“If Islamic State did indeed cultivate Paddock, as it has claimed was the case, the group surely has some evidence of its engagements with him. If it does, it may be the case the group is waiting on FBI and other agencies to dismiss its claim of responsibility for the Las Vegas attack before posting contradictory evidence online for the world to see. Islamic State has been very focused on undermining confidence among civilians in the West that their technologically-superior governments are competent managers of our collective security.”
No one should have confidence in the FBI at this point anyway. Bruce Joiner, the security guard wounded in the May 2015 jihad attack at a free speech event in Garland, Texas co-organized by Pamela Geller and me, is suing the FBI for allowing its undercover agent to aid ISIS in plotting that attack. There are many, many unanswered questions about what happened at Garland, and about what the FBI was doing there. 60 Minutes ran a feature last March about the FBI’s curious role in the Garland jihad plot. 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?
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.”
What was the FBI’s game in telling them to “tear up Texas”? 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?
Pamela Geller twice asked the FBI for an investigation into this matter. They ignored her requests.
And now the Islamic State may be working to undermine confidence in the FBI? They wouldn’t have to work very hard.
“If ISIS Was Behind Las Vegas Shooting, There’s a Terrifying Reason It Won’t Prove It Yet,” by Tom O’Connor, Newsweek, October 9, 2017 (thanks to David):
Authorities continue to doubt that the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) was behind last week’s massacre in Las Vegas, despite the jihadists’ persistent claims the shooter acted on their behalf. According to one leading expert’s analysis, however, the conflicting narratives might be playing straight into ISIS’s hands.
Despite digging deep into Stephen Paddock’s background, investigators have struggled to understand what drove the 64-year-old man, who described himself as a “professional gambler,” to slaughter 58 people and injure hundreds more when he opened fire on crowds attending a country music concert from his 32nd-floor hotel room in Las Vegas. Nothing so far has reportedly led them to believe ISIS’s claim that Paddock converted to Islam and acted as “a soldier” of the group’s self-styled caliphate, leaving observers wondering why the global militant group would risk making such an outlandish, intentionally false allegation.
The answer could lie in a larger plot to exploit the U.S.’s already eroding trust in its leadership.
“If Islamic State did indeed cultivate Paddock, as it has claimed was the case, the group surely has some evidence of its engagements with him. If it does, it may be the case the group is waiting on FBI and other agencies to dismiss its claim of responsibility for the Las Vegas attack before posting contradictory evidence online for the world to see,” terrorism analyst Michael S. Smith II tells Newsweek.
“Islamic State has been very focused on undermining confidence among civilians in the West that their technologically-superior governments are competent managers of our collective security,” he adds….
While Las Vegas’ Sheriff Joe Lombardo told reporters Monday that police “have no intelligence or evidence the suspect was linked to any terrorist groups or radical ideologies,” Smith warns that ISIS’s proven ability to avoid detection helps it send potential recruits a clear message: “Intelligence agencies in the West are not actually omniscient.”
The reality of this message has been demonstrated more than once before, with deadly consequences. Months prior to the series of ISIS-orchestrated gun and bomb attacks that killed 130 people in November 2015 in Paris, the 27-year-old “mastermind,” Abdelhamid Abaaoud, bragged about evading arrest, despite traveling as a known affiliate of the group, during an interview with ISIS magazine Dabiq.
Before August’s dual van-ramming and stabbing attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils that killed 16, the CIA had reportedly warned Spanish authorities of an ISIS-related threat specifically on Barcelona’s popular Las Ramblas, where 15 people were killed. Elsewhere in Europe, Morocco-born Youssef Zaghba, one of the men behind June’s deadly vehicular ramming and stabbing attacks that killed 8 people in London, told authorities “I’m going to be a terrorist” after being stopped in an Italian airport....
Ashley says
Whoa…
Chilling…
Sons of Liberty says
Exactly ! There is a You Tube video by Health Ranger that shows the acoustic analysis of the shooting and proves there was MORE THAN ONE SHOOTER. It is based on the physics and ballistics of what happened. The fact that the Jet fuel tanks were shot and his (Health Ranger) analysis of multiple shooters raises the question ,…what are they HIDING ?
