Mike Gallagher
Thursday, May 30, 2002

Watching FBI Director Robert Mueller stammer his way though a press conference this week was fascinating. Faced with extraordinary pressure from the FBI agent in Minneapolis, so-called whistle-blower Coleen Rowley, the FBI director basically said that his agency did a lousy job in failing to "connect the dots" and possibly detect the clues that could have prevented 9-11.

The blame game over the terrorist massacre has become blood sport in Washington. Anxious to find a scapegoat and reluctant to stay focused on the ongoing war in Afghanistan, the mainstream media and even the American public seem to be content to settle into their easy chairs and try and find someone here in the United States to blame for the hijackers' actions.

Many of us watched in horror as opportunistic Democrats decided to blame the Bush administration. Now it's Bob Mueller's FBI that faces the unwanted scrutiny.

Do you remember when the FBI functioned as a true national security agency? You'd have to go back many, many years, back to an era when J. Edgar Hoover's "G-men" routinely interrogated people who engaged in anti-American behavior. Hoover's agents wiretapped and spied their way into trying to keep America safe.

But ACLU types denounced that type of surveillance, remember? Liberal weenies complained that we were living in a police state, that the FBI needed to be reined in. So rein them in we did, effectively handcuffing the agency from doing its job. For the past 25 years, the FBI has been nothing more than a glorified law enforcement agency, only allowed to arrest criminals who have already committed the crime.

The same type of people who are currently blaming the FBI for 9-11 are the ones who bitterly complained about the FBI of yesteryear. Well, they can't have it both ways. Either the FBI should have the ability to investigate people who are planning to harm Americans or we'll face continued attacks on American soil, maybe even having to deal with homicide bombers next.

If the FBI had taken any of the 19 hijackers in for questioning, the ACLU would have wasted no time in holding a press conference denouncing the infringement of the rights of these Arab terrorists. And sadly, there are some liberal Democrats on Capitol Hill who would have agreed.

I hope and pray that we don't wait for another terror attack before we give agencies like the FBI broad, sweeping powers. It's time we realize that in order to prevent terrorists who are living here from striking again, wiretaps will have to be installed, computers will have to be examined, phone records will need to be scrutinized. In other words, we'll have to rely on the kind of tactics that led to howls of protests by the looney liberals in the '70s.

Let's face it: If we have to choose between protecting the civil rights of Arab terrorists ready and waiting for another chance to kill thousands of Americans, or keeping the United States safe, it seems reasonable to suggest that we'll choose the latter.

Incidentally, a word about "whistle-blower" Coleen Rowley: I wonder how long it takes before she signs a contract for a big fat book deal? I'll bet we start seeing her on "Larry King Live," "Oprah" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in no time ...

Mike Gallagher's talk radio show is heard daily coast to coast in markets like Los Angeles, Dallas, Denver and Chicago.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Homeland/Civil Defense
War on Terrorism

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