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Robert Spencer in FrontPage: Did the FBI Want Me and Pamela Geller Dead?

Mar 31, 2017 9:35 am By Robert Spencer

An FBI agent was at the Garland jihad attack, egging on the attackers. My latest in FrontPage:

60 Minutes ran a feature Sunday night about the FBI curious role in the May 2015 Garland jihad attack at a free speech event co-organized by Pamela Geller and me. It was, predictably enough, viciously biased, sloppy, and incomplete, but it was nonetheless illuminating in raising a hard and unanswerable question: did the FBI want Pamela Geller and me dead?

Despite the fact that the jihad attack took place at our event, neither Geller nor I appear, except in one still photo, in the 60 Minutes piece. All they say is that “a self-described free speech advocate named Pamela Geller was holding a provocative contest.”

The contempt fairly leapt from the screen. “A self-described free speech advocate”? Did 60 Minutes mean that Pamela Geller didn’t have the requisite degree in free speech advocacy? Or that she wasn’t really a free speech advocate? What they really mean, of course, is that she is not on the Left, and so cannot be celebrated as a free speech advocate the way the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, who were all Leftists, can be.

60 Minutes also gave a nod to Sharia blasphemy laws by describing the contest as “provocative.” It was an art exhibit, featuring historical and modern images of Muhammad, some created by Muslims. It was only provocative to Muslims who believe in Islam’s death penalty for blasphemy (and brainwashed dhimmis). Was 60 Minutes implying endorsement of that death penalty? Why, yes. If our event was provocative, the shooters were justifiably provoked.

Meanwhile, CBS gave a lot of space to Usama Shami, the imam of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, from which the jihadis came, allowing him to exonerate the mosque of any responsibility for “radicalizing” the jihad attackers. 60 Minutes didn’t mention what Simpson’s friend Courtney Lonergan told the Arizona Republic: “Simpson would never waver from the teachings he picked up in the mosque and elsewhere….He was one of those guys who would sleep at the mosque. The fact that he felt personally insulted by somebody drawing a picture had to come from the ideological rhetoric coming out of the mosque.”

60 Minutes also doesn’t challenge Shami on his lies right after the attack, when he said that the jihadis were not regular members of the mosque.

Despite all the predictable politically correct whitewashing and appeasement, CBS did a good job of highlighting a curious and still unexplained aspect of the attack: the FBI clearly knew the attack was coming (although it didn’t bother to inform us or our security team), as the FBI agent was right there, following behind the jihadis, whom he had encouraged to “tear up Texas.” But even though they knew the attack was coming, they didn’t have a team in place to stop the jihadis. They had one man there, and one man only. The jihadis were not stopped by FBI agents, but by our own security team. If the jihadis had gotten through our team, they would have killed Pamela Geller and me, and many others. (They would no doubt have loved to kill Geert Wilders, but he left before they arrived.)

The Daily Beast wrote in August 2016 about how this undercover FBI agent encouraged the jihadis. The Beast’s Katie Zavadski wrote: “Days before an ISIS sympathizer attacked a cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, he received a text from an undercover FBI agent. ‘Tear up Texas,’ the agent messaged Elton Simpson days before he opened fire at the Draw Muhammad event, according to an affidavit (pdf) filed in federal court Thursday.”

This was not entrapment. Simpson and Soofi were determined jihadis who had scouted out other targets. Simpson, along with Soofi and Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, who supplied weapons to the pair and helped them train, sought information about pipe bombs and plotted to attack the Super Bowl, and planned to go to Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS), long before anyone told him to “tear up Texas.”

But what was the FBI’s game in telling them to do that? Why didn’t they have a phalanx of agents in place, ready to stop the attack? Or did they want the attack to succeed, so that Barack Obama’s vow that “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam” would be vividly illustrated, and intimidate any other Americans who might be contemplating defending the freedom of speech into silence?

We twice asked the FBI for an investigation into this matter. They have ignored us. Of course. After all, it isn’t as if this happened to someone important, like Linda Sarsour.

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Filed Under: FBI, Featured, free speech, Muhammad cartoons, Robert Spencer Tagged With: Robert Spencer


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Comments

  1. Beagle says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 9:44 am

    Not just the FBI. Every major media interview or story about the art competition attempted to justify and rationalize the attackers. Even Fox News Channel was horrific.