Joel Bama Teague says
I listened to the police scanner of that night, and there is no doubt that there were multiple shooters . Listening to the scanner you can plainly hear the police saying shooter at gate seven shooter behind the wall etc.
J D S says
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…Conspiracy theories. Anyone????
Paul N Silas says
Why 23 rifles in his hotel room? Who else was Paddock expecting? ISIS?
Joe says
IMHO, he was a gun runner. Those 23 rifles were the ones that ISIS didn’t take after they shot him.
It also seems that both Steve Paddock and his girlfriend worked in conjunction (if not directly) for the US government. For example, his girlfriend was cleared for a VISA by a high level state official which almost never happens. She had two SSNs and two husbands.
People (meaning more than one) have reported that Steve Paddock made an ISIS video. I would look for it, but I don’t want to do ISIS research. It’s my guess he made it for business purposes. It was the safe thing to do.
Paddock was a “big roller” gambler, and almost all of those guys are money launderers. Casinos make 9 times more money on money laundering than gambling. Macau and other Asian gambling cities are mostly money laundering. Gun runners have to launder their money.
Besides Paddock, at least one of the active shooters was caught. I can’t say for sure that he was part of ISIS. He was the shooter at the Bellagio Hotel. The police scanner has several active shooters that were identified by police.
So far, the rifles in the room were bump guns. Bump guns rely on the recoil of the rifle, so the shooter can’t use a bipod to get an auto burst such as those at the LV shooting. Bump shooting requires that the rifle be held, and Paddock wasn’t in good enough shape to fire more than 100 hundred rounds in 10 minutes. I have never tried it, but bump shooting a 1,000 rounds in 10 minutes would probably exceed the world record by about 2.5 times. It is something that young athletic men might try.
The 98 shot burst was at 10 shots per second. It sounded like those from a belt fed machine gun (SAW machine gun). Bump firing is usually at 14 times per second, but it is erratic. The 98 second burst, has a different sound than an assault rifle, and it was delivered at one shot every 1/10th of a second on the money. I think the shooter is supposed to change the barrel and replace the clip at 100 bullets on an old belt fed machine gun. The point is that kind of fire power challenges a military weapon.
Paddock was wearing gardening gloves (not shooting gloves). Those gloves wouldn’t protect him as he fired a thousand rounds. His hands should have been bloody.
There are at least 25 other things that simply defy the video captured at the shooting. So the official story needs to progress a long way or we will have another Kennedy assassination (either one) or 911, where the “official” story is completely impossible.
The gun runner theory is the only one I have found that allows all the details to fit together.
Jack Diamond says
The official story of 9/11 is completely impossible? Inside job was it?
And that’s why you believe the U.S. government was somehow involved with this? And you “guess” Paddock made an ISIS video “for business purposes”? That he was a double agent and ISIS actually killed him and did the shooting? And you think this is the sanest explanation?
I’ll give you I have heard a Marine weapons expert give the opinion from hearing the shots that it was a belt driven military SAW, but I have no opinion or expertise on the matter.
He was not a big roller btw. He was a modest gambler by Vegas standards.
Joe says
If you want to go there, in 9-11, the official story said that the building pancaked which would take about 24 seconds; the buildings would fall over (not down); the super structure would still stand. Yet the building fell in 10 seconds; they fell into their footprint; the super structure fell. Ask a structural engineer; those building were brought down by a demolitions team. Give me a break. The planes hitting the buildings were a diversion. And building 7 came down without the plane.
Jack Diamond says
Thank for confirming who you are.
gravenimage says
What claptrap from “Joe” about 9/11. Is he another “Truther” claiming that bad ol’ George Bush murdered thousands of Americans to “make Islam look bad”?
As for the WTC, here is Popular Mechanics debunking the conspiracy theories:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a6384/debunking-911-myths-world-trade-center/
Debi Brand says
“Paddock wasn’t in good enough shape to fire more than 100 hundred rounds in 10 minutes.”
Indeed, point I also noted…
That a ton more of this story, so far, outside of a cleancut IS hit, smells like a well used dumpster.
