Bayou Bennie Keeps the Good Guys in Line

It turns out that the Democrats can be as dumb as the average Republican when it comes to fighting terrorism. I mean, how else could they put Congressman Bennie Thompson in charge of the Committee on Homeland Security?

Thompson became chairman of the committee that controls much of the U.S. anti-terrorism budget when Republicans botched their way out of a legislative majority last November. Thompson is in his eighth term from rural Mississippi. His homeland security experience: 26 years as a volunteer firefighter for a town of 630 people.

His congressional biography sums up the driving mantra of Congress's chief anti-terrorist thusly:

Drawing on his 26 years of experience as a volunteer firefighter in Hinds County, Congressman Thompson understands that our nation's law enforcement and first responders are our first line of defense in times of emergency.

Huh?

Bayou Bennie, as he is now known in Intel circles, went to The New York Daily News this weekend to berate the New York City Police Department for having the temerity to conduct intelligence gathering outside the five boroughs. Apparently if they were tailing a suspect and he got on a PATH train, they'd follow the guy to New Jersey.

Worse than that, he complained that the NYPD doesn't always notify the locals before visiting.

Notification is what volunteer firemen do: Respond to a call for mutual aid, turn on every flashing light and siren on your oversized fire engine and stand around with the locals to watch the barn burn down. Protocol then suggests the company retire for a keg of beer, pots of gumbo and bucket loads of self-congratulations for another heroic chapter in their lives, especially if any livestock or pets were saved.

That's not the way the intelligence field works. The NYPD is located in the largest city in the country and happens to be the biggest terror target in the hemisphere. We don't have time for Bayou Bennie's style of southern gentility.

Thompson summoned Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence David Cohen to Capitol Hill to demand justification for the size of NYPD britches. It must have been a fascinating conversation; Bayou Bennie and Cohen, a former CIA boss, swapping anecdotes. Just imagine:

Bayou Bennie: "Lemme tell ya about the fire over at the Smith farm."

Cohen the Spy Guy, "Did you ever hear the one about the Black Ops group in Afghanistan..."

Bayou Bennie: "Hey, Spy Guy; what's the difference between etoufee and a fatwah?"

Spy Guy: "Bennie?"

Bayou Bennie: "There's no crayfish in fatwah and no halal in etoufee..."

Whatever the real conversation was, Bayou Bennie emerged from behind the woodshed to announce to the press that he had made a pronouncement to Cohen.

"The NYPD is not the FBI."

Well, pinch my grits and thanks for the update.

There's a lot of things the NYPD isn't and one of those things is that they aren't the FBI.

The FBI is a fine organization filled with great law enforcement professionals.

But the bureau's staff and the structure are relatively new to the intelligence game. The bureau's glory days as an intelligence agency ended when J. Edgar Hoover outgrew his puerile fascination with other people's sex lives.

Although innovations have been implemented, the FBI remains an organization that doesn't allow for shortcuts: brick agents develop clues and seek guidance from supervisors who query Assistant Special Agents in Charge, who query Special Agents in charge right up to the very top of the hierarchy where the orders tumble back like a pachinko ball.

Remember at the end of the day the FBI's strategy is guided by Washington's intel brain trust: Alberto "Take the Fifth" Gonzalez, Michael "I Slept Through Katrina" Chertoff, and Dick Cheney, whose only live fire combat experience involved him shooting a hunting buddy in the face.

The NYPD intelligence squad has long been the model for law enforcement. We in the intel business know about the close calls and almost without exception it was the NYPD who headed them off. Also, it's not like they are diverting resources: the FBI has fewer than 15,000 agents spread across the country and around the world; the NYPD has 40,000 cops.

The FBI, CIA and NYPD all have operatives in Israel. The NYPD guy is nicknamed "Morty the Detective." He is an oversized Hebrew speaking detective who transferred out of Manhattan Homicide, sold the vinyl sided colonial on Long Island and moved wife and family to the Israeli desert. Before he left, Commissioner Ray Kelly reminded Morty that this assignment wasn't that much different from his early days walking a beat in Brooklyn: "Learn the neighborhood, identify the evil guys and help us prevent bad things from happening in New York City."

Each time suicide bomber ignites themselves, Morty races to the scene and relays the details directly to One Police Plaza. This isn't an exercise to prove that New Yorkers are smarter than the FBI or CIA. Morty insures the direct delivery of information that will help the NYPD prevent a suicide bomb in the subway or Times Square.

If the Congressman wants to know why the NYPD needs quick accurate information, we'll arrange a guided tour of Ground Zero. We can probably even get him an NYFD decal for his Mississippi volunteer fire helmet; cripes, we can probably get 630 of them so every man, woman and child back home can have one.

Until al Qaeda changes its tactics and starts to target one horse, multi-mosquitoed towns, Bayou Bennie should shut up and go back to the firehouse and let the NYPD do its job.