It's bad enough for a
law enforcement agency to be biased. It's even worse for it to be biased and incompetent.
But the latter seems to be an apt characterization of our
Federal Bureau of Investigation in the wake of the killings in Parkland,
Florida, where, by their own admission, the organization overlooked warnings
about the killer that could have saved seventeen students and teachers from
mass murder. This is no mere bureaucratic slip-up and the demand by Governor
Scott for the resignation of FBI Director Wray is understandable considering
the number of dead children in his state.
The incompetence, moreover, is not just restricted to Parkland.
It pervades an institution that—frequently blinded by the most rote political
correctness—interviewed and then released terrorists who ultimately perpetrated
horrific attacks from the Boston Marathon to the Orlando nightclub massacre.
(There are several more.)
Those, to be kind, oversights demonstrate aspects of bias mixed
with incompetence, but that lethal combination became yet more apparent
throughout the Russian collusion investigation. For the last few weeks we have
been digesting the nauseating probability that the FBI used a dossier paid for
by the Clinton campaign and ginned up by an assembly of creepy political
hatchet men and women (Blumenthal, Shearer, Steele, two Ohrs, etc.) with input
from various "friends of the Kremlin" in order to spy on an American
citizen and, undoubtedly, Donald Trump, before and after he became president.
In other words, the FBI displayed the behavior of a Banana
Republic in its bias (well, it's a lot more than that, sadly ) at the same time
it demonstrated its incompetence by doing so in a manner that would so
easily—despite their myriad redactions—finally be uncovered. Many have stated
they felt they could do this—play fast and loose—because Clinton's victory was
assured, but even that was no guarantee. Documents exist. Did they think Tom
Fitton and Judicial Watch would stop their FOIA requests? Eventually, the truth
gets known. Whether anyone does anything about it is another matter.
This "biased incompetence" has not gone away. It
showed up again Friday in the supposedly momentous announcement by Deputy
Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that 13 Russian nationals and three Russian
companies have been indicted for monkeying with our 2016 election via social
media. Two of them even came to the U.S. to do it. Aiming to wreak havoc
with our system, they are alleged to have done everything from exploiting
minority groups (in the grand Soviet tradition) to instigating pro and
con Donald Trump demonstrations on
the same day.
Disinformation, as most intelligence officials know, or should,
has been a hallmark of Russian intelligence since the czars. (Remember The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?)
These particular Russkies began their disinformation
campaign back in 2014, two years before the election.
Wait... 2014?
Where was the FBI? Why did it take them so long to unmask a
fairly paltry one million dollar Internet campaign using the most old-style
Soviet front groups, although throwing them up online this time? Could it be
because this all got started under Obama and he was the one who famously
excoriated Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential debates for daring to point
out that Russia was still a serious threat? Obama (busy cozying up to and
ultimately enriching Iran) accused Mitt of being back in the eighties. The Cold
War had been over for twenty years. No wonder the FBI wasn't paying much
attention to Putin & Co.
Evidently it took the Trump-Russia gambit to get them off their
duffs to discover this giant espionage ring—this even though Rosenstein
admitted during his press conference it had no impact on the election and did
not involve a single willing U.S. citizen. At certain levels, it seemed almost
like a practical joke.
Incompetence, indeed. It's worth remembering that the FBI has a
history of missing out on Russian threats. Back in 1940, Whittaker Chambers also famously came
forward to warn them about the Ware Group of Soviet spies, including Alger
Hiss, that had infiltrated the highest levels of the U.S. government—something
far more serious than we have today—but his warnings were dismissed by the
feds. Chambers was right, of course. At least the excuse at that point was that
the FBI was more worried about the Nazis than the communists. Nowadays, the
excuse seems to be Donald Trump.
No, our FBI is not the stuff of legend, if it ever was,
although, obviously, good, hard-working people work there. But it doesn't seem
to be doing its job. In fact, it seems to be doing the wrong job. The bias and
incompetence have infected each other to a degree that is indeed lethal. They
are a bureaucratic organization gone rotten.
The solution isn't that complicated but it's painful.
Since the fish rots from the top, cut it off. All of it.
Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Academy
Award-nominated screenwriter and co-founder of PJ Media. His latest book
is I Know Best: How Moral
Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn't Already.