Stephen says
If it is true that Paddock converted to Islam six months ago, he certainly did a good job covering his tracks. FBI is under a lot of pressure to find a motive, but so far no luck. FBI may be biased and incompetent but surely have incentive to find evidence if it exists.
St. Manuel II Palaiologos says
I never thought I’d be rooting for the Islamic State.
The FBI needs to be exposed for it’s incompetence, deceit, acquiescence and it’s politicization of a serious and real threat, which leads to people dying.
WorkingClassPost says
I doubt that even IS can discredit FBI any more than they already are.
Jack Diamond says
The FBI and Sheriff Lombardo are not exactly inspiring confidence when they can’t get the simplest facts straight. After all this time they decide the security guard was shot before the crowd was fired on, after pushing a story that the guard had interrupted and stopped Paddock; to decide Paddock had checked in on the 25th and not the 28th (that was hard to figure out?); and they still deny Paddock was seen with anyone, even though many witnesses saw him with a woman. Keep up the good work. No hotel video or photos forthcoming. No information about what was on his computer or even the books on his shelf. Nothing even about where all his money came from (and might have been going). Nothing. The public has no right to know? Or are these the Keystone Cops?
They drop hints of “radicalization” and accomplices and then have nothing more to add. So, just a “hunch” or do you have some evidence?
If ISIS is waiting for their claims to be denied (and ridiculed) by U.S. authorities, they already got their wish. Time to put up or shut up for Abu Babu Amriki.
Yohanan says
In wartime, there are valid needs for censorship and misinformation – but in peacetime the authorities conflicting policies and actions and loss of credibility is scary indeed.
Aso – as the first shooting into room door at hotel guard in corridor is now reported to be 9:59 pm – when and what was the first communication to police by the hotel security?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Las_Vegas_shooting#Attack_and_counter-operations
>”A little before 10 p.m. PDT, hotel security guard Jesus Campos went to the 32nd floor in response to an open-door alarm. He then began to investigate sounds of drilling that were coming from Paddock’s suite. Paddock was drilling a hole beside the door. At 9:59 p.m., Paddock shot more than 200 rounds of ammunition through the door; the volley of fire injured Campos in the leg. Campos immediately told hotel security about his injury.[7][8]” <
Jack Diamond says
The brain tumor theory dispelled. The latest from the Daily Mail–
“Las Vegas massacre gunman had a NORMAL brain: Autopsy finds ‘no abnormalites’ that could have driven him to kill 58 innocent people
–Joe Lombardo said Stephen Paddock investigation has not revealed a motive
–Clark County sheriff said exam showed ‘no abnormalities’ with Paddock’s brain
–Meanwhile girlfriend Marilou Danley had ‘no concerns’ over his mental health
–Lombardo added that ‘we may never know’ why he killed 58 innocent people
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4969140/Las-Vegas-gunman-no-abnormalites-brain.html#ixzz4vE5R4CtJ
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Ashley says
Meanwhile girlfriend Marilou Danley had “no concerns” over his mental health.
______________________
Actually Marilou did a flip on this matter:
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/las-vegas-shooting/vegas-shooter-s-girlfriend-says-he-would-lie-bed-moaning-n808156
Jack Diamond says
Of course she didn’t bother asking him what he was moaning about or what was bothering him. It wasn’t a brain tumor. Whatever was slithering around in his brain,
he’s not telling her or she’s not telling us. Blaming valium is really desperate.
mummymovie says
Wow- Hard to believe this came from Newsweek.
gravenimage says
I’m not all that surprised. Newsweek is very Islamophilic, and the chance to discredit–not to reform and improve, but just discredit–an American security agency is something they would enjoy.
Recall that the appalling Fareed Zacharia was a recent editor there.
Custos Custodum says
Newsweek has for decades been a tool to shape public opinion in line with elitist Leftist preferences.
gravenimage says
True, Custos.
Avocadolover says
The soldiers of the Islamic state are typically low-IQ believers who use trucks and knifes for their spontaneous bursts of shahidism. I refuse to believe that the Islamic State has elaborate multi-layered plans to “discredit” this or that particular organization in one of our stinking infidel societes. This is silly. Sorry to say, but Robert Spencer is stooping down to the level of 9-11 “troother” conspiracy morons here. Clear your head and go back to good old Occams Razor.
