Early in 1974 Dusko Popov’s autobiography Spy/Counterspy went on sale. Its pages revealed that Edgar Hoover had been informed of Japanese interest in Pearl Harbor’s defenses 3 months prior to the attack on December, 7 1941. Hoover had been dead less than two years at the time—if he had still been alive Popov’s book probably never would have made it to press. Further research showed that the information was doctored before others saw any of it. All references to Pearl Harbor were redacted from what JEH passed on to anyone else in the US government. Media power houses haven’t strained themselves making this scandal common knowledge. History textbooks for kids leave Popov’s name out. Films depicting the day FDR said would “live in infamy” have yet to cover the sordid details of official culpability.
I
don’t need to tell you that, what determines a man’s legacy is often what isn’t
seen.
J.
Edgar Hoover
Back
in an age when people actually read newspapers dirt got buried on Saturdays. It
was said to be the most unread copy of the week. When compromising stories
couldn’t be spiked by the brass in public relations—from Wall Street to the
Pentagon—they’d scheme to adjust a revelation’s timing. Damage control
everywhere found the seventh day holiest. That ploy is a little dated—dailies
presently take themselves a lot more seriously than readers might. In any case,
the Federal Bureau of Investigation came up in two different articles in the
December 5 Washington Post. Neither of them was anything the alpha-bureaucrats
at 935 Penn wanted in circulation.
The first story US seeks prison term for former FBI lawyer, from
page A-2, concerned defendant Kevin Clinesmith. He admitted falsifying a
statement that was used seeking a renewed FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign
foreign policy adviser Carter Page. Clinesmith claimed ignorance of the full
facts in altering an official email and pled guilty. This is from defense
counsel Justin V. Shur in a sentencing request cited in the Post article:
“By
altering a colleague’s email, he cut a corner in a job that required far better
of him. He failed to live up to the FBI’s and his own standards of conduct,”
The
other article from the 5th leaves you asking, what “high” standards? It
brings up an institutional failure with stakes of life and death—for scores of
women. The undue, politically motivated, surveillance of one man is paltry by
comparison.
The front page piece Indifferent Justice Part 2: Fatal flaws in the system left a
killer on the loose, covers Samuel Little. This is the man—you
may have heard—now recognized as the deadliest serial killer known yet in US
history. By 1985 he had lengthy rap sheet across numerous states. Many of the
offenses were violent and he’d been tried twice for murder. After near deadly
rape attacks on two different women in San Diego Little received a 19 month
sentence that reportedly “devastated” prosecutor Gary Rempel. Starting with
paragraph 12 after the jump, the FBI gets mention:
“Rempel
called the FBI in July 1985 and asked Little be added to ‘their nationwide
crime profile,’ according to a typewritten summary of the case he prepared at
the time. Kenny Mack, a Florida sheriff’s investigator aware of Little’s
connection to several murders in the South, said he, too, flagged the FBI in
the mid-1980’s.
Neither
man ever heard back, and it is unclear what steps, if any, the FBI took to
investigate Little. At the time, the agency was in the process of launching the
Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, designed specifically to identify serial
killers and rapists.”
Later
in the report, although the source is unclear, Little had reputedly confessed
to 60 dead victims way back in the 80’s, Mack and the FBI resurface in the
story:
“…Mack,
the retired Alachua County, Fla., sheriff’s investigator who worked the Mount
case, says he called the FBI’s national Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico,
Va., about the 60-women story – as well as the killings in Gainesville and
Pascagoula and Ocala, Fla., killing in which Little was suspeced. Little has
since confessed to all three.
Mack
remembers an analyst saying the agency would look into it. He figured an FBI
agent might reach out at least to get fingerprints, photos or background
information. But, he said, ‘we never heard another word.’”
Does any of this sound
unfamiliar? National stories where the Bureau comes out looking sharp—or
adequate— are the exception to my reading experience. We could really use an
official score keeper. Conventional media is not up to the job. Ineptitude in
American hierarchies tends to be treated as anomaly no matter how common it is.
