From: "Rich Gauszka" 

I agree it's an extremely serious matter. I suspect it's attributable to
the morass of bureaucracy rather than anything political though.


"Gary Britt"  wrote in message
news:4420244c{at}w3....
> This is a serious matter, and I think the proper questioning for moving
> forward after 9/11 is to figure out what it is about the FBI bureaucracy
> AND
> THE LAWS AND POLICIES in effect from the Clinton and prior administrations
> that caused rational FBI bureaucrats to think investigating this matter
> could be BAD for their careers.
>
> This points out something very wrong with the system, policies, the
> Gorelick
> Wall, and democrats in congress' attitude about criminalizing legitimate
> investigative efforts that since the Church Committee reforms led to a
> bunch
> of bureaucrats afraid to do their jobs because if someone with 20/20
> hindsight says they invaded some criminals privacy they not only could be
> fired but criminally prosecuted.
>
> Gary
>
> "Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
> news:44200cff$1{at}w3....
>> So says an FBI agent
>>
>>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/national/nationalspecial3/21moussaoui.html?
_r=1&oref=slogin
>>
>> ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 20 - The F.B.I. agent who arrested and
>> interrogated
>> Zacarias Moussaoui just weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks told a
> jury
>> on Monday how he had tried repeatedly to get his superiors in Washington
> to
>> help confirm his certainty that Mr. Moussaoui was involved in an imminent
>> terrorist airline hijacking plot.
>>
>> But, said the agent, Harry Samit, he was regularly thwarted by senior
> bureau
>> officials whose obstructionism he later described to Justice Department
>> investigators as "criminally negligent" and who were, he believed,
> motivated
>> principally by a need to protect their careers.
>>
>> Mr. Samit's testimony added a wealth of detail to the notion that
> officials
>> at the Federal Bureau of Investigation played down, ignored and purposely
>> mischaracterized the increasingly dire warnings from field agents in the
>> Minneapolis office that they had a terrorist on their hands in Mr.
>> Moussaoui.
>>
>> "I accused the people in F.B.I. headquarters of criminal
negligence" in
>> an
>> interview after Sept. 11, Mr. Samit acknowledged under intense
>> questioning
>> by Edward B. MacMahon Jr., Mr. Moussaoui's chief court-appointed lawyer.
>>
>> Mr. Samit confirmed that he had told Justice Department investigators
>> that
>> the senior agents in Washington "took a calculated risk not to advance
>> the
>> investigation" by refusing to seek search warrants for Mr. Moussaoui's
>> belongings and computer. He testified that he had come to believe that
> "the
>> wager was a national tragedy."
>>
>>
>
>

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