Robert Spencer says
“Sorry to say, but Robert Spencer is stooping down to the level of 9-11 ‘troother’ conspiracy morons here.”
Oh, so I’m Newsweek now?
Carolyne says
Mr. Spencer, you are not “Stooping” anywhere. Reporting a Newsweek story is not “Stooping.” I have no way of knowing if ISIS is indeed trying to undermine our intelligence agencies. but I don’t think they, especially the FBI, could be undermined much more than it has already destroyed its own reputation.
Thank you for the work you do and your efforts to inform a public which doesn’t seem to want to be informed.
TJFreedomjihad says
Right on, Thank you, always, Robert….Incredible work always….
gravenimage says
This from “Avocadolover” is absurd. The Islamic State controls a large swath of Syria and Iraq, and are a dangerous presence in Libya and Nigeria. The idea that they are capable of nothing but truck and knife attacks is ludicrous.
They may or may not have been behind the Las Vegas attack–but the fact that they are claiming responsibility for it is *certainly* news and has to be looked at seriously.
shoehorn says
ISIS have a motive for falsely claiming the Vegas massacre was jihad, and the FBI have a motive for falsely claiming it wasn’t.
Carolyne says
Very astute, shoehorn.
TJFreedomjihad says
And worse, reality is we know we have islamic trolls operating in theatre, and even Russian Goebbels style propaganda trolls who may also be operatives.
Debi Brand says
“ISIS have a motive for falsely claiming the Vegas massacre was jihad, and the FBI have a motive for falsely claiming it wasn’t.”
So too, VPD: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/police-in-las-vegas-forge-close-ties-to-the-citys-muslim-community/2016/05/22/4f2a6e3c-1647-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html?utm_term=.5de98c21da59
Joseph Pires says
Double double operatives. FBI needs to be replaced by real anti-jihadist’s like David Gaubatz, Steve Emerson, James Mitchell, Robert Spenser, and others that really know what’s going on. These fake commentators that want us to feel good (nothing to see here) are useless to us all.
Carolyne says
They are, in fact, dangerous to us all.
Leith Wood says
No faith in the FBI for a long time. Today the story in Las Vegas has changed. Thank you for honest reporting and all your work.
Debi Brand says
Given the change now stated in the timeline of events, it sounds as if the arrival of the security guard triggered the commencement of the attack rather than stopped it.
Given that fact, it would thus appear, it is most likely, “Paddock” planned to start the shooting when the concert concluded and the concert goers were, in line and in mass, exiting the premise.
Then, from his perch, with his ammo and weapons line-up and at the ready, he would commence his mowing down, do so, until, as they say, his horse was wounded and his blood spilled.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
“Given the change now stated in the timeline of events, it sounds as if the arrival of the security guard triggered the commencement of the attack rather than stopped it.”
Good point.
whirlwinder says
Look for a news report that the security guard was found dead in a ditch somewhere in Las Vegas.
gravenimage says
This is certainly possible, Debi.
Debi Brand says
Indeed.
Debi Brand says
Moreover, as “showhorn” posted: “ISIS have a motive for falsely claiming the Vegas massacre was jihad, and the FBI have a motive for falsely claiming it wasn’t.”
Indeed, so too, VPD: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/police-in-las-vegas-forge-close-ties-to-the-citys-muslim-community/2016/05/22/4f2a6e3c-1647-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html?utm_term=.5de98c21da59
Bezelel says
After watching comey in action and mueller ? I’m sure there are some outstanding agents and they are probably kept out of the loop and considered useful idiots by the swamp creatures. I do not doubt that hussein obola wanted the jihadi’s to succeed at Garland, No doubt at all. I still remember the Captain of the Maersk freighter that had to escape the somali pirates twice because obola dragged his feet giving the seals permission to fire. Benghazi was bad but it was not unique.
RCCA says
ISIS waiting to reveal their proof in order to embarrass the FBI is an interesting theory but I don’t buy it. ISIS would do far greater damage in terrifying the American public, which is their objective, if they presented the evidence and proved their strength while the public is still reeling from the tragedy. Furthermore, ISIS would get more recruits by releasing the evidence sooner rather than later.
