FBI Has Been Tracking "Lone Wolf" Extremists Since Late Last Year

Wall Street Journal:

The recent killings of a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum guard and a Kansas abortion doctor came a few months after the Federal Bureau of Investigation stepped up efforts to pre-empt violence committed by just such political extremists working alone.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[MrMojoRisin]

rather than "tracking" them, why not CATCH THEM!!!

[gascelebrations]

Um, he hadn't done anything wrong. Are we all about invasive mindcrime and rounding up undesirables now?

[Patricia84]

They still got Syed Haris Ahmed, though.

[jsgaetano]

Conservatives believe in pre-emptive military action. Isn't that the same thing? They also believe in indefinite detention of people who have done nothing wrong (all the people at Gitmo).

So there's already agreement from Conservatives that people (even American Citizens, see Jose Padilla and John Walker Lindh) can be arrested simply on a suspicion. Since Conservatives have already waived all their rights to due process, I say round them all up!

[plaidsportcoat]

Yeah. After they kll YOU --then they should catch him. Glad you agree.

[MMIIXX]

Can someone tell me ,why are you repeatedly showing the photo of a fifty year old man ? The guy is 88 years old...eigh­ty eight years old ...his current photo is readily available .
Is the photo of an 88 year old man not scary enough ?
I thought blogs are supposed to be honest unlike corporate media !
Spin spin spin every where you look .

[plaidsportcoat]

Yeah, poor old fella

[naschkatze]

Why do the media and the FBI, apparently, keep characterizing these acts as done by lone wolves? We do not know that yet. They've come to their conclusions before the investigations.

[PanFx]

Any act of violence that doesn't have a money connection to Saudi Arabia is performed by a, "lone wolf." Welcome to Bush's justice department.

[akira]

Dude, your bambi has been in office for 5 months...c­anyou stop the BUsh deragE.men t syndrome already?Sheeesh

[wonkguy]

Considering what this just did, I wouldn't exactly say the FBI has been "tracking" him.

[Camilla77]

Lone wolf = RogueWolf

[Bitsko]

Interesting that the Journal didn't report this earlier, when they were critical of the report about right wing activities.

[Patricia84]

It would have torpedoed the partisan argument.

[jtown]

they didn't do a good job, if they let a known racist could walk into a Holocaust Museum with a loaded gun.

[Lyr]

Do you expect them to be followed 24/7? That isn't even remotely realistic.

[akira]

Yeah, funny how a former felon got a hold of a rifle and went into a gun-free zone (D.C.), blowing off all the laws and rules that keeps us, the law-abiding, from keeping and bearing arms, lawfully, Who would have thought that a CRIMINAL would NOT OBEY the LAW???

[kellygrrrl]

they're not "Lone Wolves"
there are plenty of people in contact with these perps who hear them speaking of their plans.
ShawnaForde's own family has admitted they knew what she was planning.
These people are all over the internet spouting their nonsense, and I'm sure they are also telling it to their family and friends and co-workers.

it is the responsibility of all citizens to seek help when they hear the Extremist rantings of anyone

[MMIIXX]

it worked for the STASI ,it worked for the KGB and it worked for the Nazi's.

[plaidsportcoat]

there's more to the world than black and white. you just can't seem to see it.

[sekigahara]

Except in those organization's cases, the charge was usually treason and with a show-trial or not, the punishment was usually a bullet behind the ear or a hanging. In the case of "Lone Wolf's" being tracked, it will require a judge to allow anything extreme such as a wire-tap and only when there is either enough evidence to charge a person with a crime or to halt the imminence of a felony would an arrest be made. Further, upon arrest and indictment such a person will have access to the courts, representation in the courts, and the rights guaranteed by the US Constitution with which to plead their case - decidedly not what was available to defendants in the Soviet Union or the Third Reich (or Bagram or Gitmo) - so the suggestion that the FBI is somehow synonymous with those organizations doesn't hold water.

[jukesgrrl]

The guy in Pittsburgh also had friends who were not the least bit surprised by what he did and he, too, was a regular on extremist Internet sites.

[pangurban]

Maybe they should let them know they are being tracked...­might dissuade them from violence

[Weirdwriter]

These guys are already paranoid, and the really public ones assume they're being watched.

The real question is, what is the FBI doing with this information? "Tracking" implies following closely enough to see where the target is headed. A heads-up to the Holocaust Museum would have been helpful, to say the least.

[gino618]

Gee - maybe we should just tell Al Qaida the same thing and we won't have to worry anymore, huh?

Newsflash: These individuals are nuts - it wouldn't matter.

[plaidsportcoat]

They are not nuts. They are perfectly sane a holio conservos.