View Full Version : Secret FBI report questions Al Qaeda's capabilities
March 9, 2005 — A secret FBI report obtained by ABC News concludes that while there is no doubt al Qaeda wants to hit the United States, its capability to do so is unclear.
"Al-Qa'ida leadership's intention to attack the United States is not in question," the report reads. (All spellings are as rendered in the original report.) "However, their capability to do so is unclear, particularly in regard to 'spectacular' operations. We believe al-Qa'ida's capability to launch attacks within the United States is dependent on its ability to infiltrate and maintain operatives in the United States."
And for all the worry about Osama bin Laden's sleeper cells or agents in the United States, a secret FBI assessment concludes it knows of none.
The 32-page assessment says flatly, "To date, we have not identified any true 'sleeper' agents in the US," seemingly contradicting the "sleeper cell" description prosecutors assigned to seven men in Lackawanna, N.Y., in 2002.
Overblown Sleeper Cell Threat?
"Limited reporting since March indicates al-Qa'ida has sought to recruit and train individuals to conduct attacks in the United States, but is inconclusive as to whether they have succeeded in placing operatives in this country," the report reads. "US Government efforts to date also have not revealed evidence of concealed cells or networks acting in the homeland as sleepers."
It also differs from testimony given by FBI Director Robert Mueller, who warned in the past that several sleeper cells were probably in place.
"Our greatest threat is from al Qaeda cells in the United States that we have not yet been able to identify," Mueller said at a Senate Select Intelligence Committee hearing in February 2003. "Finding and rooting out al Qaeda members once they have entered the United States and have had time to establish themselves is our most serious intelligence and law enforcement challenge."
When the secret report was issued last month, on Feb. 16, Mueller testified at a hearing before the same committee that the lack of evidence concerned him. "I am concerned about what we are not seeing," he said.
Jesus Christ in a sidecar! We're not at war with Al Qaeda we're at war with Al Clueless!!!
How do you restore confidence for past and continued failures? Of course you send illogical, mixed and confused signals to heighten the anxiety level of those your suppose to be protecting.
NDD - WHEN IS YOUR CORONATION????? Let the disbandment begin.
It just bugs the heck out of me when I see stuff like this. Politicians (elected, hired and appointed) just love to let their boys in the press know they are big shots and have access to "good stuff". Or they try to embarass the administration.
How many times have you heard on the nightly news "In secret testimony on the hill today it was learned that"?
This whole "report" stuff is also a load of crap. People who write that stuff try and keep their ass out of the ol' fry pan while giving as much information as they can. If it said "we know of cells" the question would be "Why don't you round them up?".
A person has to take all of the information, review the sources, weight each piece and then make the best choice on action. No matter what you do, somebody is going to complain.
Pete
The above rant was just my opinion.
Roguish Lawyer
03-10-2005, 09:30
The above rant was just my opinion.
No, not just yours. ;)
Perhaps someone will feel the need to send me a whole bunch of tinfoil but I believe there are cell operatives here, both in hiding and in plain damn sight. I would not be surprised to find out they have managed to infiltrate the government and the Military.
NousDefionsDoc
03-10-2005, 18:34
This from the same agency that criticized the treatment of detainees at Gitmo. So, let me make sure I have this straight - the FBI doesn't know shit, but they want us to be nicer to the people that could tell us? That about sum it up?
They need to stick to bustin' white collar criminals and get out of the AT business.
NousDefionsDoc
03-10-2005, 18:39
FBI Agents Allege Abuse of Detainees at Guantanamo Bay
By Dan Eggen and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 21, 2004; Page A01
Detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were shackled to the floor in fetal positions for more than 24 hours at a time, left without food and water, and allowed to defecate on themselves, an FBI agent who said he witnessed such abuse reported in a memo to supervisors, according to documents released yesterday.
In memos over a two-year period that ended in August, FBI agents and officials also said that they witnessed the use of growling dogs at Guantanamo Bay to intimidate detainees -- contrary to previous statements by senior Defense Department officials -- and that one detainee was wrapped in an Israeli flag and bombarded with loud music in an apparent attempt to soften his resistance to interrogation.