The FBI is not ever going to declare that ISIS is innocent, more likely the FBI leaves the cause as undetermined. Should ISIS at some point release actual “proof” of their involvement, the FBI could simply explain that they were developing the evidence. There is nothing embarrassing about the fact that the FBI would take more time to investigate and verify evidence than the party who owns the evidence.
IMO, ISIS was not actually running this operation. Who is even running ISIS these days? Look at the propaganda and reputation boost OBL got from 9-11. With ISIS suffering loses on a daily basis they would not pass on that.
Was Paddock inspired by jihad attacks? Probably. Was he a convert? Perhaps. Did he act alone? I don’t think so.
FBI has some major internal problems as evidence by the Garland operation. But their reputation is at an all time low
RCCA says
so there’s nothing to be gained by some attempt to embarrass them at this point.
Chand says
RCCA: “Who is even running ISIS these days?”
Ya, good question. IMO, ISIS guys running their net magazines are just lashing out and hissing and rattling before their huge Caliphate dream project sinks (at least in Syria and Iraq). They are grabbing on to any and everything (hurricanes, psychopathic mass murderers, etc.) to try and continue to instill fear and dread before their impending doom. Like a dying warrior spitting at his enemy in defiance.
RCCA: “Was he a convert? Perhaps.”
Don’t think so. How does one prove that a deceased person was a convert to Islam? A copy of the Koran? Anyone could won one at home.
Someone claiming that he told them so could be more convincing. Or journals written by him. No such evidence yet.
A picture of Mecca-Medina-Al Aqsa on the wall perhaps………………………?
What you say seems to be right, otherwise
Carolyne says
Chand, the sad and frightening thing is we don’t know the answer to any of the questions you pose. Did he tell someone? Did he have a copy of the Koran? (By the way, so do I.) No journals? We don’t know any of that. We do know that LE has changed their story a couple of times so maybe they don’t know either. But by this time, we should know. James Comey has shown that the FBI is an incompetent organization run by pro-Obama flunkies, some of whom are also pro-Islam. I have had no confidence in the Justice Department since Eric Holder was running it. Whenever there was an instance in which it appeared a Muslim was having his feelings hurt, the Justice Department jumped in on the side of the Muslim, i.e. the Clock Boy.
Bunch of clowns.
gravenimage says
Once again, Chand hopes to convince us that any concerns about Jihad are unfounded, and that Jihad terrorists are no big deal.
Nothing to see here, “filthy Infidels”…
Sons of Liberty says
Their reputation has been at a low point since before 9/11, even back to TWA Flight 800. Anybody that believes the center fuel tank blew up is in the dark…. where they want all of us to be. The FBI and OUR GOVERNMENT …HAVE NEVER really taken seriously Osama Bin Laden’s DECLARATON OF WAR back in 1996 . If they did ,..they WOULDN’T BE LETTING the US STATE Department BRING IN MORE AND MORE MUSLIMS EVERY YEAR ,…EVEN NOW.
Carolyne says
At the time of the TWA Flight 800 being blown up, the first story, which was quickly quashed and never again mentioned, was that the Jersey National Guard was holding rocket drills at the Jersey shore at the time. Make your own judgement.
Grace says
Nothing would unnerve the American public than being told the shooter was a Manchurian candidate and how many others could be out there? Was he checking out those other venues in Chicago and Brooklyn for another shooter. A middle eastern making those inquiries would have been suspect. Was he meeting a bomber who would turn his car into a bomb? He did take cruises to the middle east.
Papa Whiskey says
Whatever the truth may be, walk heavy and watch your six.
revereridesagain says
I spent a lot of years investigating cults, including ones that committed vicious crimes. The FBI was extremely reluctant to take on cases involving religion, especially “marginalized” religious groups lest they be accused of “bias”, and went to considerable length to deny connections between cultic ideologies and criminal activity. Apparently nothing has changed.
Mockingjay says
The Truth will surface.
And it will be ugly.
gravenimage says
I *hope* it surfaces. The way things are going, the public may *never* know.
gfmucci says
Did we ever expect the day when many more people would trust an Islamic terror group more than our FBI? How far we have fallen.
