBI's doing everything it can to combat terrorism," the 18-year FBI veteran tells NBC News.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
How would anyone not directly involved with terrorism and the FBI, possibly know this?
No. And the CIA is a joke compared to the FBI.
I don't know if this source can be trusted, but no, I think the FBI is badly broken. Clinton really did a number on it, and nothing has been done to fix it.
There's a serious problem, of course, because fluent and knowledgeable speakers of Arabic who would be available to do the work tend to be Muslims. Can they be trusted? There is evidence from the KFC bombing that the FBI's own double agents were involved in it, and could not be trusted.
The FBI is very good at defending its turf and putting Republican politicians in jail, but it has lost its edge as a counterintelligence or counterterrorism outfit. Too many years chasing after skinheads, militia members, gun sellers, pro-life organizations, and all those other conservative targets that the Democrats wanted them to go after.
I'm not saying that there aren't good agents still, but that the larger organization has massive problems.
FBI Admits That NO Top Counterterrorism Agents Can Speak Arabic
Washington, D.C. October 11, 2006. The National Whistleblower Center today released a copy of a sworn affidavit of Michael J. Heimbach, the Section Chief for the FBI’s top operational counterterrorism program – the “International Terrorism Operations Section” or “ITOS.” In this affidavit, Mr. Heimbach admitted that the FBI has no agents employed within ITOS who are fluent in Arabic. He also conceded that there are “no agent positions” in ITOS that “utilize the Arabic language as part of their ITOS duties or responsibilities.”
The President of the National Whistleblower Center, and an attorney for FBI whistleblowers (including Mr. Youssef), Mr. Stephen M. Kohn, issued the following statement:
Five years after the tragedy of 9-11, the FBI is still unprepared to defend national security against Middle Eastern terrorist threats. The fact that the FBI’s critical operational unit dedicated to the War on Terror (ITOS) lacks even one agent fluent in Arabic is shocking. The fact that none of the FBI’s post-9/11 “vacancy announcements” for ITOS positions did not list Arabic language skills or knowledge of the Middle East as either mandatory or “preferred” qualifications is simply shocking.
A copy of the Heimbach affidavit is attached below. Additionally, attached is a copy of an FBI analysis of Arabic speaking agents and a copy of a report by the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) which supported assigning FBI agent Bassem Youssef (who is a fluent Arabic speaking agent) to a position in ITOS.
* Declaration of Michael J. Heimbach
http://www.whistleblowers.org/HeimbachDeclaration.pdf
* FBI Analysis of Arabic Language Proficiency Ratings
http://www.whistleblowers.org/Language_Proficiency_Ratings.pdf
* Report of Investigation of Whistleblower
Allegations by Federal Bureau of Investigation
Special Agent Bassem Youssef
http://www.whistleblowers.org/Order_and_OPR_Report.pdf
* What FBI Agent’s Don’t Know
http://www.whistleblowers.org/washpost_opinion_10-16-06.pdf
* FBI Agents Still Lacking Arabic Skills
http://www.whistleblowers.org/FBI_Agents_Still_Lacking_Arabic_Skills.htm
* Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?
http://www.whistleblowers.org/Can_You_Tell_a_Sunni_From_a_Shiite_-_New_York_Times.htm
* Arabic at the FBI
http://www.whistleblowers.org/Language_Log_Arabic_at_the_FBI.htm
* Is hummus a terrorist organization, or a delicious chick pea dish?
http://www.whistleblowers.org/html/fbi_whistleblowers.html
ping
Do not underestimate the power of bureaucrats.
IMO, bureaucracy was created as an access denial.
Apparently not. - tom
In fact, only 33 of the FBI’s 12,000 agents have even a limited proficiency in Arabic, the agency says.
This s a very serious issue as the quran is antithetical to upholding the Constitution of The United States. And the quran allows muslims to lie to the infidel. Doubtless there are American muslims who have given great service to the United States, but then only at the expense of their fealty to islam. It's very difficult to see this any other way.
