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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: frankw1900 who wrote (62622)	12/21/2002 3:34:17 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 281500

The South American? The Iberian? Italy? France? "Spanish Speaking" will do, with the Portugal and Brazil included. I think it ties into the fact that these countries never went through the "Enlightenment" and are much more "Class" orientated. Something is certainly going on that causes them not be able to build a Wealthy Society.

To: frankw1900 who wrote (62622)	12/21/2002 2:21:15 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 281500

Here is a followup, with details, on the FBI's unwillingness to investigate Terrorists in past years. The promotion of the Muslim who refused to tape fellow Muslims is appalling. Great Moments in Law Enforcement ABC News reports that a pair of FBI special agents, Robert Wright and John Vincent, say the bureau stifled a Clinton-era investigation of al Qaeda: In the mid-1990s, with growing terrorism in the Middle East, the two Chicago-based agents were assigned to track a connection to Chicago, a suspected terrorist cell that would later lead them to a link with Osama bin Laden. Wright says that when he pressed for authorization to open a criminal investigation into the money trail, his supervisor stopped him. "Do you know what his response was? 'I think it's just better to let sleeping dogs lie,'" said Wright. "Those dogs weren't sleeping. They were training. They were getting ready." The FBI says its handling of the matter was appropriate at the time. After al Qaeda blew up two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, Wright tells ABC, the agents established a money trail from the attacks to some of the people they'd been investigating in Chicago, and to a Saudi businessman named Yassin al-Kadi. "Yet, even after the bombings, Wright said FBI headquarters wanted no arrests." Prosecutor Mark Flessner "was assigned to the case despite efforts Wright and Vincent say were made by superiors to block the probe." Flessner "said he . . . couldn't figure out why Washington stopped the case--whether it was Saudi influence or bureaucratic ineptitude." There may also have been an element of political correctness, as evidenced by this appalling detail: Perhaps most astounding of the many mistakes, according to Flessner and an affidavit filed by Wright, is how an FBI agent named Gamal Abdel-Hafiz seriously damaged the investigation. Wright says Abdel-Hafiz, who is Muslim, refused to secretly record one of al-Kadi's suspected associates, who was also Muslim. Wright says Abdel-Hafiz told him, Vincent and other agents that "a Muslim doesn't record another Muslim." "He wouldn't have any problems interviewing or recording somebody who wasn't a Muslim, but he could never record another Muslim," said Vincent. Wright said he "was floored" by Abdel-Hafiz's refusal and immediately called the FBI headquarters. Their reaction surprised him even more: "The supervisor from headquarters says, 'Well, you have to understand where he's coming from, Bob.' I said no, no, no, no, no. I understand where I'm coming from," said Wright. "We both took the same damn oath to defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic, and he just said no? No way in hell." Far from being reprimanded, Abdel-Hafiz was promoted to one of the FBI's most important anti-terrorism posts, the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia, to handle investigations for the FBI in that Muslim country. opinionjournal.com