In October 2011, the Obama Administration banned all mention of Islam and jihad in connection with terrorism from counterterror training, for the FBI as well as other agencies. Three years later, the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center laments that we don’t have enough FBI agents who understand Islam.
But that is what the Obama Administration wanted. They wanted an FBI full of agents who didn’t know anything about Islam, because they wanted to pretend that Islam had no connection with terrorism. Counter-terror materials were scrubbed of all mention of Islam and jihad, and FBI trainers (including me) who spoke about the motives and goals of the jihadists were dismissed. And now Leiter wonders why agents don’t know anything about Islam.
Leiter’s solution? More Muslim agents. And no doubt when they are hired, there will be no serious attempt to determine whether these agents have any sympathies for or ties to the global jihad. The vetting agents won’t know how to make such determinations, and to make too thorough an investigation would be “Islamophobic.”
“Former Counterterror Official: ‘We Don’t Have Enough Muslim FBI Agents,'” by Melanie Hunter, CNS News, October 27, 2014 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):
(CNSNews.com) – Former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Michael Leiter told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that the FBI does not have enough Muslim agents or agents who understand Islam.
“We don’t have enough Muslim FBI agents. We don’t have enough FBI agents who understand Islam, and we don’t have enough people in government who are doing counterterrorism, who understand 15-to-29-year olds. They’re disengaged, and this is also the group which is likely to be most violent. It can’t just be Nancy Reagan with, ‘Say no to drugs.’ You have to do engagement with that demographic,” said Leiter.
Leiter acknowledged that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is using social media more so than al Qaeda did. He said ISIS tries to recruit “Jihadi Cool,” a new form of militant Jihadism designed to appeal to young people as something fashionable or cool….