If you never entertained the possibility that the Penn State Pedophile Scandal is the tip of a very high-profile iceberg, a pedophile ring rising into some very high corridors of power, perhaps you should examine Louis Freeh and consider what it means that (like Kissinger being named to lead the 9/11 Commission) this wolf will be investigating the henhouse:
For Your Consideration:
Penn State investigator Freeh had rocky FBI tenure
WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:00pm EST
Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/ ... KH20111121
(Reuters) - Louis Freeh, named on Monday to head an investigation into the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State University, served for eight years as director of the FBI where he faced widespread criticism for a series of high-profile blunders.
Freeh was named by trustees of Penn State to examine why an assistant football coach was allegedly allowed to repeatedly sexually abuse boys over a period of nearly 15 years.
The strongest criticism of Freeh's controversial tenure as FBI head from 1993 to June 2011 came from the commission that investigated the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Under Freeh, the FBI was hampered by a resistance to change, inadequate resources and legal barriers, a September 11 commission report said. Freeh also was criticized for failing to usher the FBI into the modern, computerized age.
Testifying before the commission in 2004 about FBI counterterrorism efforts, Freeh said: "The political means and will to declare and fight this war didn't exist before September 11."
Counterterrorism "was not a national priority," he said, adding that operations were severely underfunded and understaffed, partly due to a 22-month hiring freeze imposed by Congress.
During his tenure, the FBI was plagued by several blunders that drew criticism from members of Congress.
One incident involved discovery of a spy in the FBI's own ranks. Robert Hanssen, who had been a FBI agent, pleaded guilty in 2001 to spying for Moscow for more than 15 years.
Another blunder involved misplaced FBI files from its investigation into the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
The discovery of thousands of pages of documents that were not turned over to defense lawyers led to a one-month delay in the 2001 execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Another incident involved its investigation of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, who was suspected of espionage at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory. He pleaded guilty in 2000 to a less severe charge when the case against him collapsed.
Freeh was FBI chief when FBI agents focused on security guard Richard Jewell as a suspect in the 1996 bombing at the Olympics in Atlanta. It later turned out that Jewell had nothing to do with the bombing.
A graduate of Rutgers Law School in New Jersey, Freeh joined the FBI and served as a special agent from 1975 to 1981 in the New York City field office and at FBI headquarters.
As an FBI agent, he helped run the waterfront racketeering investigation that convicted more than 125 labor leaders, shipping executives and underworld figures.
He became a federal prosecutor in New York, where he headed a team that broke up a major Sicilian Mafia heroin ring.
In 1991, Freeh was appointed a federal judge in New York. In 1993, President Bill Clinton named him FBI director.
Leaving the FBI two years shy of his 10-year term, Freeh, now 61, became a senior vice chairman at MBNA Corp.
In 2007 he founded Freeh Group International Solutions, based in Wilmington, Delaware. The global risk management firm's services include business compliance studies, corporate fraud and corruption investigations and security studies.
