Finally some mainstream media is focusing on what I have been harping about when it comes to the FBI. Unlike what Director Comey publicly stated the other day, the FBI is not blameless when it comes to allowing these terrorists to murder Americans. The headlines read: “After F.B.I.’s Inquiry Into Omar Mateen, a Focus on What Else Could Have Been Done.”
That is the headline that should have been written after the Tsarnaevs attack on the day of the Boston Marathon. The FBI back then should have said: “Hey, this guy slipped by us. We’ve got to change the way we handle these things.” It did not do that. It set out to justify everything that it had done before.
It even lied when it told that those teams of FBI agents seen in Cambridge the night the MIT officer was shot were there for something other than capturing Tsarnaev. You must understand the two FBI commandments: first, thou shalt not embarrass the Bureau and do everything to ensure it is not embarrassed (up to and including falsifying or hiding records); and, second, to get all the positive publicity it can from every event in which it is involved.
The FBI buys into the idea that it is the finest law enforcement agency in the world. It never makes an error like every other human institution. It examined all of the incidents over the past few years involving more than 150 shootings by its agents and found they were all justified. When a group of people believe everything they do is right then it will never engage in self-examination. It will never change policies. That is why it did not change after the Tsarnaev tragedy, that is why it still has the abomination called the Top Echelon Informant program, and that is why it does not see that after Mateen it has to review what it is doing and change because its present procedures are not working.
The FBI will feed the media the bull that it is overworked. It isn’t. It is supposed to be able to profile the people who are dangerous. It has failed in doing it. So things have to change and Director Comey should not be covering up by saying things were done right. The NY Times suggests there are 10,000 terrorist investigations open at one time. That tells us nothing. That figure had to be given to the Times by the FBI but we have no idea what “open” means. Why don’t we know that?
Open can mean recording a telephone call to an active use of wiretaps and undercover operatives. One takes ten seconds; the other months. how much of each is involved in the figure given. We are told “tens of thousands of terrorist tips come to the FBI each year.” Again a meaningless figure in the context of what we are dealing with. We want to know how many come in from Russia as in Tsarnaev case or how many take ten months and use of informants or other operatives as in Mateen case. Surely these are different from the vast majority of others.
Read the Times article and it tells us of excuse after excuse by the FBI. Why is it telling us how hard the job is. How about this talking about the flood of leads where: “[FBI] counterterrorism agents hung an 18-inch section of fire hose outside their office suite in Northern Virginia as a symbol of their mission.” Why would they do that? It would be nice if they did their jobs and stopped complaining.
What we need are less excuses as to why it is a hard job. We need the FBI to change its procedures to do a better job. If it is perfect in shooting people why isn’t it perfect in finding out the potential Tsarnaevs and Mateens?
Three things of note: Some are trying to downplay Mateen’s association with radical Islam by saying he talked of association with Al Qaeda, ISIS, and others who rivals of each other. Director Comey spent time talking about this as if it mattered. They may be rivals among Muslims in the Middle East but they all have in common a hatred of America, consider us their enemy and urge attacks on us.
Next we will see the curve ball thrown out by the FBI. This is what was done in the John Connolly case where it said he was a rogue agent when he was doing what the FBI wanted him to do. Here we will be told of its investigation of Noor Zahi Salman, Mateen’s wife. It will soon be all about her and the FBI will have successfully turned the attention away from itself to something else. By the way I have read that Noor should have reported her knowledge that Mateen was planning to commit the crime. The last I knew is that there is no obligation on Americans to report potential crimes or to prevent them or to provide information to officials about them. But the way the federal laws are changing who knows.
Finally, we will read how the NRA is to blame for the FBI’s failure to stop Mateen from getting an assault weapon. The truth is that it could have done it very easily. Put the name of all people like Mateen on a list and forbid them from buying the weapons. Sure there are loopholes like buying from a private party or stealing them, but Mateen went to a regular dealer and had his name been on a list he would not have gotten the assault weapon.
Jon
I saw the 1st documentary about TWA Flight 800
called Silenced made by former cop James Sanders
and Jack Cashill when it first came out.
I talked with Kristina Bjoresson about
2 years ago.She is on my e mail list.
Robert Shetterly painted her portrait
for his Americans Who Tell the Truth series.
One of my favorite collators of conundrums
is a local guy named Ed Jewett.
He has three different blog sites.
See his material on Orlando
at his occurrencesforeign domestic. dot. com
Dear msfreeh and Rather Not, The New York Times (July 16, 2013) article “Leaving No Survivors but Many Questions ‘TWA Flight 800’ Examines a 1996 Tragedy” states: “Kristina Borjesson wrote and directed the film, but its main catalyst was Tom Stalcup, a physicist who has been conducting his own investigation of the crash since shortly after it happened.”
“These days, though, the real question is, who would have the credibility to conduct the reopened investigation that Dr. Stalcup and others seen here want?”
So even the New York Times concedes no agency that will fight the FBI. When TWA 800 was shot down, Bill Clinton was running for re-election. Hillary Clinton winning the election means Bill Clinton returns to the White House. Blatant federal coverups will be the norm.
