MetaFilter posts tagged with terrorism and fbi

"A strong hunch, based on a pattern of damning circumstances."

availablelight — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:44:53 -0800

A New York Times investigative report on the case against alleged anthrax terrorist Bruce Ivins: "[U]nless new evidence were to surface, the enormous public investment in the case would appear to have yielded nothing more persuasive than a strong hunch, based on a pattern of damning circumstances, that Dr. Ivins was the perpetrator." Dr. Ivins committed suicide last summer, before he could be arrested. Despite strong circumstantial evidence (and a psychological profile at least as disturbing as that as the previous suspect, Dr. Steven Hatfill), some scientists aren't convinced Ivins had the time or means to manufacture the anthrax in question. The case has been a bizarre one from the beginning, involving everything from obsessive Wikipedia editing, stalking allegations on both sides, and questions on the credibility of an addictions counselor who assumed a prominent role in the investigation.

AT&T Unity Plan FREE calling to 100 million customers.

homunculus — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 22:23:43 -0800

AT&T and Verizon obey FBI emergency requests, even if they're of dubious legality, and they get paid for it. But AT&T can't be sued, they say, because that would endanger national security.

Let's play who's the Sunni

caddis — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 07:06:16 -0800

Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite? Should the FBI's counter-terrorism chief know the difference? How about the head of the FBI national security branch? How about a vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence?

Missed Opportunities

Postroad — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:11:29 -0800

Missed Opportunities ...Lawrence Wright tells, for the first time, the story of the F.B.I. agent who had the best chance of foiling the 9/11 plot. Here, with Amy Davidson, Wright talks about how turf wars with the C.I.A. got in the way. Wright’s book “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11” will be published by Knopf in August.

And We're Confiscating Those Cartoons, Professor

BT — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 21:46:13 -0800

Miguel Tinker Salas is the Arango Professor in Latin American History at Pomona College, a political historian and sometime commentator on U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. On Tuesday, an FBI/LA County Sherrifs Office Joint Terrorism Task Force came calling during Tinker Salas's office hours. "After identifying themselves, they proceeded to ask about my relation to Venezuela, the government, the community, my scholarship, my politics...After they departed, the three or four students who were outside my office informed me that these individuals had asked them about my background, my classes, what I taught, my politics and they even wrote down the cartoons that are on my door."

FBI's Surveillance Grows by 100X

digaman — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 12:15:42 -0800

The FBI knows you're reading MetaFilter. [WashPost link]

Ashcroft's terror warning

gfrobe — Sat, 29 May 2004 08:03:59 -0800

One of Ashcroft's "credible sources" from last week's terror warning came from Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, a group that has also claimed responsibility for the blackout in the Northeast last year, the power outage in London, the Madrid bombing and has been called "notoriously unreliable" by U.S. officials. “The only thing they haven't claimed credit for recently is the cicada invasion of Washington". Ashcroft blames the FBI who have admitted that claims that terrorists were 90 percent ready to attack came not from al-Qaida, but from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades’ statements.

smoking gun anyone?

amberglow — Wed, 24 Mar 2004 18:07:45 -0800

DOJ Asked FBI Translator To Change Pre 9-11 Intercepts --- FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, was offered a substantial raise and a full time job in order to not go public that she had been asked by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to retranslate and adjust the translations of [terrorist] subject intercepts that had been received before September 11, 2001 by the FBI and CIA. "My translations of the pre 9-11 intercepts included [terrorist] money laundering, detailed and date specific information enough to alert the American people, and other issues dating back to 1999 which I won't go into right now." Incredibly, Edmonds said "The senate Judiciary Committee, and the 911 Commission have heard me testify for lengthy periods of time time (3 hours) about very specific plots, dates, airplanes used as weopons, and specific idividuals and activities." Is this true? and OMFG

Interesting Debka post

Beansidhe — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 04:17:08 -0800

Interesting Debka post re: Al-Queda and a scheduled nuking on 2/2/04 of NYC. Supposedly the original web site was removed from the Internet by the FBI.

Ashcroft and FBI not doing enough to fight domestic terrorism.

skallas — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 04:47:06 -0800

Ashcroft and FBI not doing enough to fight domestic terrorism. More information on the Krar posion gas plot at thememoryhole.org.

Feds Anticipated (Different) OKC Attack?

subgenius — Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:00:58 -0800

Did the Feds bungle intelligence on the 1995 OKC Bombing? FBI officials feared that white separatists might lash out on April 19, 1995 -- the day McVeigh chose. They were so concerned that a month earlier they questioned a reformed white supremacist familiar with an earlier plot to bomb the Murrah federal building, the one McVeigh selected. Does this affect earlier theories on OKC? Does it make the current advisories more significant?

If we let anyone fly planes, the terrorists have won...