http://www.historycommons.org/entity.js ... s_j._freeh
September 1993: Freeh Becomes FBI Director
President Clinton appoints Louis Freeh to be the new director of the FBI. Freeh was once an FBI field agent. He will forge alliances with Republicans in Congress. This will drive a wedge between the FBI and Clinton’s White House and national security staff. Freeh will retire in the summer of 2001 (see May 1, 2001). The New York Times will later claim that he “left the FBI badly damaged. Lawmakers in both parties clamored for change at an agency they attacked as ineptly managed, resistant to change, and unwilling to admit mistakes.” [NEW YORK TIMES, 6/2/2002] Increasingly opposed to Clinton, Freeh develops a secret back-channel relationship with former president George H. W. Bush. He uses this relationship to liaison with the Saudi royal family without Clinton’s knowledge. [Joe TRENTO, 2005, PP. 351]
October 8, 2002: Former FBI Director Says FBI Could Not Have Stopped 9/11 Attacks
Testifying before the 9/11 Congressional Inquiry, former FBI Director Louis Freeh says, “I am aware of nothing that to me demonstrates that the FBI and the intelligence community had the type of information or tactical intelligence which could have prevented September 11th. In terms of the FBI’s capability to identify, investigate and prevent the nineteen hijackers from carrying out their attacks, the facts so far on the public record do not support the conclusion that these tragic events could have been prevented by the FBI and intelligence community acting by themselves.” [US CONGRESS, 10/8/2002]
1995-1996: Reports: FBI Watches Hamas Supporters But Make No Arrests
In January 1995, the New York Times reports, “For more than a year the Federal Bureau of Investigation has closely monitored supporters of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in several cities, including Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Dallas.” [NEW YORK TIMES, 1/26/1995] In August 1995, the Times reports, “For well over a year, the FBI has monitored Hamas supporters in several American cities.” [NEW YORK TIMES, 8/16/1995] On March 12, 1996, FBI Director Louis Freeh says to Congress, “We have several instances where we have been able to show the transfer of substantial cash funds from the US to areas in the Mideast where we could show Hamas received, and even made expenditure of, those funds.” He says some of the money raised is sent back from the Middle East to the US to support and expand phony front organizations for Hamas. The FBI, he adds, has a “very inadequate picture of what perhaps is much greater activity” in the US. He notes the difficulty of tracing “those funds to actual military or terrorist operations anywhere outside the US.” Hamas leaders say any such money raised is used for charitable and humanitarian purposes. (Legally, after 1995 it became a crime in the US to fund Hamas, no matter how they spent their money (see January 1995)) In 1997, a Congressional analyst will say it is estimated Hamas receives from 30 percent to 80 percent of its budget from sources inside the US. [NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, 3/13/1996; ASSOCIATED PRESS, 5/26/1997] But in 2002, FBI agent Robert Wright will claim, “Against the wishes of some at the FBI in 1995, when I uncovered criminal violations in several of my cases, I promptly initiated active terrorism criminal investigations on these subjects. I developed probable cause to believe that some of these transfers or transmissions had been of money intended to be used in the support of domestic and international terrorism activities. The illegal transfers that supported specific terrorist activities involving extortion, kidnapping, and murder…” Much of Wright’s evidence will focus on Hamas figures Mohammad Salah and Mousa Abu Marzouk. [FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE, 5/30/2002] FBI agent Joe Hummel will say in 1997 that he has evidence “millions of dollars” passed through the bank accounts of Marzouk. But even though Marzouk is in US custody, he will merely be deported later in 1997 (see July 5, 1995-May 1997). [ASSOCIATED PRESS, 5/26/1997] Federal prosecutor Mark Flessner will later claim that Wright and others in the Vulgar Betrayal investigation were building a strong criminal case against some in this Hamas support network, but they were not allowed to charge anyone no matter how strong their evidence was (see October 1998).
http://www.historycommons.org/entity.js ... ert_wright
May 30, 2002: Wright Claims FBI Obstructed Efforts to Stop Terrorist Money Flows
FBI agent Robert Wright holds a press conference. He makes a statement that has been preapproved by the FBI. As one account puts it, “Robert Wright’s story is difficult to piece together because he is on government orders to remain silent.… [T]his is in distinct contrast to the free speech and whistle-blower protections offered to Colleen Rowley, general counsel in the FBI Minneapolis office, who got her story out before the agency could silence her. Wright, a 12-year bureau veteran, has followed proper channels” but has been frustrated by limitations on what he is allowed to say (see September 11, 2001-October 2001). “The best he could do [is a] press conference in Washington, D.C., where he [tells] curious reporters that he [has] a whopper of a tale to tell, if only he could.” Wright says that FBI bureaucrats “intentionally and repeatedly thwarted [his] attempts to launch a more comprehensive investigation to identify and neutralize terrorists.”