If the Feds were being tried on a charge of competence they’d be acquitted for
lack of evidence.
The
FBI did respond to the WP story–by Mark Brennan, Wesley Lowery and Hannah
Knowles—in a way that only amplifies their organizational demeanor of
indifference and arrogance:
“In a
statement, the FBI declined to address the matter further, saying, ‘The FBI has
a longstanding practice not to confirm or deny inquiries regarding specific
investigative matters.’”
Who
owns the FBI? Is it the employees or the ones paying their medical and
pensions? Did the WP staff talk to a spokesperson for a branch of the US
Department of Justice? The above statement sounded a lot more like an
apparatchik from the NKVD making a pronouncement to TASS. DOJ mouthpieces are
rarely tight-lipped when they think they’ve scored an investigative coup.
Remember all the inside dope that was spilled during the Richard Jewell
investigation? Little claims he took his last victim in 2005—that leaves the
Bureau with 20 years of dormancy on the matter to answer for–at a minimum. Will
the media press this and hold them accountable? Past performance from the
unfake news fraternity inspires little confidence of that.
Institutional
mass media constantly fails the public putting stories into proper perspective
when the scoop finally spills to them late in the game. Particular indulgence
is always allowed for the Bureau.
Early in 1974 Dusko Popov’s
autobiography Spy/Counterspy went on sale.
Its pages revealed that Edgar Hoover had been informed of Japanese interest
in Pearl Harbor’s defenses 3 months prior
to the attack on December, 7 1941. Hoover had been dead less than two years at
the time—if he had still been alive Popov’s book probably never would have made
it to press. Further research showed
that the information was doctored before others saw any of it. All references
to Pearl Harbor were redacted from what JEH passed on to anyone else in the US
government. Media power houses haven’t strained themselves making this scandal
common knowledge. History textbooks for kids leave Popov’s name out. Films
depicting the day FDR said would “live in infamy” have yet to cover the sordid
details of official culpability.
Far from humbled by later
events Hoover upped the ante blaming FCC director Lawrence Fly’s obstruction of illegal wiretaps.
He continued to press this phony vendetta—holding full knowledge of his own
perfidy—for years after the war. What does this tell us about the character of
a man who had been handed an explicit warning of the impending attack—that he
refused to share with his superior in the White house or military intelligence?
2,403 Americans died that day while Hoover retained his position for nearly 31
more years. This isn’t even the full context of his betrayal—the FBI director
fought tooth and nail against any trespass by fledgling intelligence agencies
on his turf for the rest of his life.
Meanwhile, the US media was
fed a bogus story of thwarting Operation Pastorious, a
Nazi sabotage mission that, if successful, would have impeded US aircraft
production for months—among other potential consequences. Its leader, George
Dasch, had actually, just as Popov tried to do, handed the FBI everything on a
silver platter. Their initial input amounted to answering the phone. They came
close to botching that task. Dasch was an American citizen who had been misled
into returning to Germany, the country of his birth, for a better job. His
actions once back on US soil, proved those of a conscientious and loyal double
agent each step of the way. Despite possessing large amounts of
cash and substantial ordnance not one US asset was harmed.
Hoover
was completely oblivious to that accomplishment–making all the facts conform to
his PR needs while suppressing many relevant ones. With the tap of
communication entirely in Hoover’s grip the bureau came out looking foolproof
on American front pages. Their actual investigative role amounted to taking
dictation.
Considering
the exposed conditions of the Nazi’s carefully chosen targets, Dasch, if
anything, was an American hero. Under the circumstances amateurs could have
pulled the plot off. With characteristic Edgarite treachery the director went
so far as to push for Dasch’s execution. Would it be wide of the mark to
diagnose a sociopath without a conscience? This spy lore is well known to any
serious student of WWII. There is no good reason the story is still arcane. The
fact that it is works for JEH fans who still dismiss it as a conspiratorial
myth. Who can provide a legitimate excuse for the Federal Bureau of
Investigation surviving WWII?