Obama, and probably Clinton and Bush before him, purged anything related to Islam, Muslim, jihad, Caliphate, or terror related in any way to Islam in its training materials. Many FBI agents and their entire culture has been brainwashed and compromised by over a decade of denial of Islam-inspired terror.
Ewanda says
I suppose there is no way to have determined if Paddock was alive when the mass shooting started. Maybe I’ve seen too many movies detailing all the methods to commit major crimes and then foil capture in many complicated ways using disguises, looping, dedicated intercommunication devices, …… even having 2 weeks to fabricate an alternate secret escape route. Even being smuggled into the room in any one of those cases. …. and then there is always the lone food cart innocently tucked away in the corner.
Years ago when suicide bombers were so numerous in the Middle East, we discovered that many of them were innocent civilians that were made to carry out suicide bombings by being told that the only way they could save their captured family members from slaughter was if they strapped on a suicide vest and wander into a crowded target. We never got to know if the terrorists’ word was kept about the family and neither did the civilian. I would assume all victims never remained alive.
Normal people can be made to do almost anything to save close family members being killed as a consequence of refusal to cooperate. That’s how Hitler was able to get so many to commit so many atrocities. Disobedience was rewarded by death. There were no conscientious objectors in World War ll in Hitler’s Germany. So call it conspiracy theory but I think there could be a lot more to what seems a cut and dried case of someone stepping over the edge.
eduardo odraude says
The FBI agent’s affidavit, which Robert Spencer posted the link to above, gives a reason why an undercover employee of the FBI in an online conversation told one of the jihadists to “tear up Texas”. The affidavit claims the undercover employee said those words in order to keep the online conversation going with the jihadist. Nevertheless, the FBI surely knows those words were a mistake on the agent’s part, but in any case, the mistake surely made a negligible difference if any, as the jihadist spoken to was already heavily invested in carrying out a terror attack.
Could it be the FBI considers itself to be in a high stress, high stakes, desperate war with ISIS and other jihadist groups seeking to inflict massive damage on the U.S. by any means necessary including WMD, and that the FBI had concluded that security at the event would be massive enough already, and that the FBI did not want to compromise the undercover penetration of ISIS by an FBI agent, a compromise that could have happened if a phalanx of undercover people were seen to open fire? ISIS or its sympathizers might then have realized that the undercover FBI agent and others in contact with the jihadists were undercover and were working with U.S. authorities, and an opportunity to penetrate ISIS would then be blown. And could it be that many in the FBI consider it an urgent matter of life and death to penetrate ISIS, and that the FBI is prepared to take some risks to do that, if the risks are deemed (perhaps wrongly) to be beneath some threshhold?
For the FBI, as an organization, to seek to get certain American citizens killed, and in aid of that to permit a terror attack to succeed — would be something like a capital crime under American law, and the FBI, as an organization, seems exceedingly unlikely to take the risk of pursuing any such goal. What if a single agent leaked evidence of the crime? Others in the conspiracy could end up in jail for a long time. Why would they take that risk just in order to kill Spencer and Geller? Surely, at most, perhaps one could speculate that some rogue agent or agents, who might believe they have reasons to be angry at Spencer and Geller, could get “careless” in carrying out an operation, or allow “accidents” to happen.
One could speculate that an agent of that sort might be motivated by erroneously blaming Spencer and Geller for provoking Islam into a war that daily puts the lives of FBI agents at serious risk, a war that has no doubt killed some FBI and certainly some friends of the FBI in other agencies and in the military. It would be completely unjustified for the FBI to be angry at Spencer and Geller for the work the two do, but it seems possible that some in the FBI, under incredible stress these days because of the pressure to prevent another 9/11 or worse in the U.S., might be furious at Spencer and Geller. Imagine how agents, under that kind of pressure, might feel about people like Spencer and Geller who do things that undeniably must get the jihadists even more on fire than they already are with insane passionate intensity? Imagine there are ten crocodiles coming your way, and another hundred crocodiles are asleep, and someone in your family starts announcing loudly that crocs are green, cold-blooded killers, and other crocs start waking up and coming toward you. You might be furious at that member of your family. The analogy is not accurate, because Spencer and Geller must wake up the American people and the world. If they and others like them are silent, freedom, such as it is, will disappear. Nevertheless, one could imagine that some FBI agents might view the matter along the lines of that analogy.
