Not Something To Rejoice Over

Submitted by Alan M. Kaplan (United States), Oct 6, 2005 at 11:58

Of course you are right, Maawad is indeed an undisciplined dunce! However, his arrest is not something to rejoice over. Instead, it is just another illustration of pathetic counter intelligence (CI) conducted by the FBI. Maawad was probably a low level "Gopher" – perhaps not. Either way, he represented a CI gift, a hook that had great potential for putting together an offensive CI operation. His ill timed arrest represents another blown opportunity to mount a successful roll-up of an enemy apparatus.

This keystone cop paradigm was copied from the same mold as the ill conceived arrest of "Dirty Bomb Suspect" Jose Padilla in Chicago, three years ago. It was clear at the time that Padilla represented a gift to American Counterintelligence. His activities, if monitored professionally, had the potential of leading us to a very dangerous, albeit embryonic, espionage/terrorist apparatus.

Instead the FBI, under incredibly timid leadership, chose to arrest him. We appear to have gotten nothing of value, except perhaps a lot of work for Justice Department lawyers, trying to explain to the courts why Padilla represents a grave threat to national security.

Again, I can't believe that at some level there are not some FBI supervisors who know how to run a counter espionage operation. Last time this amateur hour was played I suspected that either Attorney General Ashcroft or FBI Director Mueller was the incompetent publicity seeker behind that move.

See http://www.lasvegaspi.com/War%20on%20Terror%20-%20Who%20is%20running%20the%20FBI.htm

With Mr. Ashcroft gone, my list of "persons of interest" is getting thin. I have to wonder how long enemy incompetence will continue to be trumped by our own.
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