That's OK, DHS isn't doing everything it can to secure our borders or enforce immigration laws.
Dane Cook crying:
"I did my best! I did my best!"
Many Sephardic Jews are fluent in Arabic but the FBI won't hire them. There was an article about it here...I'll try wto track it down.
Oh, great. That's a new one on me, but I can well believe it. The guys that gave us Ruby Ridge, Waco, and TWA 800 are still running the place, with promotions, and no doubt hillary is still giving them their orders.
OK folks this is downright disgraceful.
It's not THAT hard to learn the language. They don't need native fluency - they aren't going undercover in an Arabic speaking country. But they do need the ability to read something in Arabic and know that the translation is correct, and to be able to listen and understand.
It takes a little work but I don't know of many skills that don't require work.
There is a "new release" book out now called "Triple Cross" (go use the Barnes and Noble library).
If you want a quick synopsis that will send you to the restroom with gut-wrenching vomit, just open to the center of the book where there is a complete multi-age time line, from the 1980s to now, which notes the many points of predominately incomepetance as well as bureaucratic and political malefesance, with most of it hidden by the 9/11 commission [like Bin Laden's top spy operating with impunity from the United States, since before the 1st WTC attack, in Al Queda operation plans with the knowledge of his Al Queda connections often known to the FBI and the CIA during much of the time].
"There is evidence from the KFC bombing that the FBI's own double agents were involved in it, and could not be trusted. "
Terry Nichols applied for a visa to the Philippines one day before the Al Queda operative that designed the 1st WTC bomb applied for his.
Philippine intelligence says Nichols met with Abu Sayef terrorists while he was there.
Before Nichols went to the Philipines, friends (witnesses in his trial) said the only bombs he and the OKC bomber made were all duds.
The trail of Nichols indicates that whatever his motives were, he was aided in the Philippines by the Al Queda operative who planned the 1st WTC bombing. If Able-Danger could be used on archived domestic telecommunications data, it would not surprise me to find some trips or phone calls where Nichols and some American leftists were communicating.
Yes, that's one important train of evidence. Another is that there were a number of Saddam's Republican Guards in the OKC area, who asked for "asylum" after the first Gulf War. Another is that there appear to have been Muslims who visited Elohim City, where much of the plotting took place, as detailed in Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's book on Clinton.
There are still more pieces of evidence scattered around, too many to detail here.
That is because they only recruit those people with advanced degrees to fill those positions and of course they have to go to language school. They totally ignored those that speak fluent Arabic (even with the accent) and those that lived among the natives for a number of years just because of the educational requirements imposed.
If by "terrorism" one means being a bounty hunter or a Border Patrol agent, then yes the FBI and the Justice Dept. are doing a fine job in combating it.
The FBI, like all government agencies is full of carrerists protecting their jobs. Plus their whole mentality has been solving crimes and getting convictions in court. CounterTerrorism is inherently pre-emptive, a whole different mission, bass-ackwards from what they are used to.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1674439/posts
3 Abu members linked to Korean kidnapping captured
My goodness.
We know more than they do!
Anyone remember COLEEN ROWLEY, FBI AGENT?
She had pre-9/11 info. The info did not go to higher officals.
She resigned or retired. Then ran for Congressional office as a Democrat!
How can anyone believe the FBI is protecting us when a former FBI agent signs up with the Party of Defeat?
It sure seems as if agencies once dominated by Clinton appointees have been leaking and screwing up all over the War on Terror.
The net effect has been to stain the administration with their incompetence, while the agency bureaucrats (mostly) suffer no repercussions.
thanks for the heads-up Dajjal.
FReeper FRiends, #25 is a must read.
“Not knowing these basic tenets is symptomatic of a lack of deep knowledge about your principal adversary, and that is unacceptable," says Michael Sheehan, an NBC News terrorism analyst.Senior FBI officials argue on the tapes that it's not necessary to have expertise in Arab culture — even in terrorism — to run the FBI's war on terror. It's leadership that matters most, they say.
Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg of ignorance folks...