If any agents in the FBI feel such sentiments, I disagree with them — I think Spencer and Geller are heroes and are doing an absolutely necessary job that hardly anyone else is willing to do. Stand up for freedom of speech even though doing so might get one killed nowadays. Alert the public to an encroaching totalitarian threat in Islam.
cjk says
Very good reasoning.
Ver Auger says
Obama’s vow that “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam” does not deny a share of the future to Robert Spencer, because slander, libel and all forms of defamation must, by definition, be false, and Mr. Spencer writes with the greatest degree of historical accuracy.
Keys says
You make a good point, Ver Auger, from the legal perspective of a “Western Democracy”; and I agree wih your comment.
However, as others have pointed out here on JW, from the perspective of Sharia law and/or law in an Islamic State, “slander” against Mohammad or Islam may be truthful and still be considered slander.
I interpret Obama’s infamous statement/vow to be a euphemism meaning that any criticism at all, truthful or not, of the “Prophet” of Islam is to be not only prohibited, but also acted against.
Akin to the meaning of “peace” in Islam.
gravenimage says
Muslims consider slander–“Ghiba”–to be anything that Muslims do not want known, It does not matter if it is true or not.
TL says
Newsweek?! Newsweek reported recently that Ken Starr was a Watergate investigator. Yahoo! joined the fun almost immediately and, like Newsweek, was promptly showered with abuse for its idiocy.
FORMER CLINTON INVESTIGATOR KEN STARR PREDICTS INDICTMENTS OVER RUSSIA PROBE
http://www.newsweek.com/former-watergate-investigator-ken-starr-predicts-indictments-over-russia-probe-680166
“Correction: This article has been changed to reflect Starr investigated Whitewater rather than the Watergate controversy involving President Richard Nixon.”
Former Watergate Investigator Ken Starr Predicts Indictments
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/former-watergate-investigator-ken-starr-193214842.html
Dave says
Michele McPhee in her book Maximum Harm shows the Boston Marathon bombers the Tsarnaev Brothers were government informants. As refugees from Islamic Chechnya the older brother travelled from the US back to Chechnya for terrorists training leaving and entering the US without a US passport nor with a screening at the port of entry despite being on a government watch list. The FBI also over looked a murder of three people prior to the Boston bombing committed by the Tsarnaevs .
Ashley says
I live in MA and I can attest that Michelle McPhee is no reporter/journalist.
gravenimage says
Is this another tedious insinuation that Jihad terror does not exist, but is all just a plot by the evil West?
Custos Custodum says
As noted on this site at the time, Russia had warned the Comey/Obama FBI about the Tsarnaev brothers.
The Obama/Holder FBI claimed not to have recognized the names because they used a slightly different spelling.
As I pointed out at the time, a professional would have checked the underlying Cyrillic spelling.
We are asked to believe that highly trained investigators dealing with explicit warnings from Russia just shrugged and “moved on” when a 10 second search on a computer terminal didn’t instantly produce the Tsarnaev’s files.
As former/current green card holders, both Tsarnaev brothers must have been finger printed by the FBI.
RICHARD CANARY says
I read a lot of the comments and so many of them were sensible and exposed so many possibilities in a very confusing episode.
But I think the main kernal of analysis is not true. If the FBI is as crooked and compromised as seems to be obvious at this point, and with the public becoming more alarmed with it, why would Isis try to add to the demands for investigating the corrupted agency?
It seems that the FBI is doing its best to aide and abet Isis, just by blundering, lying, and sending mixed signals. Obama’s lackey Comey is only one of the many who must be involved in at least one deep plot to subvert the USA. That much is obvious, or at the very least, a prominent choice of interpreting the myriad of different possible conclusions.
It takes an enormous amount of optimism to believe that Mueller, Comey, and Obama, in secretive collusions with Saudis and Isis, are not all involved in a complex effort to destroy our entire nation.
