The FBI's Handling of Tips on Suspicious Activities
A disturbing pattern emerged in the Florida school shooting. Once again, the FBI was tipped off about a potentially dangerous person but for some reason the tip led nowhere. Authorities are always instructing the public to "say something," if they see anything suspicious. But too many times the public's reporting ends up in a circular file.
Why did the YouTube post of the Florida killer stating he wanted to be a "professional school shooter" lead nowhere? The FBI could've found out who Nikolas Cruz, the person who posted it, by tracking his IP address or getting account information from YouTube. They didn't. They made a call to the tipster, who didn't know Cruz, and closed the file.
Russians warned the FBI about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber. They reported Tsarnaev was a radical Islamist more than a year before his attack. FBI agents were also warned by co-workers of Orlando nightclub killer Omar Mateen after he boasted of connections to terrorist groups - three years before he shot up the Pulse nightclub.
In June 2001, I wrote a story for the New York Post about three Middle Eastern men who were briefly detained by the Federal Protective Service, Immigration and the FBI for suspicious activity. They were believed to be conducting surveillance of federal buildings in Downtown Manhattan using a camera to appear as tourists. The bureau released the men. When the film was developed, alarm bells went off. All the photos included guard posts and other security related structures.
On 9/11, I was contacted by a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) agent with a keen interest in that story. In a follow-up that week, I reported how the US Marshals were looking for the men but they had vanished - even leaving their final paychecks behind. The DIA gratefully accepted my information, the agent saying "You're an American hero," before hanging up. The debacle came before Congress in debates over the lack of coordination between various agencies.
It's clear we have a serious problem. Why is it we learn all too often the FBI has had mass killers and terrorists on their radar but weren't able to find anything actionable? Is it a manpower issue? Legal or civil rights barrier? Incompetence or laziness? It's time for a complete review of each and every instance and to address the causes. Lives depend on it.