Ashcroft and FBI not doing enough to fight domestic terrorism.

December 15, 2003 4:47 AM

Ashcroft and FBI not doing enough to fight domestic terrorism. More information on the Krar posion gas plot at thememoryhole.org.
posted by skallas (18 comments total)

Who would have thought it considering the no-holds, high-profile, cutting-edge, turn-every-stone sort of investigation that yielded spectacular results in the anthrax ATTACKS (as in people-actually-got-killed, not people-might-have-killed-other-folks-had-we-not-found-out-due-to-their-own-fuck-ups).

/Bombarding innocent civilians elsewhere in the world under imaginary pretexts is politically a lot safer option
posted by magullo at 5:14 AM on December 15, 2003

Ashcroft isn't here to fight domestic terrorism - he's here to fight domestic dissent.

In the eyes of everyone but Ashcroft and the rest of the Bush administration, they're two different things.
posted by FormlessOne at 6:29 AM on December 15, 2003

...federal officials uncovered a cache of deadly chemicals much closer to home — in the eastern Texas town of Noonday...

Umm...doesn't finding them mean they're doing something?

Anyone can link to an op-ed piece. Come on.
posted by TheFarSeid at 6:37 AM on December 15, 2003

The only reason the feds even know about Krar and his bombs is because the post office sent a package full of fake IDs to the wrong person. Not exactly a deep investigation going on there. We got lucky. Thankfully.

Also, I didn't "just link to an op-ed" the memoryhole link contains a very good article on the Krar situation.
posted by skallas at 6:46 AM on December 15, 2003

Obviously you didn't read the article so I'll quote it for you.

He drew the FBI’s attention when he sent a package of counterfeit ID’s for the United Nations and Defense Intelligence Agency to Feltus’ New Jersey home earlier this year. The package was mistakenly delivered to a Staten Island man, who opened it and called police.

A note found inside and signed by Krar stated, “Hope this package gets to you O.K. We would hate to have this fall into the wrong hands.”

The discovery led to surveillance operations in and around Tyler, and then search warrants that turned up the Sodium cyanide bomb and other illegal weapons at locations controlled by Krar.

posted by skallas at 6:48 AM on December 15, 2003

Maybe Saddam provided Krar with the Sodium Cyanide bomb, and that's where the WMDs went!
posted by swerdloff at 7:41 AM on December 15, 2003

MORE INVESTIGATIONS.
posted by clavdivs at 7:42 AM on December 15, 2003

Terrorists are dark skinned Islamists.

These are just good old boys having a little fun.

Why do you hate America and Dear Leader so much?

All hail Ashcroft!
posted by nofundy at 8:42 AM on December 15, 2003

> The discovery led to surveillance operations in and around Tyler, and
> then search warrants that turned up the Sodium cyanide bomb and
> other illegal weapons at locations controlled by Krar.

That still sounds like doing something. So your basic beef is not with the cops but with the media leeches, that the incident didn't get enough frothing-mouth hype on Fox. It's a profoundly important issue, that, and I really think you should devote a lot of time to it.
posted by jfuller at 8:47 AM on December 15, 2003

In late 2001, antiabortion fanatic Clayton Waagner used packets of bogus anthrax to shut down scores of clinics nationwide. When he was convicted last week, the press was notably absent.
posted by homunculus at 10:41 AM on December 15, 2003

Double post.

And

MetaTalk.

And

NewsFilter.
posted by Seth at 10:45 AM on December 15, 2003

FBI Applies New Rules to Surveillance
posted by homunculus at 11:01 AM on December 15, 2003

homunculus, that's an FPP... or the beginning of one.
posted by squirrel at 11:55 AM on December 15, 2003

What the fuck? Ashcroft and the FBI are doing plenty to try to root out terrorists at home:

This FBI "Law Enforcement Sensitive Bulletin" ends, "Law enforcement agencies should be alert to these possible indicators of protest activity and report any potentially illegal acts to the nearest FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force." But why does this brooding FBI bulletin contain so many references to entirely legal protest activities? Like this one: "Activists may use intimidation techniques such as videotaping" during demonstrations. Who is intimidating whom? (Emphasis added.)

Referring to these FBI instructions on how to deal with the "tactics" of protesting demonstrators, Senator Ted Kennedy-on ABC-TV's This Week, November 23-said, "How could we be fighting abroad to defend our freedoms, and diminishing those freedoms here at home?" Adds the ACLU's Anthony Romero,"What is the chilling effect that will be felt by Americans all across the country if they think they will come under FBI scrutiny just by going to a protest?"

Will somebody in the elite Washington press corps ask George W. Bush if he's heard about the fifth freedom in the First Amendment, "the right of the people peaceably to assemble"?

So good to see Ashcroft and the FBI have their priorities in order.

"Double post. And MetaTalk. And NewsFilter."
posted by Seth at 10:45 AM PST on December 15

Read: This Front Page Post offends Seth's sensitive political sensibilities, and he doesn't know how to refute the issues raised, so he'll try to somehow get it removed."

Shades of the "high-signal posse." Whatever happened to those boys, anyway?

~wink~
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 1:20 PM on December 15, 2003

You'd think that with all of the resources being directed towards terrorism the FBI would have cracked that whole ALF/ELF tree hugging terrorism axis by now.
posted by MikeMc at 6:11 PM on December 15, 2003

Ashcroft and the FBI are doing plenty to try to root out terrorists at home

Right you are: In Miami, police unleashed unprecedented fury on demonstrators -- most of them seniors and union members. Is this how Bush's war on terror will be fought at home?
posted by homunculus at 8:06 PM on December 15, 2003

Meanwhile - there really is a "Best of the Web" on this subject. Orcinus has been covering this story in depth

Seth's claim of "Newsfilter" is belied by the fact that in the enourmous Krar weapons cache was a chemical weapon which FBI officials said could kill thousands almost instantly.

Dan Levitas, who wrote a recent NYT op-ed on this story puts things into perspective:

"Had there been a news conference in Washington, D.C., featuring the Attorney General and highlighting the discovery of chemical weapons in the home state of President George Bush, rest assured this would have been a major national news story. For reasons known only to John Ashcroft and the public-relations department at Justice, the decision was made to not give this case the same prominence as other terrorism related arrests. Somehow, I do believe that if suspected Al Qaeda operatives had been arrested with a fully functional sodium cyanide bomb in East Texas this would have been all over page one. "
posted by troutfishing at 6:51 AM on December 16, 2003

Another dangerous criminal has been apprehended!
posted by homunculus at 10:46 AM on December 16, 2003