Please understand that this is a fictitious interview, since Angleton died in 1987! The points made, however, are undeniable.

Back to the Angleton Files

I remembered that my old friend, James Jesus Angleton (long-time head of CIA's counterintelligence operations) had been suspicious of the snipers, and so, as one had been convicted and the other was about to go on trial, it seemed a good time to ask the old spook about the latest developments in the war on terrorism.    

It took several days. I think the ouija board got snafu'd during the hurricane, and it took a while to get it back in tune, but today I finally got a decent connection.

JJA: Good to hear from you, I was afraid something had happened —

ML: No, we're still okay. Nervous, but okay. How does it look to you?

JJA: Well, it's a bit frustrating, I don't mind telling you. Obviously, the Supreme Being knows the whole story, but he doesn't share information, so we have to make do with snippets from news broadcasts and the like. Not very satisfactory.

ML: I can imagine. I was calling primarily because you had speculated that the snipers might have been a sort of "probe" by the terror network, watching our reactions so that if and when they decided to mount large-scale operations inside this country, they'd have some operationally useful information. How does it look now?

JJA: It's a bit maddening, frankly. Nobody seems to have followed up the most suggestive leads, namely the ones that said that Muhammed had organized phony passports for several people in the Caribbean. Terrorists need those, and it seemed to me that he might have been doing multiple tasks. But I haven't seen any follow-up on that stuff.

ML: Right. But then again, if it was investigated, we wouldn't necessarily know about it, would we?

JJA: No, you're right. But the FBI in recent years has pretty much given up on intelligence work. It just does law enforcement (which makes me wonder why the president put the bureau and the Justice Department are in charge of the domestic war on terrorism). Maybe CIA has looked into it.

ML: Have you seen anything else that enhances your suspicion?

JJA: Yeah. The most interesting factoid to come out of the sentencing phase of Muhammed's trial is that Muhammed and Malvo seem to have shot up Temple Beth El in Tacoma, Washington. The prosecutors say the bullet was tied to a gun to which Muhammad had access, and that Muhammad espoused anti-Semitic views. That again suggests that Muhammed may have been more than a lone homicidal nutcase. Someone with that kind of hate would be a prime target for recruitment by the terror network. And he was a recent convert to Islam; I'd like to know a lot more about his conversion. Who did it? What version of Islam was it? And so forth.

ML: If you were in charge of domestic counterintelligence how would you go about it?

JJA: The first thing is to create a proper counterintelligence structure, which we do not have, even at CIA. Just look at the penetrations in Guantanamo! Three different people, some of whom were handling sensitive materials. That tells you everything you need to know, because the folks in charge include both Pentagon and agency people.

Just turning it over to Homeland Security does nothing. In fact, in many ways it makes things worse, because you now have a federal agency that is required to coordinate with 50 different state agencies, all "fighting terrorism." Most of those people have no background in counterintelligence, and since all those agencies are hiring Arabic speakers as fast as they can, it's a virtual certainty that there are some enemy agents among them.

ML: I'm told that we're making lots of arrests, both at home and overseas. The public doesn't see these because they're secret.

JJA: No doubt that is happening, and as there are more and more terrorist attacks against allies, they will work harder and share more information with us, hoping that we will act vigorously. It seems that the Italians, Spaniards, and Germans are being particularly helpful, and I expect lots of help from the Turks in short order. They aren't very understanding of terrorists who kill hundreds of Turkish citizens.

ML: Yeah, that's my impression, too. And, after all, we haven't had another attack since 9/11, so we must be doing something right.

JJA: Undoubtedly we are. But all the political correctness blinds us to profitable lines of investigation. One of the great strengths of democratic societies is that the people generally cooperate with the authorities. But they have to be told what to look for. Remember that the snipers were caught because somebody at a rest stop spotted them, and told the authorities. Meanwhile, our experts were looking for a white van — that never existed.

ML: So what should we tell the people?

