Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 10A
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sunday, April I*. 2004
The Forsyth County News
Opinion
This is a page of opinions - ours, yours and others.
Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the
writers and artists and may not reflect our views.
Thanks to businesses
for school support
In what has become one
of the popular rites of
spring in the county, the
Chamber of Commerce and
the school system teamed
up Friday for the annual
Partners in Education lunch
eon.
A big crowd filled the
Sawnee Center to recognize
the outstanding efforts of
local businesses in support
ing public education.
The Partners in
Education program has
become one of those rare
“win-win" endeavors in
which everyone involved
comes out ahead.
The program pairs local
businesses with public
schools. The businesses take
an active role in helping to
improve education by doing
everything from donating
supplies to providing class
room speakers.
A reoccurring theme
Job well done
Congratulations are due environmentally friendly,
to Keep Forsyth County recycling helps to reduce
Beautiful for having the demand for landfill
earned statewide recogni- space.
tion last week for its Since finding appropri
efforts to reduce the vol- ate space to house a solid
ume of solid waste being waste landfill is a tortur-
dumped in the
x -
- . 1
county.
The Georgia
Department of
Community
Affairs honored
the local organi
zation with its award
for Waste Reduction and
Recycling at a luncheon
Wednesday.
The efforts by KFCB to
promote awareness of the
need to recycle and to
reduce the amount of
waste being disposed in
area landfills pays a long
term dividend to us all.
In addition to being
Letters
Cause of fire should
be investigated more
I am interested in an investigation
of the individual who started the fire.
It appears to be a case of gross negli
gence on her part.
Although I live in the subdivision
next door to Manchaster Court, my
home was in a direct path of the fire,
had it not been contained, and we
could feel the approaching heat from
my back yard. My cats were in carri
ers in my car, and we were ready to
evacuate. My heart goes out to those
who lost their homes ... and most
especially their pets.
Ruth Breisinger
Cumming
Letter policy
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concern. Letters must be signed and include full address and a daytime and
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blanket letters or consumer complaints
Mail letters to the Forsyth County News, P.O. Box 210, Cumming, GA
30028, hand deliver to 302 Veterans Memorial Blvd., fax to (770) 889-6017
or email to editor@forsythnews.com.
throughout the program,
and one touched upon by
keynote speaker Congress
man John Linder, was the
importance of involvement
in schools by those from
different arenas parents,
businesses, volunteers, edu
cators and students.
Among the businesses
singled out for their role in
the Partnership in Education
program were Outback
Steakhouse, the Coca-Cola
Company, Tysons Foods,
Choice Point Inc., Hedge
wood Properties and the
DeSana Educational Fund.
To those business part
ners. and to the dozens of
others who contribute to the
county's schools in many
different ways every year,
we offer a heartfelt “thanks”
for your willingness to be
involved with the young
people of the county’s
schools.
ous process in a
14 J 1 V VV J 111 a
fast-growth area
like Forsyth, any
effort aimed at
reducing the
amount of space
needed for waste
•s-J i» -
disposal is a plus.
The KFCB program
focuses on educating local
residents about recycling
options and opportunities
by working with schools,
businesses, civic organiza
tions, governmental enti
ties and residents.
All of those involved in
the program deserve kudos
for its success.
Refreshing attitude
from fire chief
In these times where our politi
cians and other public servants work
overtime to deflect blame and “pass
the buck” for their shortcomings and
misdeeds, how truly refreshing it was
to read that Fire Chief Danny
Bowman stood up and accepted his
share of the responsibility for the
April 4 fires in Cumming.
Unfortunately, I do not know too
much about Mr. Bowman as a fire
chief, but I am willing to bet that he
is an exceptional gentleman.
Jim Conner
Cumming
Wlfew WIR 111
.ass - f
FBI is facing crisis in credibility
The 40th anniversary of (he
assassination of Lemuel Penn,
one of the most heinous acts of
terror in the civil rights era.
comes up July 11. That date
also marks the anniversary of a
textbook FBI investigation that
contributed to the destruction
across the South of a band of
murderous homegrown terror
ists.
As we remember those
Umes, ironies abound. The FBI.
now noted more for its screw
ups than its successes, is on its
way to becoming the scapegoat
agency for failing to detect the
Islamic fanatics who carried out
the horrific 9/1 1 attacks on
America. From paternalistic
genius G-men to dangerously
inept bureaucrats, the FBl’s
image has slid a long way in a
relatively short time.
Let’s start with a terrible
crime but a better time for the
bureau. Penn, director of voca
tional and adult education in
Washington, D.C.. was shot to
death on a lonely highway
northeast of Athens on the long
journey back to his home from
Ft. Benning, where he had been
on summer duty as an Army
Reserve officer. Members of the
Ku Klux Klan spotted his car
with D.C. plates, followed him
a few miles and then ended his
life in what was later termed "a
random lynching.”
Within hours, the FBI knew
the names and addresses and
everything else about the perpe
trators. Although the investiga
tion dragged on for weeks, the
FBI had quietly identified the
killers before Penn's corpse was
cold.
The bureau had so thorough
ly penetrated the ranks of the
Klan with undercover opera
tives that the nightriders could
barely make a move without
detection. In truth, in those
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Bill
Shipp
tense times in the midst of the
civil rights struggle, the FBl’s
considerable intelligence abili
ties enabled the agency to solve
and actually prevent
many crimes related to the cam
paign for racial equality.
More importantly, coura
geous FBI operatives were
more responsible than anyone
else for holding down violence
and finally rendering the KKK
ineffective in the South. The
agency didn’t receive much
credit for that noble work. The
media at the time were too busy
pummeling the bureau for its
extensive surveillance of civil
rights leaders and their associ
ates. some of whom were active
communists.
J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI also
had created intelligence dossiers
on many of the nation’s impor
tant political figures and media
stars. Despite the good use to
w hich some of that information
was put. many of the country’s
leading political lights decided
the FBI knew too much about
too many. In the early 19705,
the bureau itself was rendered
ineffective. Congress and the
president stripped the agency of
nearly all important intelligence
mandates. Congress enacted
laws that tied the hands of the
FBI when delving into matters
that did not lead directly to
criminal indictments.
By the time the 1990 s rolled
around, the FBI often appeared
as little more than a bumbling
collection of computer-illiterate
detectives interested in catching
bank robbers, car thieves and
drug dealers. Long-term sur-
veillance of international terror
ists was barely on their agenda.
When antiterrorism experts
from Washington gathered in
Atlanta to discuss security for
the 1996 Olympics, the FBI, the
lead agency for Olympic securi
ty, Was less than a good listener
to the CIA-connected special
ists.
In his book, "Against All
Enemies." Richard A. Clarke,
counterintelligence czar for
Presidents Clinton and George
W. Bush, recalled the Atlanta
meeting.
"Mindful of Ramzi Yousef's
plot to blow up 747 s and the
images of Pan Am 103, 1 asked
about aircraft. ‘What if some
body blows up a 747 over the
Olympic Stadium or even flies
one into the stadium?’
“The Special Agent in
Charge of the Atlanta FBI office
was steaming under the cross
examination from the
Washington-know-it-alls.
Sounds like Tom Clancy to
me.' he sneered. I glared at him.
'But if it happens, that's an
FAA problem.' he answered."
It was the first time the pos
sibility of using hijacked air
craft as missiles had come up in
a national counterterrorism
meeting. The idea was appar
ently filed away until it
became reality on Sept. 11.
2001.
Clarke goes on to describe
the Atlanta Olympics “satchel"
bombing that killed one person
and the FBl's quick work in
nabbing a private security
guard. Richard Jewell, who
turned out to be the wrong guy.
Clarke faults then-FBI Director
Louis Freeh for making that
monumental boo-boo.
In dramatic testimony to the
national commission investigat
ing the events leading up to
9/11. Clarke has nailed the FBI
as a principal culprit in allowing
Islamic terrorists to gain access
to the country and carry out
their mass murders.
Former Georgia Congress
man Bob Barr, previously a
CIA analyst and federal prose
cutor. also remembers the FBl’s
slippage.
"In the late 19905. we held
hearings [in Congress] ... and
discovered the bureau did not
even have the computer capabil
ity to catalog and trace firearms
it had seized in criminal investi
gations. They complain now
that they didn't have the funds
to do more. They had plenty of
funds they just spent them
on other things,” Ban says.
As for the notion that liberal
congressmen along with
Presidents Nixon and Carter
stripped the FBI of its powers
back in the 19705, Barr reminds
us that the GOP controlled
Congress for the seven years
leading up to 9/11 and did not
move to repair the bureau.
In any event, an investigative
agency, once defanged of its
information-gathering capabili
ty. is now an object of national
scorn for knowing too little
about bad guys and then failing
to connect the available dots in
time to prevent 9/11. Blaming
faceless government careerists
for anything and everything that
goes awry is the easy way out.
The real blame lies with our
elected federal officials over the
past 30 years who lacked the
will, foresight and courage to
keep one of the nation's proud
est institutions legally equipped
and trained to move from fight
ing crime and the Cold War to
keeping tabs on Islamic zealots
bent on killing all of us.
Bill Shipp's column appears
each Sunday and Wednesday.
His e-mail address is
hshipp @ bellsouth, net.