The FBI always retains the
full rights to its stories; that explains why they invariably come out so
fuzzy. It is far from clear if this federal agency missed not one, but
several, grand opportunities to prevent the first World Trade Center
bombing—the truth is probably clarified tacitly by all the effort G-men expend
covering their tracks. An NYT article from
1993 provides a zany description of the bureau’s use of undercover source Emad
Salem. He had infiltrated the conspirators and repeatedly notified handlers of
bombs in the process of manufacture. The Feds went fickle on him a few months
before the bombing. As usual their side of the details is confusing, incomplete
and dismissive. Federal management suffers the same affliction ailing all
modern mega-organizations. The ones doing heavy-lifting get over administrated
and under supported.
Salem’s undercover worked
started after El Sayyid Nosair assassinated Meir Kahane in November 1990. Emad
befriended the men in the assassin’s circle. Before that 47 boxes of documents in Arabic were
found in Nosair’s residence. With a man deployed in a life threatening deep cover
operation—a layman would foolishly expect those papers to be a high priority.
Instead, they—and the clues their text contained–remained in federal possession
untranslated until after February 1993 when the attack occurred.
All the days leading into and
out of 9-11 are a blur as the FBI tells it. The public never gets anything
close to resolution concerning Colleen Rowley, Sibel Edmonds, Abdullah Higazy, abandoned leads, Robert Wright or
the lack of coordination with CIA. This was failure equal to the one at Pearl
Harbor. The difference being 9-11 was a result of incompetence—we think–rather
than the treason of December 7. In FBI defense, since these kinds of disastrous
outcomes always result in more funding from the Hill—where’s the motive to save
American lives?
The only thing that comes out
pellucid when Feds describe their involvement is that they are always nearby–as
the plots proceed anyway. A classic case took place in Garland, Texas shooting May 3, 2015.
Elton Simpson and Nadir Hamid Soofi drove into Curtis Culwell Center lot the
day of a Mohamed drawing contest. It was held to challenge the Muslim ban on
drawing the prophet. Trouble was expected and when the two men fired on police
return fire quickly killed them after a security guard was wounded. An FBI
informant pulled up in a vehicle directly behind the assailants as the assault
began. He later claimed no knowledge of what Simpson and Soofi—who wore body
armor and possessed 6 guns with 1500 rounds of ammo—had in mind that day. It
seems odd—did he believe the two devout Muslims would hand in entries for
judgment in the competition? He had worked with them for 2 years. What was
their presumed purpose at the Culwell Center?
Numerous other cases could be
cited here—in fact nearly every case where the Bureau makes the news concludes
without explanation, consequences or reprimand after grossly incompetent or
criminal behavior. That’s why Lon Horiuchi remains
in the Federal murderers protection program to this day—evoking another case of
federal evidentiary smoke and mirrors.
Going
by everything that’s been made public the FBI first became aware of Samuel
Little in 2013. That was eight years after his last murder and 28 after G-men
were put on his trail from two different LEO sources. This information is
conveyed to the public from deep in the pages of an obsolete medium. In later
installments of the Post’s series we learn of the FBI’s heartrending efforts
updating loved ones to the fate of Little’s victims. If listening to a maniac
fess up 15, 20, 30 or 40 years too late is the proper role of our
uber-enforcement agency their budget is overdue for serious retrenchment. As
far as the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program is concerned we are entitled
to a 100% refund.
The
very media entities that are now demanding sole entitlement to a broad
audience—“fake” news being such an unprecedented threat—have been gratefully
swallowing lame answers from the FBI for generations. Those responses were
generally reciprocal to the quality of the questions.
Anyone
who isn’t scared of socialism better take a closer look at the Feds. We are all
forced to buy their product while they decide how much to tell us about what
it’s supposed to be.
Tim
Hartnett [send
him mail] was born in Alexandria, Va. He works as a contractor and
sometime bartender in Northern Va. Past columns include "What is the
Conservative Movement" and "The Clothes Make the
G-Man."
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/12/tim-hartnett/little-learning-is-a-dangerous-thing/