JJA: Tell them that there are certainly terror cells in the country, and that the terrorists do not necessarily come from the Middle East (remember Johnny Jihad) or have dark skin. But they do have radical beliefs, and so people should pay attention to activities at their local mosques, etc. I'd pay particular attention to activities on college campuses and in the prisons, where recruiting is undoubtedly going on.

ML: And what would you say when people start yelling about racial profiling?

JJA: I would say — the ouija board started to gasp and wheeze — common sense is a better guide than "correctness" (his voice was fading). Constitution doesn't require suicide, does it?

And that was the end. I hope next time he'll fill in the missing words, because he was very agitated. Or so it seemed. It always was hard to tell with him unless you could see his eyes.

— Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author of The War Against the Terror Masters. Ledeen is Resident Scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute.

http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200311250846.asp

Eric The(Serious)Hun

Now, if it was, indeed, a 'probe' by folks who are inimical to our country, just think what they learned about our ability to respond to a [b]single pair[/b] of shooters!

The area surrounding Washington DC was in a mild panic of sorts, with folks staying home after dark, and the law enforcement authorities doing a very good rendition of an old Keystone Kops comedy routine.

[b]They were looking for a white man in a white van![/b]

Imagine if, say, 19 Saudi Arbian nationals were to begin doing the very same thing all across the United States?

It would effectively shut this country down....

Now, imagine if it were 19 'Jihad Johnnys'? You know, white Americans who supported the views of the Islamists?

Or 19 'Muhammads and Malvos'?

Food for thought.

Eric The(Hungry)Hun[>]:)]

Now, I would like to know why, if these terror cells are present in the United States, they have not commenced such attacks?

To do so at the present time would seem to me to be a great opportunity.

Are they waiting for next year's Presidential campaign to get underway, seeking to inflict the greatest political damage as they can?

Or, are they even here at all?

Eric The(Bumfuzzled)Hun[>]:)]

There isn't really a lot of support and guidance that such terror cells need, if all they are to do is to create the greatest amount of terror and confusion as they can.

Imagine if you were living in a country where you wanted to create such terror, and you were unafraid to die for your cause, for it was a religious duty that you were performing.

All hell would break loose, I would imagine.

Eric The(Imaginative)Hun[>]:)]

I seem to remember a PBS program, years and years ago, that featured a round table of several distinquished politicians and jurists, including Chief Justice Warren Burger and Robert Bork, as well as some newspaper editors.

The questions they addressed were the extent to which 'violence' might result in the suspension of civil liberties.

One of the questions they discussed involved the hypothetical situation in which 'you are the mayor of a city and rioting breaks out, can you immediately suspend the sales of firearms and ammunition to the public'?

Without exception, everyone on the panel agreed, 'yes.'

Even Judge Robert Bork!

What? Suspend the right of self-defense to the people at the very time they may most need access to measures for their own civil defense?

Yep. With not so much as one word in protest!

And who doubts that we have come a lot further down that pike now, than several years ago??!!

Eric The(I'veGotMine!)Hun[>]:)]

I just hope that any such attacks come [u]after[/u] September 14, 2004, if they are going to come at all!

Eric The(FriendOfTheRKBA)Hun[>]:)]

Then, again, why are they not attacking?

Do they think that they are growing stronger with every day that passes, while America grows weaker, so, any delay is to their advantage?

With our national borders not one bit safer today than they were on September 11th, I can imagine how they think that they can get a lot stronger.

Or, are they simply waiting for something to be delivered to them?

Something that, were isolated terror attacks mounted in the US, would disturb their current arrangements?

That would be a likely reason for no attacks now.

Or it could simply be that with the roundup of 1600 Middle Eastern men in the days and weeks following Sept 11th actually deprived Al Queda of some needed individuals to lead such attacks.

Or, that with the conflict continuing in Iraq, they are concentrating on trying to make our stay there as difficult as can be, so needed individuals are not present here to continue further terror attack planning.