1994-1995: Wright Allegedly Thwarted by FBI Intelligence
FBI agent Robert Wright had begun to investigate terrorism financing in 1993, and apparently quickly discovered many leads (see After January 1993). However, he will later claim that by 1994, he encounters resistance to his investigations from the FBI’s International Terrorism Unit. Wright will claim, “[T]here existed a concerted effort on the part of agents conducting counterterrorism intelligence investigations to insulate the subjects of their investigations from criminal investigation and prosecution.” In 2002, Wright will claim that the agents were doing this because they were lazy, and he will sue these unnamed agents. [UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, 5/30/2002] But in 2003, he will suggest that in addition to such incompetence, his investigations into Hamas operatives living in the US were deliberately blocked so Hamas would be able to foment enough violence in Israel to derail the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He will allege that some people in the FBI had a political agenda regarding Israel contrary to President Clinton’s (see June 2, 2003). [FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE, 6/2/2003]
1996: Vulgar Betrayal Investigation Launched
Vulgar Betrayal, the most significant US government investigation into terrorist financing before 9/11, is launched. This investigation grows out of investigations Chicago FBI agent Robert Wright had begun in 1993 (see After January 1993), and Wright appears to be the driving force behind Vulgar Betrayal. He later will say, “I named the case Vulgar Betrayal because of the many gross betrayals many Arab terrorists and their supporters” committed against the US, but the name will later prove to be bitterly ironic for him. Over a dozen FBI agents are assigned it and a grand jury is empanelled to hear evidence. Wright will be removed from the investigation in late 1999 (see August 3, 1999), and it will be completely shut down in early 2000 (see August 2000). [FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE, 6/2/2003; CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 8/22/2004; LA WEEKLY, 8/25/2004; JUDICIAL WATCH, 12/15/2004] The investigation will first identify suspected terrorism financier Yassin al-Qadi as a target in 1997, but it will run into many obstacles in investigating him and others. Assistant US attorney Mark Flessner, the lead prosecutor for Vulgar Betrayal, will later claim that supervisors at the Justice Department’s headquarters obstructed the investigation because it appeared to trace terrorism financing to important figures in Saudi Arabia, a key US ally. Wright will later state that had the leads into al-Qadi and others been fully investigated, “I believe the FBI could have identified other significant links to Osama bin Laden, links which may have been addressed to prevent future attacks against the United States by bin Laden and his terrorist trainees.” [FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE, 6/2/2003; CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 8/22/2004]
1997: FBI Supervisor Said to Hide Information about Hamas Operatives from Other FBI Agents
FBI agent Robert Wright begins investigating two known Hamas suspects believed to be residing in the Chicago area. He asks a relief supervisor whether he has any information about these suspects. The relief supervisor says he does not. Wright spends several weeks investigating the location of these two terrorist suspects, only to later learn the relief supervisor not only knew one of the suspects had been arrested overseas in 1995 as a result of terrorist activities, but that he had placed a copy of a statement provided by the arrested terrorist to overseas authorities in an obscure location where no one would find it. Wright will make this claim in a 1995 court case. He will allege this is just one instance of FBI superiors withholding information from his Vulgar Betrayal investigation. [ROBERT G. WRIGHT, JR., V. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, 5/16/2005] One suspect who seems to fit the description of one of the two suspects is Chicago resident Mohammed Joma Hilmi Jarad. He was arrested in Israel in 1995, confessed to being a Hamas operative, then was released and returned to live in Chicago. [NEW YORK TIMES, 8/16/1995]
April 1998: FBI Agent Stifles Investigation into Ptech Figures
FBI agent Robert Wright will later recall that at this time, he is pleasantly surprised when FBI management provides his Vulgar Betrayal investigation with a 10 year veteran agent to assist with his efforts. According to Wright, the unnamed agent is assigned to “investigate a company and its 20-plus subsidiaries which were linked to a major financer of international terrorism.” However, Wright and fellow agent John Vincent will soon become dismayed when they realize the agent is not actually doing any work. He merely shuffles papers to look busy when people walk by. He will continue to do no work on this important assignment until the Vulgar Betrayal investigation is effectively shut down one year later (see August 3, 1999). Wright will claim in 2003, “The important assignment he was given involved both the founder and the financier of Ptech.” Presumably these could be references to Oussama Ziade, the president and chief founder of Ptech, and Yassin al-Qadi, apparently Ptech’s largest investor. [FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE, 6/2/2003]
