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Washington: Breaking ranks, a career FBI agent told members of Congress on Wednesday that the bureau lacked the experience and sophistication to deal with West Asian terrorists and prevent another catastrophic attack.
Agent Bassem Youssef said counter-terrorism agents and managers at FBI headquarters often lack basic knowledge about West Asian culture, language and terrorists' ideology. Compounding matters, he said, is the fact that the FBI has continued to name supervisors to anti-terror positions who have little or no experience outside traditional law enforcement.
The result, he said, is that agents are wasting resources chasing leads that more sophisticated observers would quickly dispense with. The time and energy expended on marginal cases has diverted resources from investigating more substantial threats, he said.
Ill-equipped
"The FBI counter-terrorism division is ill-equipped to handle the terrorist threat we are facing," Youssef told a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee considering legal protections for government whistle-blowers working at national security agencies such as the FBI.
"Regardless of what happens to me when I walk into the FBI headquarters building tomorrow, that is what I hope to convey to you," said Youssef, who was one of several who testified at the hearing.
The FBI took issue with the testimony. "While we appreciate any employee's views on the state and direction of the FBI, those assessments may be very limited in scope," John Miller, the head of public affairs said in a prepared statement. He said the FBI has made "great and steady strides' to protect the country since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
"It is cynical to write off the work of so many dedicated FBI employees or the accomplishments of the bureau by suggesting that these efforts are failing, especially when they are not," Miller said.
He added the bureau continues to work hard to staff positions at FBI headquarters and to attract and hire more multi-lingual agents and those with different cultural backgrounds.
A decorated counter-terrorism agent in the 1990s, Youssef was passed over for promotions after the September 11 attacks, and filed a lawsuit in 2003 claiming the bureau discriminated against him based on his ancestry. The son of immigrant Christian Egyptians, he grew up in Los Angeles. He has long been the highest-ranking Arab-American agent in the FBI, and one of its few native Arabic speakers.
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