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| Muslim FBI Agent Reinstated |
| 2004-02-27 |
| EFL, looks like he was screwed: Feb. 25 - Overturning the action of its senior disciplinary officer, the FBI has reinstated a high-profile Muslim agent who had been fired last year amid a swirl of controversy over allegations of conflicting loyalties in the war on terrorism, NEWSWEEK has learned. Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, an Egyptian-born agent who had played a crucial role in some of the bureauâs biggest terrorism cases, was recently notified that a three-member FBI Disciplinary Review Board had overturned his dismissal and âdecided to reinstate you to the rolls of the FBI.â The board acted after concluding that allegations that he had been involved in a 15-year-old case of insurance fraudâand then lied about it to FBI investigatorsâcould not be corroborated. The firing of Abdel-Hafiz last May set off reverberations throughout the ranks of the FBI, raising concerns that it would seriously impede the bureauâs ability to recruit new Muslim and Arab-American agents badly needed to work counterterrorism cases. Abdel-Hafiz, who was one of only about a half dozen Muslims in a force of 11,500 agents, charged that he was âhit in the backâ by fellow agents who were distrustful of him because of his Muslim faith and Arab background. The rare decision by the Disciplinary Review Boardâa panel of three senior FBI executivesâreverses the action last year of Robert Jordan, who was then the assistant director of the bureauâs Office of Professional Responsibility, the unit charged with policing internal misconduct. Bureau officials said they could not elaborate on the reasons that led the board to make their decision. Jordan, who is now the special agent in charge of the FBIâs Portland, Ore., office, also declined comment. Ever notice how no one in a position of authority at the FBI ever gets punished for anything? But congressional aides noted that it comes at a time when the bureau is under fire for its failure to recruit more Muslim and Arabic-speaking agents. The move also comes barely two months after Abdel-Hafiz filed a lawsuit against a current and former FBI agent, as well as ABC News for making statements in a December 2002 broadcast that left viewers with the impression he was a âsympathizer to terrorism and other religious fanatics.â We all heard of this case and accepted it as gospel. Until only a few years ago, Abdel-Hafiz had been one of the bureauâs prized counterterrorism assets, winning promotions and commendations for his work on such cases as the bombings of the Khobar Towers military barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996 and the Navy destroyer USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in October 2000. Promoted to the post of deputy legal attaché in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in February 2001, Abdel-Hafiz was a pivotal figure in the investigation into the September 11 terror attacks. He also extracted a crucial confession that led to the arrest of the so-called Lackawanna 6âsix Buffalo, N.Y.-area men who had attended an Al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, a case that has been publicly touted by top Justice Department officials as one of the Bush administrationâs biggest successes in the war on terrorism. âYou couldnât ask for a better job by an FBI agent,â Paul Moskal, the FBI spokesman in Buffalo, told NEWSWEEK last fall about Abdel-Hafizâs work on the Lackawanna 6 case. Sure sounds like it. But Abdel-Hafizâs career turned sour in the fall of 2002, when a fellow FBI agent in Chicago, Robert Wright, accused him of refusing to cooperate in an earlier 1999 case targeting fundraising by the militant Palestinian group Hamas. Wright claimed that Abdel-Hafiz, who was then assigned to the bureauâs Dallas field office, had refused his request that he wear a hidden wire in a meeting with a suspect in the case on the grounds that âa Muslim does not record another Muslim.â Yup, that was him. Abdel-Hafiz has insisted that his comment was misunderstood and that his reluctance to wear the wire stemmed from his concerns that it could undermine his effectiveness in the Muslim community and jeopardize his family if word got out that he had done so. Makes perfect sense, if they had found the wire, his cover was blown. In any case, Abdel-Hafiz pointed out that his supervisor at the time, Danny Defenbaugh, then the special agent in charge of the Dallas office, made the final decision that Abdel-Hafiz should not wear a wire in the Hamas investigation. And that part of the story I never heard before. Wrightâs allegations, first made at a Washington press conference and later repeated in his December 2002 interview with the ABC News show âPrimetime Live,â led to increased scrutiny of Abdel-Hafizâs work in Riyadh. By then, Abdel-Hafizâs chief supervisor, Wilfred Rattigan, had converted to Islam. When both Abdel-Hafiz and Rattigan flew off to Mecca for the hajj, a top FBI official in Washington complained and an auditing team was dispatched to review the officeâs work. During the course of the audit, Abdel-Hafiz told NEWSWEEK, the chief inspector from headquarters concluded that there was too much âclutterâ in the office and ordered the âshreddingâ of over 2,000 documents related to the September 11 terror investigations. Oh, nice move, asshole. Although most of the documents were duplicated in the FBIâs computers, a small number were not, according to Abdel-Hafiz. These consisted of between 50 and 100 letters written by Saudi security officials responding to FBI requests for information about terror suspects. When the FBI was forced to ask the Saudis for new copies of the letters, the Saudisâwho were being severely criticized in Congress for failure to cooperate on terrorism casesâcomplained to senior U.S. officials. I can see their point. As tensions over the Riyadh office grew, and questions over his loyalties were being repeated in the news media, Abdel-Hafiz soon found himself under internal investigation. The