We have far more to fear from treason than we will ever have to fear from Isis.
Lorensacho says
Actually, it wasn’t ISIS who cultivated paddock but the Gluten free crowd. Living gluten free damaged his brain and turned him into a homicidal maniac.
Rich says
FBI Changes Anti-Terrorism Site Because It Offended Muslims..
Instead of listing CAIR, or the Muslim Brotherhood, as extremist groups (or even terrorist organizations), the FBI lists these groups to watch out for instead:
pro-life supporters
sovereign citizens & constitutionalists,
white supremacists,
militia members,
animal rights activists,
and environmentalists (does this include Loretta Lynch and the Pentagon?).
http://constitution.com/more-insanity-fbi-caves-to-muslim-groups-to-not-defend-americans/
Rich says
FBI Chief: Rise of “Islamophobia” a “concerning issue”
Really? That’s where we are as the death toll in the cause of Islam mounts and Christians are being wiped out in the Middle East? Tell it to the dead.Why isn’t increasing piety among Muslims and widespread support of jihad a concerning issue for this FBI clown..
http://pamelageller.com/2016/04/fbi-chief-rise-of-islamophobia-a-concerning-issue.html/
fredflint says
Like we need ISIS to discredit the FBI…..they have done a good job of doing that themselves.
Jack Holan says
Does anyone remember the assassination of Meir Kahane and Authorities were quick to dismiss any connection between the assassin and an Islamic group. They said it was spontaneous anger over Kahanes view of Arabs. This is why he was found guilty of Manslaughter and served only 8 years. Then when they raid the house of an Al Queda Agent , former Special Forces Ameican Army and same Egyptian AArmy they discovered Kahanes Assassin was just that.an assassin.
Jack Diamond says
He was part of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman’s terrorist cell (Rahman sent to the US by al Qaeda) which was planning the WTC1 attack, among others. A cell that could have been discovered and quashed in the very beginning, because of that assassination. And the 9/11 grew right out of the failure of WTC1 when Ramzi Yousef concluded it would take planes to bring down the towers.
These were intelligence failures with monumental consequences.
Ashley says
I’m elated to hear that commercial airlines have been alerted to keep close eyes on Marilou’s travel itineraries going forward. She isn’t on the “no fly” list but something is afoot.
If she has been deemed cooperative and not involved, why this directive to contact the authorities if she were to attempt skipping out of the country? Or go to New Jersey?
Why was she in a wheelchair when greeted by authorities at a California airport?
IMO, this woman stinks like bull dung.
underbed cat says
If Paddock is the shooter he had to target shoot somewhere. He had 2 planes and I think he could have flown anywhere, remote Canada or to Alaska. or the remote areas of Nevada…good place to hide training camps or the Grand Canyon but he had to have practiced somewhere and made a connection with a trainer who would not ask questions. Any record of where he purchase a cheap ticket…I just wonder was there a connection with any spotter in the crowd of similar age. Jihadists seem to always have spotters recording events who just walk away. He was very clever in his scrubbing of his motivation. ..unless they found a book.
cjk says
I don’t believe ISIS would want to discredit an organization that is doing what it can to help them. Discrediting the FBI is NOT in their interest. They want us sleeping, not rising up against our traitorous leaders in any way shape or form.
It is plausible that they do intend to show potential recruits and agents that the West’s intelligence sources are definitely not omniscient. That could be a reason for embarrassing the FBI although I think that would still be damaging to their cause overall.
Debi Brand says
Why would, Vegas police department, and others, easily, be back-flipping, possibly, doing so on steroids, away from any connection with this massacre having been the clear work of a devotee to “Allah”?
Here follows at least, minimally, a half-dozen clear reason why (Spencer, Sir, I am certain you covered this…):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/police-in-las-vegas-forge-close-ties-to-the-citys-muslim-community/2016/05/22/4f2a6e3c-1647-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html?utm_term=.5de98c21da59
Will this fact be regarded in this investigation and hit?
Improbable.
‘ cause, in the U.S. of A., we–the lion’s share who, seemingly, support the will of our elected officials and all the goals they endorse, support, and run with–we flat refuse to do so, got life to get with it and after…