Irontom — Mon, 23 Dec 2002 07:59:36 -0800

Buy a Flight Manual, Get a Grand Jury Subpoena? A guy qualified to fly and instruct on the Boeing 737 buys a CD on Ebay that contains the ground course for the same plane. Then the FBI gets involved, and, courtesy of section 501 (d) of the "USA Patriot Act", he can no longer even discuss the issue. [more inside]

skimble — Fri, 04 Oct 2002 07:02:39 -0800

The man who knew was John O'Neill, former FBI counterterrorism expert who spent six years connecting the dots to bin Laden and the World Trade Center/Pentagon attacks last year. Last night Frontline broadcast an excellent documentary on the tragic ironies of his life, detailing the actions of the fatuous bureaucrats who stymied his investigations, and his own death in the World Trade Center. This one-man Office of Homeland Security shows that it's not about money or departments or posturing or color-coded alerts -- it's about a commitment to truth and a willingess to act.

busbyism — Tue, 06 Aug 2002 13:52:06 -0800

Operation TIPS calls routed to "America's Most Wanted" (Salon premium, sorry) What hack wrote this script we Americans now find ourselves playing out, and why does he have such an on-the-nose sense of humor? Is this funny, depressing, painful or outrageous? Or all four?

nofundy — Tue, 25 Jun 2002 06:22:30 -0800

Is the FBI dragging it's feet in the anthrax investigation? It appears they have reason to do so. Dr. Barbara Rosenberg presents a compelling argument that the likely homegrown terrorist is known but revealing his identity could be embarrassing to the government.

fleener — Wed, 12 Jun 2002 06:16:17 -0800

Who bombed Judi Bari? We'll likely never know because of FBI bungling. Pursue and blame the victim to stifle activist speech. So is this a running theme at the FBI?

Ty Webb — Thu, 30 May 2002 09:29:21 -0800

Government Will Ease Limits on Domestic Spying by F.B.I. (NY Times link) As part of a sweeping effort to transform the F.B.I. into a domestic terrorism prevention agency, Attorney General John Ashcroft has decided to relax restrictions on the bureau's ability to conduct domestic spying in counterterrorism operations, senior government officials said today. Here's the Wash. Post's take on the story.

plemeljr — Thu, 23 May 2002 20:02:49 -0800

FBI orders ISP to remove Daniel Pearl murder video
The video [not work safe, or even home safe] that surfaced shortly after his death has been targeted by the FBI for removal on the internet, apparently using the 1996 federal obscenity law. Anyone want a Bonsai Kitten or a Y2K Video also? The Editors Note speaks volumes: After this story was edited, FBI spokeswoman Sandra Carroll called Wired News to say the bureau was merely giving advice to websites hosting the Pearl video -- and was not threatening prosecution.

martk — Wed, 10 Apr 2002 10:18:57 -0800

Anthrax and the Agency "Now that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has officially put the anthrax investigation on a back burner, it is time for Americans to think the unthinkable: that the FBI has never been keen to identify the perpetrator because that perpetrator may, in fact, be the U.S. Government itself. Evidence is mounting that the source of the anthrax was a top secret U.S. Army laboratory in Maryland and that the perpetrators involve high-level officials in the U.S. military and intelligence infrastructure." Granted, there's more than a few blips on the radar screen these days, but...whatever happened to this investigation? I'm no conspiracy theorist, but the case laid out in this piece gives me pause. Any other good theories out there?

euphorb — Wed, 13 Feb 2002 17:01:17 -0800

U.S. authorities had seven chances to catch the hijackers before September 11th.

hitsman — Fri, 21 Dec 2001 20:43:22 -0800

FBI Declines to Release Hijack Flight Cockpit Tape "While we empathize with the grieving families, we do not believe that the horror captured on the cockpit voice recording will console them in any way,'' [an FBI spokesman] said. While the FBI claims they need to keep the information secret due to a criminal investigation, partial transcripts of the tape have shown up in Newsweek. If the FBI can leak to Newsweek, surely they could get the family members to sign a confidentiality agreement and let them in on the secret too, no?

bas67 — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 21:39:30 -0800

The New McCarthyism This is so scary. It doesn't seem like anything more than intimidation, but, that's now. What will happen next?

aflakete — Tue, 27 Nov 2001 22:52:36 -0800

8 former FBI agents "have offered the first substantive critique of the Ashcroft program." A senior Justice Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that none of the changes ordered by Ashcroft would have enabled the FBI to interrupt the Sept. 11 attacks. After the rebuke mentioned previously here, perhaps the worm is turning?

timetostepback — Sat, 13 Oct 2001 03:44:07 -0800

FBI did not test..or..Notify City Hall The FBI has done a lousy job on everything connected with recent events. Why are they so crummy?

Oxydude — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 15:39:59 -0800

FBI Most Wanted Terrorists I wonder how Reuters News Service will cover this story since they have removed the word "terrorist" from the reporting of 911?