In addition, several agents contended that military interrogators impersonated FBI agents, suggesting that the ruse was aimed in part at avoiding blame for any subsequent public allegations of abuse, according to memos between FBI officials.
The accounts, gleaned from heavily redacted e-mails and memorandums, were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union as part of an ongoing lawsuit. They suggest that extremely aggressive interrogation techniques were more widespread at Guantanamo Bay than was acknowledged by military officials.
The documents also make it clear that some personnel at Guantanamo Bay believed they were relying on authority from senior officials in Washington to conduct aggressive interrogations. One FBI agent wrote a memo referring to a presidential order that approved interrogation methods "beyond the bounds of standard FBI practice," although White House and FBI officials said yesterday that such an order does not exist.
Instead, FBI and Pentagon officials said, the order in question was signed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in December 2002 and then revised four months later after complaints from military lawyers that he had authorized methods that violated international and domestic law.
In a Jan. 21, 2004, e-mail, an FBI agent wrote that "this technique [of impersonating an FBI agent], and all of those used in these scenarios, was approved by the DepSecDef," referring to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz.
Deputy Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in a statement last night that Wolfowitz "did not approve interrogation techniques." Whitman also said "it is difficult to determine" whether the impersonation technique "was permissible or not," but that such a tactic was not endorsed by Rumsfeld.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said in an interview that the incidents described in the documents "can only be described as torture."
The government is holding about 550 people detained in the war on terrorism at a prison on the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. Some have been held for nearly three years without charges or access to attorneys. Several dozen have taken advantage of a June ruling by the Supreme Court and petitioned federal courts to challenge their imprisonment.
Some of the FBI memos were written this year after a request from agency headquarters for firsthand accounts of abuse of detainees, officials said.
An overall theme of the documents is a chasm between the interrogation techniques followed by the FBI and the more aggressive tactics used by some military interrogators. "We know what's permissible for FBI agents but are less sure what is permissible for military interrogators," one FBI official said in a lengthy e-mail on May 22, 2004.
In another e-mail, dated Dec. 5, 2003, an agent complained about military tactics, including the alleged use of FBI impersonators. "These tactics have produced no intelligence of a threat neutralization nature to date and . . . have destroyed any chance of prosecuting this detainee," the agent wrote. "If this detainee is ever released or his story made public in any way, DOD interrogators will be not be held accountable because these torture techniques were done [by] the 'FBI' interrogators."
In another e-mail, an unidentified FBI agent describes at least three incidents involving Guantanamo detainees being chained to the floor for extended periods of time and being subjected to extreme heat, extreme cold or "extremely loud rap music."
The 32-page assessment says flatly, "To date, we have not identified any true 'sleeper' agents in the US,"
Fantastic. I feel really optimistic about this...
One little, teensy question, though. How many sleeper cells hadthe FBI identified on 10 Sep 01?
NousDefionsDoc
03-28-2005, 20:09
FBI Admits Mistakenly Giving Man Back Secret Files He Took
Associated Press
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page A12
BOSTON, March 26 -- The FBI admitted Saturday it accidentally gave classified documents back to the American translator who pleaded guilty to taking them from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Ahmed Fathy Mehalba, who was released from jail earlier this month, contacted the FBI's Boston office Tuesday after he realized agents had inadvertently given him the computer disk containing the secret files along with his personal property.
Mehalba had the disk in his possession for only a "matter of hours" before the FBI retrieved it, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ricciuti. "Someone in the bureau obviously made a serious mistake," Ricciuti said.
FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said the disk was not labeled "secret" -- as all classified data should be -- because prosecutors had to keep it in the same condition as when it was seized from Mehalba. Authorities have not said what exactly was stored on the disk, other than it concerns "national defense."
Mehalba, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen who was working as a civilian Arabic translator at Guantanamo, was arrested at Boston's Logan International Airport on Sept. 29, 2003, after customs agents found the disk containing hundreds of documents labeled "SECRET" or "SECRET/NOFORN" among 131 other disks in his luggage.