    • cgrl says

      Mar 31, 2017 at 2:04 pm

      yes. pure insanity. it was ALL media. attacking gellar for provoking. yes, she was provoking our right in the USA to free speech. people/media/politicians etc should have praised all involved for their bravery. risking their lives to make a stand. there should be a major investigation into this with heads rolling (jihadi style)

  2. john spielman says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 10:09 am

    it is our legal RIGHT under the US Bill of Rights to criticize any one or group with CARTOONS no matter how offensive some may see them, otherwise “political cartoons” would have been banned long ago. In a democracy; islam/muslims have no legal protection from being offended. islam is a vicious politically repressive pseudo judicial and economic governance that allows violence even murder rape and stealing from, and lying to, those who refuse to submit to its demonic doctrines. It is only right to resist it with cartoons etc!

  3. Dum Spiro says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 10:23 am

    President Trump, if you (or one of your loyal, patriotic team members) is reading this, could you please investigate the handling of this matter? You’d agree that an investigation is warranted, right?
    — Spero

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 1, 2017 at 2:45 am

      I’m afraid Trump himself condemned Pamela Geller’s practicing freedom of speech at this event. I hope his views have “evolved” since…

    • Lia Wissing says

      Apr 1, 2017 at 3:29 am

      I support Dum’s question.

  4. Angel Gabriel says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 11:05 am

    This is one of the most disgusting stories I have ever read on Jihad Watch. President Trump needs to investigate this and someone needs to go to jail for a very long time.

  5. mortimer says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 11:49 am

    The sneering phrase of 60 Minutes (“A self-described free speech advocate”) invites the question: “WHO IS THE AUTHORITY ON FREE SPEECH ADVOCATES?”

    The arrogance of 60 Minutes is contemptible in this regard. Do our comprised media decide what a FREE SPEECH ADVOCATE is? If not the media, then who?

    Can a private citizen be a free speech advocate? Does a private citizen need the IMPRIMATUR of 60 Minutes pontificating EX CATHEDRA?

    They are stuffed shirts who in the final analysis COULDN’T GIVE A DARN about the freedom of expression, except for their own.

    60 Minutes is USELESS and HARMFUL if they do not say that FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IS VITAL TO ALL IN OUR SOCIETY.

  6. mortimer says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 12:16 pm

    Anyone in the FBI who is aware of a conspiracy by anyone to compromise the security of the Garland cartoon event has a moral duty to come forward and PROTECT THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION of America.

  7. Susan Olsen says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 12:20 pm

    Ever since 60 Minutes ran a story on the Phoenix immigration bill that began with the falsehood that it was now legal for the police to stop people just because they look Hispanic, 60 Minutes lost all credibility with me. I wrote them a letter and have not watched since. They also tried smearing the alternative media. I see these efforts as 60 Minute’s last gasps for air. Hopefully it will be dead and out of it’s (and our) misery soon.

  8. Berengaria says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 12:29 pm

    I am not surprised about the FBI “LONE AGENT” at the Garland CARTOON AFFAIR, BUT HE CERTAINLY WAS “NOT” there to
    Intervene & STOP the Jihadists.
    WHEN OUR LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES PHYSICALLY JOIN UP WITH THE LAW BREAKERS, I DON’T believe that I would ever trust a FBI AGENT! DRAIN THE FBI SWAMP!

  9. DFD says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 12:42 pm

    What? A US government agency **not** acting in the best interest of Americans?

    Conspiracy! Conspiracy! IMPOSSIBLE!

    • Carolyne says

      Apr 1, 2017 at 11:37 am

      Hoover and his connections to the Mafia was bad enough, but with whom does Comey have connections? Comey was working both sides of the street during the election campaigns and I suspect he is doing the same now, with different players.

  10. gary fouse says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 1:49 pm

    Mr Spencer, I respect and support the work that you and Ms. Geller do. However, I think there is one important point that needs to be cleared up. Was this mystery man an actual FBI special agent or an FBI informant? The press often mixes up the two. As a retired DEA agent, I suspect it was an informant who had not informed his handling agent(s) of what was occurring. It is, unfortunately a common occurrence, and that is why informants require close supervision and tight control. That in itself would be an embarrassment to the FBI but hardly tantamount to the bureau actively encouraging an attack that would have killed you and many others and sitting back and allowing it to happen.

    Before I rely on reporting from 60 Minutes and the Daily Beast, I would like to see further investigation. The allegations have been made, and I think Congress should drag Comey et al in under oath and get to the bottom of it.