They are waiting for a more opportune moment, when with everything in place, they can proceed with Sept 11th Two.

If that is [u]not[/u] the case, then such terror cells simply do not exist to such an extent that they can ever harm us on a large scale.

Eric The(IfTheyHaveThem-TheyWillUseThem)Hun[>]:)]

Yes, [b]Jarhead_22[/b], some places are, indeed, 'martial-law friendly'!

That's simply incredible!

A free people vote themselves into slavery!

Wow!

Eric The(I'veGotMine,You'veGotYours,TheyGotDoo)Hun[>]:)]

Not a lot to argue with there.

Post from Jarhead_22 -

Is anyone in the media [u]still[/u] left alive?

See? That's the results of a lack of planning!

Eric The(LocalNewsfolksWillReceivePasses)Hun[>]:)]

I'm not certain, [b]Railman44[/b], that I am qualified to respond to your question regarding suppressing a rifle such as the AR-15.

I've got plenty of friends with such things, but I've never heard them comment on whether the suppressor has any effect on accuracy.

But, one point in funding such terror cells is that they should be able to function with items at hand or that could be acquired without a lot of fanfare.

Obtaining a legal suppressor would be difficult for most folks, and having an illegal one might cause unwanted trouble if at any time your members are stopped.

Let's hear from others.

Eric The(AMan'sGottaKnowHisLimitations)Hun[>]:)]

I'm surely no hero, [b]Ops[/b], but had I been on any of the other hijacked planes, when it was unknown what the intent of the hijackers actually was, I would have kept my seat and kept my mouth shut, as well.

'Oh, well, I always wanted to go to Algeria', I would be thinking.

No one would have guessed it was a suicide flight.

But now, I would imagine that little old ladies would be going after the would-be hijackers tooth and nail!

Eric The(PassiveNoMore)Hun[>]:)]

Post from 199 -

So if you were in charge of the Department of Transportation, you would say that 80 year old white ladies from Poughkeepsie, New York, should be just as thoroughly searched at airports as, say, males aged 15-35 from the Middle East?

The good news for your views is [u]that[/u] is the current policy of the U. S. Department of Transportation, for the Secretary of that department, Norman Y. Mineta, was a young boy in 1942 when he and his family were relocated along with other Japanese-American families by virtue of the War Relocation Act of 1942.

As young Norman was about to board the train for the Internment camp, with his baseball, glove, and bat, an American MP took the bat from him and said, 'You won't be needing that bat where you're going!'

Pretty rude, I would say, but the propoer response is to say that Secretary Mineta should [u]not[/u] permit such personal issues to cloud his judgment on this nation's security!

The 'racial profiling' used in the Beltway sniping case proved wrong on this occasion, but that is seldom the case.

Law enforcement's mistake was that they let their prejudices blind them to several eyewitnesses who had claimed the assailants were 'dark' males!

Eric The(ClearThinking)Hun[>]:)]

When you are attacked by a group of men exhibiting the same racial/national/religious background, you really should begin giving that group a little extra attention.

We rounded up 1600 Middle Eastern men on various and sundry criminal charges and that, more than anything else, may have stopped the 'second wave' of attacks!

Now, I suppose that we could have done the 'Casablanca' thing and just rounded up 'the usual suspects.'

But we went to them and we disrupted whatever plans they may have had.

We'll likely never know how many were actively involved. But a terror cell that has been compromised to such a degree will no longer be much of a terror cell.

Know your enemy, the WWII posters used to say....

When they start sending blue-eyed, blonde Albanians against us, then we will know their tactics have changed!

Eric The(Historical)Hun[>]:)]

Careful Hun, your tinfoil is showing.

Sorry, [b]1GUNRUNNER[/b], but someone has to take up the slack since [b]Imbroglio's[/b] departure!

[:D]

Eric The(LousyReplacement)Hun[>]:)]

So true [:D]