Mary, the lawyer, offers the research below…I continue to ask why we are treating these acts of war as crimes…witness advocates and prosecutors are not the answer to this issue.
Due to the harshness of imprisoning people merely for failing to report a crime, most states chose not to include misprision of felony in their criminal laws. Instead, conduct that would fit the misprision definition is covered by other laws, such as those dealing with accomplice liability.
Federal Law
First enacted into U.S. law in 1789, misprision of a felony in the federal system is a felony punishable by a fine and up to three years in prison. The common-law rule criminalized simply knowing about a felony and not notifying the authorities. But contemporary federal law also requires that the defendant take some affirmative act to conceal the felony. The crime has four elements:
a completed felony
the defendant knowing about the felony’s commission
the defendant failing to notify a proper law enforcement authority, and
the defendant taking some affirmative step to conceal the felony.
(18 U.S.C. §4.)
Typical acts of concealment include making false statements, hiding evidence, and harboring the felon. Whether someone’s actions amount to concealment is for the jury to decide.
Suppose Marty knows his neighbor, Biff, is growing marijuana. Marty wouldn’t be guilty of federal misprision simply for remaining silent. But if he lies to the police about Biff’s growing, he’s committed the crime.
Although the crime has a broad definition, misprision prosecutions are uncommon. Prosecutors usually reserve misprision charges for people with special duties to report crimes, such as prison guards and elected officials. That said, nothing in the statute’s language limits it to such cases. The authorities might invoke it for certain types of crimes where the government wants to encourage reporting, like treason and terrorism.
State Law
“The last I knew is that there is no obligation on Americans to report potential crimes or to prevent them or to provide information to officials about them. ”
Uh… It is called misprision of felony.
“U.S. Code › Title 18 › Part I › Chapter 1 › § 4
18 U.S. Code § 4 – Misprision of felony
Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 684; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(G), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)”
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/4
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/09/29/misprision-of-felony/
Ed:
Thanks. I guess spending career on the state side I was unaware of the federal overreach.
“Put the name of all people like Mateen on a list and forbid them from buying the weapons.”
Why limit yourself to the Second Amendment? Revoke all those enumerated rights without due process, based on the suspicion someone might do something wrong. After all, we cannot be too cautious. The ends will justify the means. Why should we let these people vote or serve on juries, never mind have the freedom to travel as they wish, peaceably assemble or worship as they choose? Don’t you know that government controlled environments like jails, prisons, 1940’s internment camps for Japanese-Americans and military bases were and are the safest places in the United States? Illusion of safety uber alles!
Ed:
They can have all the rights you want to give them but when it comes to AK-47s or assault weapons having been identified as a potential terrorist sympathizer they forfeit the right to have such a gun. If they don’t like it they can go to court to enforce the right which may deter them. I cannot help you if you think people identified as potential terrorists should be able to buy assault weapons.
Hmm. Where to start?
“A right delayed is a right denied.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
Deprivation of rights without due process is just so, how can we say it nicely, totalitarian. Let’s make it easier for most to process the concept. Consider that everyone may be a “potential terrorist sympathizer”. What actions would that justify? King George III would be proud of your thinking.
The appropriate definition of “assault weapon” is a selective fire, magazine fed, man portable rifle firing an “intermediate cartridge” – a hybrid of a rifle cartridge and a pistol cartridge. That would make it more powerful than a submachine gun firing a 9mm or .45 ACP cartridge but less powerful than a Browning BAR which fired a .30-06 caliber rifle round also used in the M1 Garand. The German term for such a rifle is “sturmgewehr” – “storm rifle” or “assault rifle”. Here is the first adopted version:
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/smallarms/p/stg44.htm
The U.S. Army defines an “assault rifles” as “short, compact, selective-fire weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between submachine gun and rifle cartridges.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_rifle
What you and I can buy at a gun shop without a BATFE Class III license and a $200 tax stamp is not an “assault rifle”, mostly because they are not selective fire. You pull the trigger and you fire at most one round. Omar Mateen possessed a magazine fed rifle and a magazine fed pistol, but did not have an “assault rifle”, regardless of appearances. With the short ranges and confined spaces in the nightclub, he could have done just as much or more damage with a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with buckshot.
So, what could Omar Mateen done if he was unable legally to obtain a rifle, a pistol or a shotgun, since mere deprivation of some of his liberties still allows him to roam freely and engage in normal commerce? Here are some examples of malevolently motivated individuals and their actions:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/charges-expected-michigan-driver-slammed-bicylists-article-1.2666048
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Land_fire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Washington,_D.C.,_mass_killing
http://mynewsla.com/crime/2016/06/15/homeless-outrage-five-gruesome-arson-murders-why/
http://boingboing.net/2009/04/21/the-frank-lloyd-wrig.html
My apologies. If you read the links, one individual did have a bolt action rifle to augment his malevolence.
