FBI Management

I’m not comfortable writing this. I’m a guy who has always had a close relationship with local FBI Agents and has always had great respect for the FBI as an investigative agency.

Nobody has ever called me a “Civil Libertarian”. I’m not against aggressively going after bad guys. But, I am dead set against so called investigators going out and screwing up by the numbers -- particularly when the fate of the nation is to a great extent in their hands. That is what brings me to publicize my disappointment with the FBI.

Ever since 911, I have viewed John Ashcroft as strong medicine, but just the medicine we need. Now, I find myself seriously questioning both the FBI’s investigative competence and Ashcroft’s leadership.

As for FBI Director Robert Mueller, I never had a feeling about him one way or the other. But now I find myself wondering if anyone is running the FBI -- more to the point, I find myself wondering if Mueller is passively rubber stamping dumb Justice Department edicts or if the Justice Department is giving Mueller free rein to screw up on his own.

I first became concerned when the FBI arrested Padilla, the “dirty bomb conspirator”, in Chicago. I saw that as one of the dumbest moves in memory. It had to be a decision made by a political clod unskilled in intelligence or counterintelligence. It hurt us in two ways:

First, any professional and even most amateurs, would have known that left alone and properly monitored, this guy could have enabled us to make a great, perhaps decisive, counterintelligence coup. Though Padilla, we stood to identify and roll up an entire terrorist apparatus. Because of a half-cocked management decision to run out and arrest Padilla, we blew our chance. Because of that stupidity, that terrorist cell is still out there – free to kill Americans!

When thousands of Americans die in a dirty bomb attack, their bodies should be laid at the doorstep of the FBI and Justice Department officials who ordered Padilla’s premature arrest.

Second, we identified the source of our information on Padilla. I suspect that recent FBI embarrassment and fear of future failure, caused some timid soul, high up, to pull the trigger prematurely on Padilla. Whatever the motivation, they got only the tip of the iceberg and in so doing, let the enemy know who burned this guy. Talk about stupidity and incompetence! I see this as a great counterintelligence victory -- for Usama Bin Laden!

And now we have Steve Hatfill, who, guilty or innocent, is teaching the FBI, Mueller and Ashcroft, not to f*** with the Lone Ranger! With adversaries like Mueller's FBI, Hatfill doesn't need friends! Guilty or innocent, the FBI conduct has all but given Hatfill a free pass. The damage to the REAL war effort that is being done here is grievous. This leak driven fiasco is now going to give people like Senator Leahey just the ammunition they need to start imposing investigative restrictions -- at the very time the competent members of the FBI need expanded authority.

In my mind, this boils down to a question of investigative competence. I am not talking about screw ups or breaches by agents in the field. In the real world, people in the field, under pressure, can and do, make mistakes. I’m talking about high level management decisions – decisions made in a quiet office, with all the time in the world to make them. Those management decisions are setting the FBI up for failure. I can’t believe that this Hatfill matter is being managed by someone who knows what he or she is doing. Just like the Padilla matter, the Hatfill matter has all the signs of also being run by boobs - political hacks with no investigative know-how.

I'm no expert as to what constitutes a "Person of Interest", But, if I were asked to start guessing who was DIRECTLY responsible for the leaks and investigative blunders, I would put both Ashcroft and Mueller on my "Person of Interest" list.