October 1998: Vulgar Betrayal Investigation Nearly Shut Down
Two months after the US embassy bombings in Africa (see 10:35-10:39 a.m., August 7, 1998), FBI agent Robert Wright and his Vulgar Betrayal investigation discover evidence they think ties Saudi multimillionaire Yassin al-Qadi to the bombings. Since 1997, Wright had been investigating a suspected terrorist cell in Chicago that was connected to fundraising for Hamas. They discovered what they considered to be clear proof that al-Qadi and other people they were already investigating had helped fund the embassy bombings. Wright asks FBI headquarters for permission to open an investigation into this money trail at this time, but the permission is not granted. Wright will later recall, “The supervisor who was there from headquarters was right straight across from me and started yelling at me: ‘You will not open criminal investigations. I forbid any of you. You will not open criminal investigations against any of these intelligence subjects.’” Instead, they are told to merely follow the suspects and file reports, but make no arrests. Federal prosecutor Mark Flessner, working with the Vulgar Betrayal investigation, later will claim that a strong criminal case was building against al-Qadi and his associates. “There were powers bigger than I was in the Justice Department and within the FBI that simply were not going to let [the building of a criminal case] happen. And it didn’t happen.… I think there were very serious mistakes made. And I think, it perhaps cost, it cost people their lives ultimately.” [ABC NEWS, 12/19/2002] Flessner later will speculate that Saudi influence may have played a role. ABC News will report in 2002, “According to US officials, al-Qadi [has] close personal and business connections with the Saudi royal family.” [ABC NEWS, 11/26/2002] Wright later will allege that FBI headquarters even attempted to shut down the Vulgar Betrayal investigation altogether at this time. He says, “They wanted to kill it.” [ABC NEWS, 12/19/2002] However, he will claim, “Fortunately an assistant special agent in Chicago interceded to prevent FBI headquarters from closing Operation Vulgar Betrayal.” [FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE, 6/2/2003] He claims that a new supervisor will write in late 1998, “Agent Wright has spearheaded this effort despite embarrassing lack of investigative resources available to the case, such as computers, financial analysis software, and a team of financial analysts. Although far from being concluded, the success of this investigation so far has been entirely due to the foresight and perseverance of Agent Wright.” [FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE, 5/30/2002] When the story of this interference in the alleged al-Qadi-embassy bombings connection will be reported in late 2002, Wright will conclude, “September the 11th is a direct result of the incompetence of the FBI’s International Terrorism Unit. No doubt about that. Absolutely no doubt about that. You can’t know the things I know and not go public.” He will remain prohibited from telling all he knows, merely hinting, “There’s so much more. God, there’s so much more. A lot more.” [ABC NEWS, 12/19/2002]
August 3, 1999: Wright Removed from Vulgar Betrayal Investigation
Chicago FBI agent Robert Wright is abruptly removed from the Vulgar Betrayal investigation into terrorism financing (see 1996). The entire investigation apparently winds down without his involvement, and will shut down altogether in 2000 (see August 2000). A New York Post article will state, “[T]he official reason was a fear that Wright’s work would disrupt FBI intelligence-gathering. My sources find this dubious: After years of monitoring these individuals, the bureau had likely learned all it could.… [But] conversations with FBI personnel indicate that he was told informally that his work was too embarrassing to the Saudis. In support of this is the fact that Wright was shut down as he seemed to be closing in on Yassin al-Qadi.” [WASHINGTON POST, 5/11/2002; NEW YORK POST, 7/14/2004] Wright later will claim that a reason he is given for being taken off the investigation is a recent dispute he is having with a Muslim FBI agent who refuses to wear a wire (see Early 1999-March 21, 2000). [FEDERAL NEWS SERVICE, 6/2/2003] He is also accused of sexually harassing a female FBI agent. This charge is investigated and later dropped. [CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 8/22/2004] Wright is removed from counterterrorism work altogether and remains that way at least through early 2002. [ASSOCIATED PRESS, 3/15/2002]
Freeh may also have a secondary conflict-of-interest regarding his board directorship of MBNA, who have business ties to Penn State and Sandusky charity Second Mile:
http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comm ... _sandusky/