charges against him were made by his ex-wife, who claimed that he had staged a burglary of his home in 1989 and then filed a false police report in order to fraudulently collect the insurance proceeds. Ex-wives - why do they hate us? Abdel-Hafiz also had allegedly failed to disclose the matter as part of his FBI background check. Abdel-Hafiz acknowledges that he failed a FBI polygraph when he denied the charges. But he told NEWSWEEK that the polygrapher had tried to rattle him before the test, hurling accusations that he was guilty of the charges and would do better to confess. âOnce they accuse you, right before the test, it raises your blood pressure [and] makes it like youâre being deceptive,â he said. Sounds like the polygrapher had his orders. The FBI traditionally gives great weight to polygraphs, but officials also acknowledge that they are only a âtoolâ and are not admissible in court because of their unreliability. In any case, the FBI Disciplinary Review Board, after reviewing the OPR file on Abdel-Hafizâs case, concluded that the charges against him did not hold up. The board, in its Jan. 30 letter to Abdel-Hafiz, noted that his ex-wifeâs claims were âuncorroboratedâ and âthe failed polygraph examination, considering your past history with that test, were not enough to substantiate her allegations against you.â A FBI spokesman said the bureau could not comment on any personnel matters for reasons of privacy. Also it makes them look bad. Looks like Agent Abdel-Hafiz deserves an appology, and our thanks. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #8 I thought Aris might have a good riposte to ZF or .com, but I guess not this time. I do rather worry about terrorists sneaking in because they are not what many perceive to be the 'average Islamist'. Worse, I think it is possible that someday an American citizen may commit an act of mass terror for militant Islam. Either a TrueBeliever (Tim McVeigh-ish) or some self-absorbed Nihlist, fed a lifetime of Hate America First. |
| Posted by: Les Nessman 2004-2-27 9:56:58 PM |
| #7 .com, you forgot to say that only registered Republicans should be allowed in the FBI. In fact, in order to make absolutely sure, only registered Republicans should be allowed in the country -- the rest of them must be deported or imprisoned, their choice. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-2-27 8:50:33 PM |
| #6 It wasn't meant to be anonymous, I was just at a work computer. Nice to know you have my profile down tho. I didn't bother replying because it wan't worth my time. Try again when you have something intelligent to say. |
| Posted by: z2so4 2004-2-27 7:26:30 PM |
| #5 Lol! So, changing posting nyms caught up with you, eh z2so4? Pfeh. You're a classic, though rare in these parts. It's always interesting to encounter the calmer-than-calm pseudo-super-reasonable apologist. Welcome to RB. Re: the rant - you did notice the tags, right? I was having some fun, plus scratching an itch about the twit Fibbie management, plus trolling. You dismiss it in toto as "raw emotion" - so either you're a very lazy poster or just unable to deal with detail and specifics to the degree I took it - intentionally. The tags were put there to see if I'd get a bite from you - someone who's not really as smooth as their posts first appear. You bit. Doesn't really matter who or what you are on paper. What matters is that you're playing a game: selling semi-plausible BS under the cover of "I'm so calm I'm in a coma", therefore reasonable. Right. Re: profiling Arabs. The visas will only be found in the passports of innocents or rookies. Pros have false identities - or multiple valid passports - which won't have suspicious stamps. I know. You see, the US State Dept, despite its many failings and being riddled with "twats" is aware of some necessities. I worked in Saudi and had 2 concurrent US passports - so I could always present the acceptable one without any boogey-man stamps, such as a visit to Israel should that please me, to Saudi Immigration. Visa stamps are red herrings and every Immigration officer with a brain knows it - the authenticity and issuing country of the passport is far more important. Your use of "twat" and several syntax errors indicate a non-native English speaker. Given your posts today, I'll take you for a trolling apologist for the asshat interests. Don't like it? Don't care? Me neither. As for there being enough people in AlQ who could pass for "joe sixpak" - that's quite unlikely, except among very low-level convert cannon fodder. And converts are a very big red flag. Who, pray tell, with 2 neurons to rub together and wasn't mentally ill would willingly convert to the RoP? Heh, I would fire Supervisor Rattigan so fast his ass would be in another county by the time the door closed behind him. But that's just me - didn't even occur to you to mention it. See ya around, Anonymous / z2so4 / troll. ;-) |
| Posted by: .com 2004-2-27 5:52:52 PM |
| #4 "z2so4 naturally believes that Muslims should not be investigated without ironclad proof " Actually I suspect there to be a bit of profiling when national security is involved. When looking at al-Q most of it's members are Arab and all are Muslim so it is only logical to assume to be more careful when dealing with a arab that has had visa's for both saudi and afghanistan. That being said this guy seemed to have a record of nothing more than helping the cause and being damn good at it. Seems more like the case of paranoid co-worker than anything else (we have all experienced this once or twice with the annoying twat in the office). It is when people are fired for only being Arab, or Muslim that is when the problem comes. We all know that profiling a security blanket, because there are enough people in the al-Q organization that could pass by as joe sixpack by sking color or pretending to not be Muslim (chechyens come to mind). "z2so4 - misspelled H2SO4, didya? Pfeh" nope... The rest is a jumbled incoherent mess that is more raw emotion than anything thing of substance so I won't bother responding. Have a nice day as well :-) |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-2-27 5:10:40 PM |