Things are just as bad, if not worse, overseas where even incoming CIA station chiefs often have less knowledge of the local culture, politics, and religious ideology than seasoned expatriates or their local contacts already there.
By the time they find they find their feet, open their eyes, develop an understanding and build the kind of contacts needed to succeed in the parts of the world where personal one on one relationships matter (their ties and trust are focused on the individual, not their title or position), Washington usually rotates them back home and then off to another assignment.
And then there are the problems of cooperating with foreign intel instead, relying on them (with their own agenda tainted manure) while we're still scratching our heads wondering why our own intelligence is not living up to expectations....
Maybe they should be training directly out of high school.
"There is evidence from the KFC bombing that the FBI's own double agents were involved in it, and could not be trusted."
What, were the agents moonlighting for Popeye's ?
Sorry.
Thanks for the ping/post. Thanks to all contributors.
KOHN: They don‘t know what religion he is, they think he‘s a Muslim. They don‘t know if he‘s a Muslim or not. They don‘t even know that millions of Arabs are Christians. They don‘t know that...So, what is his background and his religion? This slippery lawyer isn't answering the question. If he's a Moslem, he can't be trusted with a burned out match.
BARNICLE: What‘s his background? Where did he go to school? Where was he born?
KOHN: He was born in Egypt. His background -- essentially, he came to the FBI as a young man. There was -- there were no Arabic speaking agents or very few, so they put him in terrorism right from the get-go, in the ‘80s.
Catastrophic intelligence Failure - Clinton's Bin Laden GATE
Accuracy in Media | September 24, 2001 | Cliff Kincaid - Reed Irvine
Posted on 09/29/2001 4:10:15 PM EDT by majordivit
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/535793/posts
Bin Laden plan known since 1995: report
AFP | Dec. 8, 2001 | AFP
Posted on 12/08/2001 6:50:17 PM EST by codeword
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/586531/posts
CBS 11 Investigates Whether US Was Warned About Terrorist Attacks
KRLD TV Dallas | 4/28/02
Posted on 04/28/2002 8:47:53 AM EDT by glorygirl
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/674174/posts
Why FBI missed Islamic threat: Agents: Clinton shifted counterterror efforts
WorldNetDaily.com | Thursday, July 25, 2002
Posted on 07/25/2002 3:06:35 AM EDT by JohnHuang2
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/721990/posts
Senators call for FBI bias investigation
MSNBC | February 16, 2006 | Jim Popkin
Posted on 02/16/2006 11:48:55 PM EST by Daralundy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1580228/posts
had professional dealings with the FBI once....
not impressed.
sad and scary.
I think the FBI sees the election of the Democrats as a way to get "turf" from the CIA. This is all about pushing pencils.
At that time, the FBI had a number of Muslim Arabs supposedly working for them as double agents, to infiltrate potential terrorist organizations. As it turned out, the primary loyalty of these agents was to their fellow Muslims, not to the FBI.
Take almost any Muslim, and their primary loyalty is to Allah and his servants, not to the United States.
If you read the accounts at the time, you will pick up on the details.
The CIA also appears to have been involved. They were responsible for bringing in the son of a high level German politician, who was at Elohim City at the time of the bombing but was hastily removed from the scene.
Moreover, the head guy at Elohim City appears to have worked for the FBI. The place was riddled with double agents sponsored by the FBI, the ATF, and the CIA. Read Ambose Evans Pritchard for an initial account of this. He is one of the top reporters from the Daily Telegraph (UK), currently working as their financial columnist.
If algore or the clintons were in charge on 9/11, the FBI would have been handed this task of "solving 9/11" as a police action.
We would never have heard the name Osama Bin laden, and americans would have been bowing at the altar of the UN.
I think the problem is the problem.
The FBI pencil pushers see the terrorism problem as an issue they can own and use as a budget tool.
I don't disagree with you.
It was a light-hearted spelling flame (KFC instead of OKC).
Did I say KFC? Oh, well.
This is leftist Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers' fame's group... under yet another name.
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