Full Blown Incompetence

In what is becoming an almost daily occurrence at the FBI, yet more evidence in the Timothy McVeigh case turned up that was not turned over to defense attorneys prior to McVeigh’s trial in Denver in 1997 for blowing up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City two years earlier. That screw-up led to Attorney General John Ashcroft postponing McVeigh’s execution to June 11th. Talk about a major screw-up.

In addition to the over 3000 pages of evidence that was turned over to McVeigh’s lawyers just last week, we now have word that additional evidence has been found in the Baltimore Field Office of all places, and that it also should have been turned over to defense counsel. It seems that the FBI have become more inept than the Keystone Cops and even worse than the LAPD. I heard one writer refer to the FBI as Full Blown Incompetence, and with their track record – particularly over the last 10 years, it seems to be a label well-earned through rank stupidity that is more than likely the responsibility of a select few.

FBI

I just don’t get it. The FBI is supposed to be a highly trained and specialized cadre of professionals that are supposed to be a cut well above the rank and file law enforcement officer. These men and women are supposed to be handpicked and to have training in a host of fields that are designed to protect America, her people and her interests both at home and abroad. What we seem to be seeing as of late are a bunch of bumblers who seem bent on finding a way for McVeigh to either have his sentence commuted or even worse, getting sprung.

Although McVeigh’s full and public admission of culpability in the death and destruction that will forever be associated with Oklahoma City has for all intents and purposes sealed his fate, with the FBI in its present state, one can never be too sure of anything.

Timothy McVeigh

Less than a year later, there was the debacle at Waco with David Koresh. The FBI had a golden opportunity to bag Koresh and end the situation peacefully and came within SIX FEET of Koresh, but the agents in the field had been told to sand down as a decision had already been made. Consequently, the next day, the compound burned and 79 of our citizens died when military personnel were used against our own people, a direct violation of the Posse Commitatus Act, which prohibits the use of military personnel against U.S. citizens within our shores.

What seems to be in order at this point would be a full and complete audit of the FBI and all other federal agencies that have law enforcement powers involving personnel that use firearms. The more one thinks of it, the fact of the matter is that with the exception of the Secret Service and a couple of others, there is no other federal law-enforcement agency that has either the need or the right to have firearms. The reason I say this is because with federal law enforcement agencies competing with each other for budget dollars and favor with their civilian masters, they have a tendency, or rather a propensity for getting more than just a little gung-ho.

In addition to federal agencies competing with each other, we also have federal agencies competing with state and local law enforcement often working at cross purposes with each other. Time and again, it is one classic case after another of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. This can make for a potentially lethal combination and something needs to be done to address the matter.

I have a proposed solution to smooth things out for all levels of law enforcement, and that is with the exception of the United States Secret Service as well as Customs and Border Patrol Officers, all other federal law enforcement agencies should be stripped of their right to carry firearms and their arrest powers. If they intend to arrest someone, they should go before a judge and get a warrant signed and coordinate with local and state law enforcement to effect the arrests necessary to prepare a case for trial.

The reason I think the Secret Service must keep arrest and weapons authority is due to their work with counterfeiting as well as Presidential and VIP protection. As for Customs and Border Patrol officers, the imminently dangerous nature of their work mandates the need for self-protection.

As for the FBI’s ineptitude: There needs to be a bipartisan investigation as well as a restructuring of the power structure within the FBI. Those who are responsible for these gross errors in the McVeigh as well as the other errors over the years must be held accountable. Current policy has the FBI Director as a 10-year appointment by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. While this should remain the same, all the top posts at the FBI should be subject to the same confirmation process as the Director, and all of them should submit semiannual reports to Congressional leaders, The White House and the American people.

Perhaps through these actions, we can once again have confidence in an agency that had once been the model of the world.

• FBI logo courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (http://www.fbi.gov/)
• Photo of Timothy McVeigh courtesy of The Associated Press
• With files from Cable News Network (http://www.cnn.com)

Copyright © 2001 by Timothy Rollins.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission