Rand Meets With FBI Director (follow-up press release)

[Napoleon's Shadow]

Just released....

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At the request of Sen. Rand Paul, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller came to Capitol Hill this afternoon and met with Sen. Paul to answer questions regarding the recent arrest of two suspected terrorists in Bowling Green, Ky., among other issues.

The two men arrested, Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, were granted refugee status to enter the United States though one of the men had been connected through fingerprints found in 2005 on an unexploded roadside bomb set to blow up a U.S. convoy in Iraq. Sen. Paul has raised a number of questions and concerns about the screening process through which refugee status is granted, and how terrorists like the two arrested in his hometown of Bowling Green were able to enter the U.S. in the first place.

While many details of today’s meeting are classified, Sen. Paul released the following statement in summary:

“I am pleased with the outcome of today’s meeting with FBI Director Mueller. I will continue to press the issue of how the refugee screening process – and admittance process – needs to be heavily scrutinized. I asked Director Mueller to convey a message to President Obama, urging him to reconsider the number of foreign nationals granted asylum in the United States. Protecting our national security is of the utmost importance – if this process is broken, it needs to be fixed and Americans need to know any future threats of this kind are being prevented to the fullest extent.”

 

[vita3]

Any insiders know what really happened in this meeting?

 

[Thargok]

Such briefings are not open to the public.

 

[vita3]

"Such briefings are not open to the public"

blah.blah

 

[propanes]

So private meetings are how people with questions are flattered. Are minutes made from private briefings? It seems like the only way to trust public servants is when their work is done in the light of day. If not immediately then eventually.

 

[Dr.3D]

Kind of figured the truth would be somehow be kept from the public.

 

[idirtify]

“MANY details…are classified”?? It sounds like ALL the details are classified…well, at least all of Mueller’s answers – which were the only relevant details. Did we get one single answer out of Rand’s statement summary? I didn’t see any. Did Rand ever put out a detailed summary? I mean WTF? Is this all we get??

If so, I think we can safely assume this was a giant failure. I mean what about all those great questions Rand sent in that letter to Mueller? A quick count shows around 25 direct questions and requests. I realize that some may entail classified information, but most do not. So we don’t even get to know how many of the millions of SARS or NSLs or roving wiretaps or seized library records have gotten convictions, or whether or how many times they were used on American citizens? Did he even get an answer to which domestic groups are targeted for higher scrutiny in each state? Did he get ANY answers? Unless I’m missing something, this is pretty conspicuous. Of course it makes the FBI look bad, but it also makes Rand look bad. It looks like the young racehorse that gets the jump out of the gate but them falls after 10 meters. How about we don’t give Rand such a pass on this by assuming that he got nothing but a threat based on national security and classified information, and instead start asking him questions about the answers he got. I mean if Rand never had any expectation of revealing any of the answers, why did he even ask (let alone publish) the questions? It only made him look bad right out of the gate.