| #3 No one, and I mean no one, beyond the individuals involved has clue one about whether the right thing has been done here - or not. This is classic bureaucratic he said / she said / conflicting claims. There is no way for US to know, for certain. I am automatically disinclined to believe Abdel-Hafiz without knowing every inch of his background. And where the security of our nation is concerned, that's enough for me to say this has not been settled satisfactorily. You don't like profiling? Why? PC-ism? Or are you an Arab? Or a Muslim? All of the preceeding? I LOVE profiling - because it's a damned good place to start and all of the evidence available proves it works in that regard, whether that's palatable to anyone or not. Grrrr. Look around the world and locate where there's conflict and violence... what do you find? Is Islam in there as a core issue in about 75% or more? Well Fucking Duh! Profile accordingly and tell the pissy pussies to fuck off. z2so4 - misspelled H2SO4, didya? Pfeh. [rant] The FBI is a gifuckinganticbureaucracy that needs mucking out, flushed of the dead wood and stupidity and good-ol-boy network, and streamlining into a flatter organization. There are huge numbers of pure job whores (ala Civil Service Turf Queens), particularly in the upper management of the FBI -- when it needs to be an organization full of level-headed dedicated apolitical public-service professionals who cast a jaundiced and suspicious eye on anyone and everyone who may be a threat to US citizens. Period. Not to worry - the Field Agents, relatively new on the job and still bearing the stamp of the Academy, are usually still professional hard-working dedicated people, so there's a pool of promotable talent... the problem is that they must not be promoted into ranks where then will then be "taught" to become political animals - the bane of every large org. The duplicitous character, a major and natural component installed by Arab societies, is not to be ignored. The question of Abdel-Hafiz's innocence or guilt is probably moot - some of both would be natural for an Arab. Where was he raised? That would be my first question, and then work it out from there whether he could be trusted, again. His supervisor, who converted to Islam, would automatically be fired if I was running the show. That decision would make everything about his judgment to be ultra-suspicious - if not outright proof that he's brain-dead. What a loser. The failure of the Fibbies to recruit Arabic-speakers who are NOT Arabs, per previous revelations and news stories seen here on RB, is a massive fuck-up. Such decisions probably came from admins who listened to people like Abdel-Hafiz - and his moron supervisor. Where was their common sense? Who was writing policy - and did they know dick about Arabs or their mission statement? I doubt it very very seriously. Muck out the stalls. Make a roster of every Fibbie in the HQ, from Supervisor on up. Repeat in every field office. Add those who were born and / or raised in the countries where we are fighting terrorism. These people are to be replaced from the ranks below - over a span of time in a schedule of promotion based upon PEER REVIEW. No input from previous supervisory personnel should be employed unless it contains suspicions of traitorous activity. Replaced supervisory personnel may, repeat may, be reconsidered for employment - but the vetting process to become eligible is to be done by another agency, one with an adversarial relationship with the FBI, such as the CIA or NSA or DIA. This will help ensure that few, if any, of the real morons regain access to sensitive information and definitely have to re-earn their spurs. Annual or bi-annual vetting of Agents, to keep your job, is to be done via a peer review - not by supervisory personnel. Supervisory personnel will be reviewed both by peer review and by performance scoring from the level they supervise - i.e. Agents will score their supervisor - and either source can be grounds for dismissal if a second peer review (different supervisory personnel from different depts.) agrees. So supervised Agents can call into question a supervisor's performance, but not directly force dismissal. In this case it takes 2 successful peer reviews to keep the job. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Arabic-speakers are obviously needed. Sources for recruiting should be countries with adversarial (or worse) relationships with Islamic countries, in general, and Arabia in particular. Good agents and those they depend upon for language skills should be natively suspicious and thus inclined to err on the side of caution. OBVIOUSLY, Jewish and Israeli-Americans make FAR better sense as potential recruits than Muslim and Arab-Americans -- I hate this hyphenated BS, but I'm using it for clarity. You HAVE to be cautious and inclined toward suspicious: it's the nation's security at stake. Fucking Duh. [/rant] But I have no strong feelings about it, of course. Have a nice day. Or else. :-) |
| Posted by: .com 2004-2-27 2:36:07 PM |
| #2 z2so4: Thankfully this wrong was fixed, but the damage has been done. Actually, the point is that the damage hasn't been done. Terrorist attacks have been prevented by identifying Muslims who are security risks and removing them from positions related to national security. z2so4 naturally believes that Muslims should not be investigated without ironclad proof - but the fact is that the investigations are carried out precisely in order to get that proof. Just as it would be useless to search for Mafia hoods among the black community, it would equally be useless to probe Hindu employees while searching for Muslim terror backers. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-2-27 1:39:45 PM |
| #1 Unfortunately dicrimination and profiling against Muslims is alive and well and many lives have bee ruined as a consequence. Thankfully this wrong was fixed, but the damage has been done. |
| Posted by: z2so4 2004-2-27 12:45:46 PM |