On April 2, 2014 Spc. Ivan Lopez opened fire at the Fort Hood military base, killing 3 and seriously injuring 14 members of the military, then killing himself. At least 6 victims are reported to be in critical condition. The FBI was previously warned that individuals were planning a “Ft. Hood-inspired jihad” against fellow soldiers and warned it was “imminent.”
There are inescapable parallels between Fort Hood 2.0 and the previous Fort Hood shooting in November 2009, when U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire at the base, killing 13 and wounding more than 30 people.
In both instances, the FBI was aware of the imminent danger, but chose to downplay it. On March 31, 2014 FBI spokesman said: “We have interviewed this individual… There is not a manhunt and there never was one. There is no imminent threat to public safety, nor should the public be concerned that this threat exists from an individual at large.” On April 2, 2014 this careless approach resulted in deadly consequences.
The FBI is very proficient in creating terror threats that might not have existed otherwise, by baiting radically-minded individuals to commit terrorist acts, using fake bombs built by the FBI. For example, on May 30, 2013, Lebanese immigrant was sentenced to 23 years in prison for an attempted bombing near Chicago’s famous Wrigley Field. The bomb he planted was a fake, supplied to him by undercover FBI agents, who promised to pay the patsy. Sami Samir Hassoun placed a backpack that he believed to contain a powerful bomb into a trash container. Patting themselves on the back, the FBI said that if the bomb had been real, this attack would have made the Boston Marathon bombings look like a “minor incident.”
In another case, Amine Mohamed El-Khalifi was convinced by an undercover FBI agent, posing as a member of Al Qaeda, to strap on a bomb-laden vest and blow himself up at an entrance to the U.S. Capitol, in the name of jihad. Of course, the explosives were fake, provided by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. His only accomplice was an undercover FBI agent, posing as a member of Al Qaeda.
In a case of two “lone wolves” from Alabama, Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair, and Rasheed Wilson, the duo allegedly planned to perpetrate unspecified acts of violent jihad in Mauritania. They got the idea to do so from a confidential source working for the FBI.
In a Boston case, Rezwan Ferdaus was convicted for attempting to provide detonation devices to terrorists. As you might have guessed, those were undercover FBI agents posing as members of Al Qaeda. They’ve helped Ferdaus to obtain a remote controlled aircraft, C-4 explosives, grenades and a number of fully automatic AK-47 assault rifles. In spite of the FBI’s extensive participation, Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Boston FBI, asserted that “Mr. Ferdaus’ sentence reflects that he alone conceived the plot, was responsible for his illegal acts, and acted purposefully… The FBI’s top priority and clarion mission is to detect, deter, and disrupt all potential terrorist threats to the United States. Our community should be proud of the efforts of the Worcester Police Department, U.S. Attorney’s Office, and all members of the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force.”
Surely, the community would be very proud if the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force prevented a real bombing. They could have done so in the case of the Boston bombers, having been forewarned by the Russian intelligence services, but choosing to ignore warning signs and intelligence alerts. The feds have also failed to share the warnings about the Tsarnaev brothers with local law enforcement. Former Senator Joe Lieberman called it a “serious and aggravating omission.” Lieberman said that the Boston attack could have been stopped. “In a literal sense, the homeland security system, we must acknowledge that we built after 9/11 to protect the American people from terrorist attacks failed to stop the Tsarnaev brothers,” asserted Lieberman.
In Brooklyn, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis was arrested for attempting to bomb the New York Federal Reserve Bank. By now, you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that a 1,000-pound bomb he was planning to detonate was a fake, provided to him by the FBI. An agent with the FBI New York Field Office’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) pretended to be an Al Qaeda facilitator.
In Virginia, Amine Mohamed El-Khalifi was convicted for his efforts to carry out a suicide bomb attack on Capitol Hill. He responded to the FBI-controlled Facebook post, seeking to recruit mujahideen wannabes to fight in Afghanistan. Undercover FBI agents have also supplied El-Khalifi with a fake bomb.
In Louisville, Kentucky, Iraqi citizen Mohanad Shareef Hammadi pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges for attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Undercover FBI agents and sources, pretending to be members of Al Qaeda, asked Hammadi to shuffle around money and fake Stinger missiles (provided, of course, by the FBI).
All of this time, efforts and manpower could have been better spent to prevent actual terror attacks. Unfortunately, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are too accustomed to using entrapment instead of investigative work. Re-branding acts of terrorism as “workplace violence” to help federal agencies “save face” is downright insulting. Unless our alphabet agencies start to ferret out terror threats (instead of creating them), billions of dollars spent on homeland security are being wasted. Federal authorities have shown themselves to be woefully inadequate in preventing terrorist attacks that weren’t fomented by the agency itself – therefore failing miserably in its primary mission. Innocent victims are continuing to pay for these inexcusable failures with their lives.