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.

This was a violation of Federal Law. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures," and that includes private conversations. Such conversations can be recorded with "probable cause" but only upon obtaining a warrant, and the FBI informant did not yet have one. Federal Law does allow one party to a private conversation to clandestinely record a conversation in which he or she personally participates, but when the agent left the room, he inadvertently removed himself from that legal exception. (Warning to Readers: in addition to the restrictions under Federal Law, many States outlaw the warrantless recording of private conversations unless all parties are aware of the secret recording. That is why Maryland officials could criminally charge Linda Tripp for recording dozens of hours of telephone conversations with a certain Presidential intern. So please check your State Law before trying this at home.)

Special Agent Mike German was well aware of this Federal Law but not particularly concerned the illegal recording would disrupt the investigation. German knew the portion that was illegally recorded lasted only a few minutes. Fortunately, the murderous chat between the proto-terrorists about suicide bombings, shooting Jews, assassinating journalists, laundering money, and obtaining Iranian arms shipments was all nicely contained in the portion of the meeting attended by the intrepid informant. This legally-recorded portion, more than 95% of the conversation, was more than sufficient to show probable cause to a judge to obtain a warrant. And armed with the warrant, the FBI could then legally spy on any further conversations between the Islamic Extremist and the White Supremacist by tapping their phones and bugging their homes. The informant would no longer be necessary.

German acted quickly to infiltrate and disrupt this terrorist alliance before it could do any great damage. As the Tampa Office had never prosecuted terrorists before, German explained to them the proper procedure for segregating the small amount of illegally-recorded material from the mass of the legally-recorded audiotape. He urged them to immediately obtain a warrant. But the Tampa agent's curt response threw a wrench in German's plans: "We don't do that here."

German blinked his eyes in disbelief. The Tampa Office had called in Special Agent German in the first place precisely because German had experience in infiltrating and prosecuting domestic terrorists. But Tampa bristled at the idea that illegally-recorded material should be segregated. "Why don't we just pretend it didn't happen?" the Tampa agent casually suggested. "No one would ever know."

German patiently explained to the Tampa Office that while an unintentional illegal recording was no big deal, pretending it did not happen was actually a serious violation of criminal law. People would know, German told the Tampa agent, because it was obvious from the tape that the informant had left the room. Even if Tampa wanted to break the law, it would do no good to the investigation, because it would compromise any future prosecution. Defense attorneys would quickly seize on the obvious illegality to exclude from evidence the entire surreptitious recording. And the entire prosecution (in legal terms, the "fruit of the poisoned tree") might be jeopardized.

Tampa disagreed. "We never do this," they said. Furthermore, if German was going to get all persnickety about the Law and the Constitution, maybe he shouldn't be working on this case. Even though the Tampa Office had originally called German into their inquiry and made him their lead investigator, they had a new blunt warning for him: "Don't call back."

But German wouldn't let it go. He informed his supervisor. And when German's supervisor started asking questions, the Tampa Office ratcheted their crimes up a notch. Tampa's FBI Office stopped the terrorist investigation entirely and began forging official reports to cover up their illegal actions. Better to let American terrorists plan suicide bombings, these middle-management FBI agents decided, than to have the FBI be caught violating the law. If it were discovered that the Tampa FBI Office routinely broke the law, they must have reasoned, they might be out of a job or even criminally prosecuted themselves.

When German's supervisor failed to pressure Tampa to change its mind, German went to the Justice Department's Inspector General. Months passed with no word. Finally the Justice Department told German it had carefully reviewed the matter but there was no reason for German to be concerned, because Tampa had formally informed the Office, in a maze of contradictions, that: (1) the White Supremacist and the Islamic Extremist had never met; (2) but even if they had met, they never talked about terrorism; and (3) even if they had met and talked about terrorism, their meeting was not recorded. The Inspector General employee breezily informed German that because no transcript existed, the Tampa Office had done the right thing in closing the investigation.

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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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