What happens if your remove the “suspected terrorist” component from the equation? You get Camden, New Jersey’s Howard Unruh (ignore the incorrect first title, they must have some weird sense of civic pride):
http://www.courierpostonline.com/picture-gallery/news/crime/2014/09/04/sept-6-1949-camden-is-scene-of-nations-first-mass-murder/15063383/
http://dvrbs.com/PEOPLE/CamdenPeople-HowardUnruh.html
So, let’s go back to yesterday. Before you come up with “solutions” out of the dire need “to do something”, please think it through. The consequences of the “solutions” sometimes are worse than the original problems.
I suggest that deprivation of Constitutionally defined and enumerated liberties without due process is contrary to supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, bearing true faith and allegiance to the same.
Ed:
Such nonsense quoting MLK talking about the deprivation over generations to blacks to the situation requiring a delay in buying aan assault weapon. Do you complain if you are delayed getting on a plane by the security check. Has your rights been denied?
And as to your prior comment re: misprision of a felony you might want to read Bill Fitz’s post.
Not only Japanese were put into camps, but also Italian-Americans.
“The internment of Italian Americans refers to the government’s internment of Italian nationals in the United States during World War II, similar to that of the Internment of Japanese Americans and Internment of German Americans. As was customary after Italy and the US were at war, they were classified as “enemy aliens” and some were detained by the Department of Justice under the Alien and Sedition Act. But in practice, the US applied detention only to Italian nationals, not to US citizens, or long-term US residents. Italian immigrants had been allowed to gain citizenship through the naturalization process during the years before the war, and by 1940 there were millions of US citizens who had been born in Italy. Ethnic Italians were the largest group in the United States among nationals and ethnic descendants of the three peoples represented by the three Axis powers.
In 1942 there were 695,000 Italian immigrants in the United States. Some 1881 were taken into custody and detained under wartime restrictions; these were applied most often by the War Relocation Authority to diplomats, businessmen, and Italian nationals who were students in the US, especially to exclude them from sensitive coastal areas. In addition, merchant seamen trapped in US ports by the outbreak of war were detained. Italian labor leaders lobbied for recognition as loyal (and not enemy aliens) those Italian Americans who had initiated naturalization before the war broke out; they objected to blanket classification of Italian nationals as subversives.”
These are good precedents for when the govt needs to imprison ‘Muslim’ terrorists. They’ll love Alaska!
here is good link
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/06/twa_800_breaking__air_traffic_controller_tells_all.html
ugh!
in other news
inker.com/articles/2016/06/twa_800_breaking__air_traffic_controller_tells_all.html
June 13, 2016
TWA 800: Breaking — Air Traffic Controller Tells All
By Jack Cashill
As I hoped would happen, American Thinker’s series on TWA Flight 800
has prompted individuals with first hand knowledge to come forward.
“Mark Johnson” is one. An air traffic controller (ATC), he worked the
night of July 17, 1996 — the night TWA Flight 800 was destroyed — at
the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) located in
Westbury, New York.
Johnson has provided me with his real name, and I have confirmed that
he was in a position to know what he says he knows. He requested that
I use an alias because he has children who depend on him. The federal
government, he believes, “will seek revenge, retribution and/or any
other remedy they feel like. I would be fearful my pension would be at
risk.” I have heard this sentiment voiced by many people involved in this incident.
Although Johnson was not responsible for tracking TWA Flight 800, he
spoke directly with the ATC who did. In fact, he asked him “plenty of
questions to prepare myself for the ‘suits’ who were beginning to
arrive.” Along with several other ATCs, he viewed the radar tape of
the incident. According to Johnson, “A primary radar return (ASR-9)
indicated vertical movement intersecting TWA 800.”
An advanced radar system, the Northrop Grumman ASR-9 is able to detect
a “target” in severe clutter even when the target has no transponder.
The absence of a transponder is what distinguishes a “primary radar
return” from a “secondary” one. In others words, the radar picked up a
small, unidentified, ascending object intersecting TWA 800 in the
second before the 747 “disappeared from radar.”
After Johnson and his supervisor watched the video tape replay with
audio, they turned to each other and said in unison, “What the f***!”
Asked by his supervisor if he had ever seen anything like this before,
Johnson said yes — while in the Navy days doing missile test fires at
sea.
A day later, now knowing the full scope of the tragedy, Johnson asked
if he could take another look at the radar tape. “Can’t, it’s gone,”
said his supervisor. “We had better say nothing,” said Johnson, “or
the f***ing government will make us disappear.” The supervisor agreed.
I asked Johnson what he and his colleagues thought in the days and
weeks to follow. He answered in one word, “cover-up.” As he explained,
in incidents involving fatalities, the FAA demands that the tapes be
preserved as evidence of fault or no fault. “So — no tape, no fault.
What a sham!”
Word spread quickly from TRACON. Within a half hour of the crash,
Clinton anti-terror czar Richard Clarke was summoning a high level
meeting at the White House. A civilian plane crash never before
MS,
I have watched documentaries on Flight 800.
I found the most compelling evidence of a surface-to-air missile takedown of Flight 800 to be the eyewitness accounts given by residents of Long Island.
It is the only logical conclusion given the evidence.
Huge cover-up.
Thanks for the article.