Friday, April 11, 2003

Isolated Event Watch

If anyone needed evidence of the FBI's political leanings, consider the matter of "isolated events."

Whenever right-wing extremists become involved in terrorist activities, it is usually only a matter of time before an FBI official declares that each is an "isolated event."

When an FBI agent is involved in chicanery of some kind or another, it also is determined to be an "isolated event."

Translation: "We have no intention of looking to see if this event represents a deeper and more pervasive problem."

Contrast this to the rhetoric that arises whenever anyone from the left -- whether it's eco-radicals or a center-left president -- gets crosswise with the law. Then we are likely to hear all about how the agency is investigating the possibility of broad conspiracies and nationwide networks and perhaps even international spying and terrorism.

With that in mind, there's the continuing saga of the recent arrest of GOP activist Katrina Leung and an FBI agent, both of whom were are various times involved in drumming up scandals against President Clinton. Both, it turns out, allegedly were at the same time spying for China.

Today came the announcement of yet another FBI agent being implicated in the case. [Link via Atrios.]

Toward the bottom, there's this:
In congressional testimony Thursday, Mueller called the case "an isolated event" and that ongoing changes at the FBI would ensure better oversight and management of intelligence sources.

Hm.

In case anyone else was paying attention, there was in fact a very similar case: Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent/Opus Dei member who was spying for the Russians.

Hanssen, you may recall, was also involved in ginning up scandals against Bill Clinton.

Now comes this case, where, once again, the agents were involved in concocting Clinton scandals (in this case, the phony "selling secrets to China" scandal).

But of course, there's no connection there, folks. Just move along. Nothing to see.

Lord knows the FBI will never get to the bottom of it.

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