AP Enterprise: FBI Managers Admit They Didn't Seek Out Terrorism Expertise After Sept. 11 - from TBO.com

AP Enterprise: FBI Managers Admit They Didn't Seek Out Terrorism Expertise After Sept. 11 - from TBO.com: "Jun 19, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) - In sworn testimony that contrasts with their promises to the public, the FBI managers who crafted the post-Sept. 11 fight against terrorism say expertise about the Mideast or terrorism was not important in choosing the agents they promoted to top jobs.

And they still do not believe such experience is necessary today even as terrorist acts occur across the globe.
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The FBI's current terror-fighting chief, Executive Assistant Director Gary Bald, said his first terrorism training came 'on the job' when he moved to headquarters to oversee anti-terrorism strategy two years ago.

Asked about his grasp of Middle Eastern culture and history, Bald responded: 'I wish that I had it. It would be nice.'

'You need leadership. You don't need subject matter expertise,' Bald testified in an ongoing FBI employment case. 'It is certainly not what I look for in selecting an official for a position in a counterterrorism position.'
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Those who have held the bureau's top terrorism-fighting jobs since Sept. 11 often said in their testimony that they - and many they have promoted since - had no significant terrorism or Middle East experience. Some could not even explain the difference between Sunnis and Shiites, the two primary groups of Muslims.
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The hundreds of pages of testimony obtained by The Associated Press contrast with assurances Mueller repeatedly has given Congress that he was building a new FBI, from top to bottom, with experts able to stop terrorist attacks before they occurred, not solve them afterward."