Department of Justice use of training materials on counterterrorism
- How do local police forces and FBI offices find material and instructors for training?When researching about this question, I didn't find anything that talked about how FBI offices find material and instructors for training. On the other hand, I found out how the FBI is organized. Research states that the headquarter of the FBI is located in Washington D.C. The offices and divisions provide support to 56 field offices, 380 resident agencies, and more than 60 liaison offices in other countries. I also found out who is in charge or the head of the FBI. The FBI is led by a director who is appointed by the U.S president, confirmed by the senate, and is allowed of a term no longer than 10 years.
Identify what an FOIA request is?FOIA stands for Freedom of Information Act. FOIA is a law that was enacted to give citizens the right to access government information within a request. It is a written request recieved by the U.S federal agency from an entity requesting information or records regarding the government. To file a request, you must include the specific information you are wanting and how much detail you want from it. You could send your request to the agency that relates to your request the most.
What has CAIR done regarding this issue?CAIR is involved in many issues. It is not surprising that it has been involved with the FOIA. CAIR has sent a request accusing the FBI Anti-Islam trainers to teach its agent to regard Islam as a"Cult" to "transform a country's culture to 7th century Arabia."
What Media Coverage has been dedicated to this issue?
The first inkling that something was amiss in the counterterrorism training given to local and federal law enforcement came in March. That's when NPR reported on the cottage industry of independent counterterrorism trainers who signed up to teach local and federal law enforcement officials about terrorism. The report warned that the instructors were not being properly vetted and some were presenting skewed views about Muslim-Americans and their potential links to terrorism.
Then, last month, Wired magazine reported on a counterterrorism training session at the FBI training center in Quantico, Va., that was led by an FBI employee. The slides of the PowerPoint presentation obtained by Wired magazine made clear that the instructor was teaching agents not only that Islam was a violent religion, but also was erroneously linking religiosity to terrorism. He said the more religious a Muslim in this country was, the more he should be seen as a potential suspect.
Complaints From Agents
NPR has obtained real-time emails from agents who were attending that controversial class at Quantico this April. What the emails indicate is that at least some of those in that class objected to the biased information they were getting and they reached out both to experts and to supervisors to complain about the curriculum.
One email said that the Prophet Muhammad was being portrayed as a warring military leader. It also cited an instructor as saying that a "true Muslim" had to support or take part in the killing of non-Muslims. The instructor also told the class, according to a handful of attendees, that Muhammad was an epileptic and the Quran didn't come to him in a series of heavenly visions, but instead was actually part of an epileptic fit.It is unclear how the agents in the class actually registered their complaints to the FBI brass - whether it was face-to-face discussion or in emails to their supervisors. But officials confirm that they heard about the class last April and made moves to remedy the situation. There were multiple meetings last spring in which the complaints were addressed, one official said. And the instructor of that class was removed from the training program.
Origins Of Bias
The question that everyone is asking — and the FBI is trying to answer now — is how the Muslim bias crept into the training program in the first place.
About two months before the class started, FBI officials tell NPR, the bureau had already started a review of all its training programs – from interrogations to Tasers. They were looking for places to economize ahead of what they expected to be brutal cuts to the FBI budget. The counterterrorism training was, the officials said, given a low priority because the FBI didn't expect funding for that kind of training to get slashed. What isn't clear is whether the urgency to take a look at the program changed after the agents lodged complaints about the April class at Quantico.
NPR has learned the FBI did two things to at least stem the damage the training controversy has wrought. Just last week, the bureau sent out an email requesting that all training materials that related to religion and culture be sent to headquarters and essentially taken offline until they could be vetted. Officials plan to go through each and every training module and look for instances of bias or inaccuracies that, until now, might have slipped through the cracks. The FBI has also asked all 56 of its field offices to do an internal scrub of all their counterterrorism training to look for hints of possible bias. The recall suggests that the FBI is not entirely sure what it is teaching in its counterterrorism curriculum.
Officials close to the process say part of the problem is one of structure. The counterterrorism training division has a lot of autonomy. It is essentially in charge of putting together its own training module and then is supposed to find a way to fit that training into the broader curriculum for agents at Quantico. Because of the way it is structured, the vetting process for the counterterrorism curriculum was minimal. While the FBI has ordered an internal audit to look at how this happened, officials said they believe this could be the crux of the problem.
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This article talks about how the teachings of Anti-Muslims in the FBI were very crucial. They taught people how all Muslims are terrorists and that the Prophet Muhammed (sws) was an "epileptic". It also talks about how the slides of the FBI sessions might have slipped through the cracks. Furthermore, it talks about why and how Muslim bias crept into the sitiuation.
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What have public officials said about this issue?
FBI Director Robert Mueller warned that the government's current budget crisis could leave the bureau unable to fill as many as 1,100 positions, hampering critical FBI operations.
Testifying at one of the last Congressional hearings he is likely to attend before his September retirement, Mueller said that if Congress does not find a way to keep the government running, it will leave the nation's top law enforcement agency in a lurch.
"Under the current levels in the continuing resolution, the FBI will have to absorb over $200 million in cuts; and without any changes, the current continuing resolution will leave us with over 1,100 vacant positions by the end of the year. Put simply, these cuts would undermine our efforts to continue to transform the bureau and undermine our efforts to carry out our mission."
According to FBI officials, if a budget is not passed the agency will have to operate under 2010 budget levels. Officials say that the 1,100 empty positions would be a mix of agents, analysts and professional staff.
The current FBI jobs website which includes online applications to become an FBI special agent, a linguist or analyst or a member of the elite Hostage Rescue Team is currently frozen. "At this time, federal agencies are operating under a Continuing Resolution with limited funding," says a message on the site. "As a result, the Department of Justice has ordered a temporary freeze on agency hiring. Until the budgetary restrictions are lifted and the FBI has funding to support hiring additional personnel, applications will not be accepted for any positions. Please return to this website for updates to our hiring opportunities. Thank you for your continued interest in FBI employment."
Mueller, who has led the bureau since 9/11, told the committee, "The support from this committee and Congress has been an important part of transforming the FBI into the national security agency it is today. But for our transformation to be complete, we must continue to hire, train and develop our cadre of agents, analysts and staff to meet the complex threats we face now and in the future."
FBI Director Asks Congress for Help
Under questioning from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) about the towering U.S. budget deficit, Mueller said that the bureau is only asking for what it was supposed to get in the 2011 budget. "What we're struggling for is to get what we did not get in 2011 for '12," he said.The FBI is seeking funds to expand several operations, including the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG), and the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force to deal with computer crimes and cyber security issues.
Graham said to Mueller, "You're telling us, the Congress, that due to the threats that are multiplying exponentially, that you need this force to protect America."
Mueller responded, "Yes."
Later Mueller said the budget constraints "would set us back. It is a setback, and we have been moving forward with the help of Congress and the committee and appropriators. And this would stall the progress that's being made."