  11. Stan Lee says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 2:27 pm

    Given the fact that an FBI agent who was “under cover”, acting as an ISIS conspirator who had Elton “Ibrahim” Simpson’s confidence, and he was present in Garland, TX within a 100 yds. of the Simpson-Soofi vehicle, observing what took place, It could have been a case as follows:
    An “undercover FBI agent” who may have not been cleared by FBI to reveal his role as an FBI agent under cover. Having been under cover could have also produced leads to other terrorist activities by other Islamic-ISIS followers and the Simpson-Soofi team could have been the link to other terror activities.

    The FBI undercover agent could have been instructed not to “out” himself and lose whatever contacts had been developed. In addition, what that agent learned was that lawmen were posted sufficient to deal with an attack and the FBI gambling away an undercover operative who had been receiving information may have been deemed at FBI HQ as worth continuing the undercover role which had penetrated with Simpson-Soofi and may have led to more.

    It’s a question to me of whether the FBI was hoping for “deeper penetration” by its agent,or would have been agreeable to losing it by joining the Texas police in stopping the planned attack.
    IMHO, I think the FBI was interested in going deeper than the two attackers the Texas police team had been able to stop during the shoot-out. There had to be present a SWAT detain, who, upon the two attackers going down and wounded, but still firing, were then shot and killed, each by a “head shot” from the police sniper team.

    • Tom Davis says

      Mar 31, 2017 at 4:12 pm

      You know, your post is beginning to make me wonder. Given the number of police who have been surprised and killed in ambushes, at the time I thought tit a near-miracle that these 2 scum were dispatched so easily. In hindsight perhaps it wasn’t such a miracle after all. Perhaps security was ‘clued in’ that they were coming.

      • Tom Davis says

        Mar 31, 2017 at 4:13 pm

        thought it a near miracle

    • TR says

      Apr 1, 2017 at 9:21 am

      Stan Lee, I believe you are right on. The Clandestine operative penetrating the Islamic Terror group needs to keep his cover and position within the group. Yelling “Tear Up Texas” is all a part of staying secure with his infiltration. Repeating chants and slogans is harmless when it is the normal banter in a demonstration expressing solidarity. The police had it covered with their swat team. Granted the Media loves to blow all this up and sensationalize the incident. Why surface a deep penetration and lose the assets of future conspiracies planning bigger attacks. Hundreds of lives can be saved when a counter intelligence infiltrator manages to maintain his radical Islamic cover.

  12. Isntlam says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 2:35 pm

    It could be very tough to prove FBI agent was “egging on” the terrorists.

    From reading the pdf it doesn’t appear to me these guys needing egging on and the statement “tear up Texas” could be seen as an attempt by the agent to feel out their plans in light of the upcoming Draw Muhammad event.

    And the undercover agent doesn’t sound like he was in a position to be giving orders to the terrorists.

    Of course, the fact the FBI was following their car but didn’t intercept them before or as soon as they got out with their guns looks bad.

    There needs to be an investigation to really sort this out.

  13. underbed cat says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 4:03 pm

    This makes me feel very unsafe…however the diversity hiring extends to the FBI… the Obama years, there was a silencing that was defending….I thought Comey was not part of this but he had to operate under the direction of our (my opinion) Islam promoting leader who walked a fine line…but allowed the expansion of influence, which why it is important in getting the definitions correct. It is insidious, dangerous and growing….but as we can see the terror and silencing is working….now here is a investigation that needs need to be done by a unbias press, if you can find one. The police officer should also get an explanation…Thank God, Pamela, Robert and Greet and the many participants were not harmed.

  14. Kepha says

    Mar 31, 2017 at 8:48 pm

    The Sixty Minutes crew are a disgrace. Apparently the FBI is, too.

  15. joydbrower says

    Apr 1, 2017 at 5:54 am

    This report/story is sickening on SO many levels! To think that the vaunted FBI would have anything to do with that event that wasn’t in an investigative and protective mode, is beyond disgusting!! May the FBI perps receive the justice they deserve – including both failed AND SUCCESSFUL attempts to impinge on the human rights of both Pamela Geller and and her circle of LOYAL friends & supporters!

  16. Eric Jones says

    Apr 1, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    I hope that Geller and Spencer continue to provide effective security for themselves. The FBI warned John Gotti that other mobsters were gunning for him; but could not warn Geller and Spencer. Or manybe they did not want to.

    The FBI needs to be cleaned out. Comey should be fired. Rouge elements of the FBI should be fired or imprisioned. This malfeaseance at the top must stop.

    Eric

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