Why the FBI Squelched an Investigation of a Post-9/11 Meeting Between White Supremacist and Islamic Extremists

By Mark Levine, AlterNet. Posted July 9, 2009.

It's an astonishing irony. The Senate Judiciary Committee and Former FBI Agent German, now working for the American Civil Liberties Union, are practically begging the FBI to undertake legal surveillance under a warrant of known domestic and foreign terrorist organizations cooperating together to commit terrorist acts. But the Justice Department, which demanded immunity from Congress for its illegal warrantless wiretapping of millions of Americans who have committed no crime and have never discussed murdering or bombing anyone, refuses to investigate actual terrorists discussing actual crimes on American soil. In this respect, the Obama Justice Department, with Director Robert Mueller still at the helm of the FBI, is no different than the Bush Justice Department, still preferring the easy illegal monitoring of innocent American citizens over the legal wiretapping of murderous, plotting terrorists.

As of today, a copy of the fated transcript of the summit meeting between the Islamic Extremist and the White Supremacist still sits in a locked safe in Senator Grassley's office. The public is forbidden from seeing any part of a transcript of a conversation that the FBI claims posed no danger and warranted no investigation. As of today, not a single agent in the FBI has been disciplined for misconduct in this case: none for lying to investigators, none for falsifying documents, none for failing to investigate the incipient foreign/domestic Islamic Extremist/White Supremacist Alliance, and certainly none for the regular practice of covering up illegal wiretapping.

Only one agent in the FBI has been punished in this whole sordid matter: straight-arrow Mike German, who dared to insist the FBI follow the law. (German now works for the ACLU and is promoting his book Thinking Like a Terrorist.) German has learned the hard way that the FBI and the Mafia actually have a lot in common. In both organizations, the greatest transgression an operative can do is to insist his boss follow the law.

As for the White Supremacist and Islamic Extremist leaders, they are almost certainly aware by now that their conversation was taped, placing the career (and quite possibly the life) of the FBI informant who recorded them in grave jeopardy. Next time, the White Supremacist and Islamic Extremist will be more careful. They will bide their time. In the War Against the Jews, they can be patient. They can meet in another city and carefully coordinate their terrorist attacks without being under the watchful eye of the United States Government.

They are lucky that the FBI cares more about covering up its illegal surveillance methods than it does about using legal surveillance methods to stop terrorism.

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Mark Levine, a former congressional attorney serving a high-ranking representative on the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, currently hosts The Inside Scoop, a political talk radio and television show, with the motto: "All the News the Government Does Not Want You to Know." He lives in Washington and can be reached at Mark@RadioInsideScoop.com. His show is streamed live and archived at Inside Scoop.

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