PF1 Minisode: FBI Director's Impact on Morale While Terror Attacks Strike US

Hello, it's Miranda. I'm back with a new mini-episode of Pod Force One.

This feature is a little more topical and relevant to my job as a columnist for the New York Post.

Today's topic is about the recent spate of Islamist terror attacks,

which point to a failure by the FBI.

The day Operation Epic Fury began in Iran,

FBI Director Kash Patel announced he was putting the Bureau's counterterrorism and intelligence teams

on, quote, higher alert for threats to the homeland over concerns about terror attacks

from Tehran or its proxies.

Quote, while the military handles force protection overseas,

the FBI remains at the forefront of deterring attacks here at home he tweeted.

The same day the Department of Homeland Security issued a law enforcement bulletin

warning of potential lone wolf attacks on home soil by, quote,

US-based violent extremists or hate crime perpetrators.

A few hours later,

Senghali's migrant and naturalized US citizen,

Nyaga Diagmi 53,

opened fire on a crowded bar in Austin, Texas, killing three people

and injuring 13 while wearing a property of ala khudi and an undershirt with an Iranian flag design.

After he was shot dead by police,

a Quran was found in Diagmi's car and photographs of Iranian regime leaders at his home,

leading the FBI to conclude that the attack was, quote,

potentially an act of terrorism and the Texas Tribune immediately

to report an alleged surge in Quote, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim backlash.

End quote.

Obviously, it's not Islamophobia that is the problem.

Since Austin, there have been three more Islamist terrorist attacks on home soil.

On the Upper East side of Manhattan last weekend,

Islamic State adherents Emir Ballat 18

and Ibrahim Khayumi 19,

tossed powerful homemade bombs at police and anti-Muslim protesters outside Gracie Mansion.

Ballat yelled ala Akbar as he threw one of the bombs,

which were packed with screws and bolts to cause maximum carnage,

as well as the volatile mother of satian explosive used in deadly terror attacks overseas.

Only by the grace of God did both bombs fizzle out before they could kill

and maim everyone within a two-block radius.

On Thursday, in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of West

Bloomfield, Michigan, Muhammad Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalized citizen from Lebanon with reported

has baller connections, rammed a truck packed with explosive material into a synagogue

and started firing his gun through the windshield.

He was shot by security guards and then shot himself dead according to police.

Less than two hours earlier and 700 miles away at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia,

Muhammad Baylor JLo, a naturalized US citizen from Sierra Leone,

who previously had been jailed over an Islamic State terror plot,

yelled ala Akbar before opening fire in an ROTC classroom,

murdering the instructor Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Shah before being killed by the students.

How could a guy on supervised release,

who was freed early from a Pennsylvania prison 16 months ago after serving just eight years

for trying to carry out an Islamic State attack, possibly be allowed to attack again?

Quote, this person should have been made known to the FBI's counterterrorism division,

threat screening center, and criminal justice information service, the largest division of the

FBI. At a minimum, says one former high-ranking FBI agent who prefers to remain anonymous.

Quote, the Interagency National Counterterrorism Center should have been engaged on some level

as well, he said. Not sure if any of these components were actually aware and engaged on any level

even in the current elevated threat environment. End quote, so much for the FBI being on high alert.

The cascading recent attacks point to a failure at the FBI, the primary agency for Quote

deturing attacks here at home, as Director Patel boasted. It is an outcome

insiders have warned about, even before Patel gutted the elite FBI counterintelligence team

that investigated Iranian threats in America, according to the New York Sun and CNN.

The dozen or so agents, analysts, and support staff who were fired last month,

from the CI-12 unit, had worked on special counsel Jack Smith's switch hunt against Donald Trump,

and reportedly were zealous enough to subpoena records of phone calls made by Patel and White House

Chief of Staff Susie Wiles when they were private citizens. Whether they were liabilities or

just following orders, the latest purge has sent a chill through the ranks. Another former FBI agent

says that a, quote, culture of fear has paralyzed all levels of bureau leadership at present.

Folks are all afraid to do their jobs for fear of losing their heads. End quote.

The other former agent says that the FBI should now urgently run a review of the most recent

attacks to see, quote, what flagging systems were in place and active, and what kinds of potential

investigative watch listing, screening, and threat monitoring activities were required.

The FBI should be directly questioned on these matters, and be able to provide clear responses

on their prior knowledge and applicable actions for the most recent two attackers. If not,

then this violence will continue to happen and intensify, he said, as the Iran offensive progresses.

To be fair, Patel has a difficult task, rooting out rogue actors responsible for weaponizing

the FBI against Trump and conservatives. But his high profile private life flambuant style and

devotion to flying to sporting events at home and abroad in the FBI jet don't help morale.

The FBI costs taxpayers $11 billion a year, and at a time of increasing threats we expect it to be

competent enough to keep us safe. You can't assign all the blame to Patel after just 14

months in the job. The rot set in long ago under President Obama, when directed James Comey and later

Chris Ray, diverted FBI expertise and resources away from genuine threats toward the phantom

menace, dreamed up by Democrats of domestic terrorists such as Trump supporting grandmas,

traditional Catholics, and parents at school board meetings. Demoralized agents

quit or took early retirement in those years, but there are those who stayed on in a hope of

positive reform under the Trump administration, who now express disappointment in what their

regard as Patel's unfocused leadership preoccupation with his own image and mercurial purges.

Again, to be fair, the FBI has foiled numerous Islamist terror plots in recent times,

albeit often thanks to local law enforcement. For instance, an 18-year-old was charged

in an ISIS-inspired terror attack planned for New Year's Eve in North Carolina, and a 22-year-old

was nabbed in Texas in December over another ISIS plot, both discovered in a sting operation by

the NYPD. But those successes are all the more reason why the FBI's focus should have zeroed in on

countering threats of Islamic terrorism, rather than diverting agents onto immigration enforcement

and other unrelated tasks, such as reportedly, spending hours redacting names in the Epstein files.

Quote, while the FBI has considerable resources, such resources are limited, even in the national

security mission area, says the former senior agent. Quote, it is a zero-sum situation. When people

are being redirected away from their primary national security duties, some things are bound to

be missed, especially in the area of proactive threat identification and mitigation. End quote.

The FBI did not respond to questions on Sunday.

Don't forget to come back on Wednesday for the next episode of Pod Force One with FCC Chairman

Brendan Carr, also known as Trump's Media Pitbull. He's waging war against media bias,

and winning. How does he do it? Hope you can tune in and enjoy the rest of your week.