Westboro Baptist Church Used To Train FBI Agents
Jun 30, 2011 13:16:57 GMT -5
Post by PrisonerOfHope on Jun 30, 2011 13:16:57 GMT -5
NPR: Westboro Baptist Church used to train FBI agents
By Ben Palosaari Wed., Jun. 29 2011 at 11:00 AM
WBC members aren't welcome at the FBI anymore.
Waking up to news about Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church is never a good way to start the day. But, thanks to an NPR report on Morning Edition, that's what millions of Americans did today. And the news was bizarre, even by WBC standards.
Reporter Dina Temple-Raston told the story of the FBI inviting WBC members to training sessions with agents, and the resulting internal controversy. Temple-Raston's journalism-textbook-worthy nut graph explains:
Yet the FBI recently invited leaders of the fundamentalist church to the Quantico Marine base in Virginia to talk to FBI agents as part of the bureau's counterterrorism training program. But after four sessions this spring, the FBI canceled the arrangement amid criticism from inside the bureau, while church leaders claimed that they had been misled.
It appears that the FBI brought in some WBC characters to give their agents some hands-on interaction with potential domestic terrorists. "[Law enforcement agents] were told that the FBI invited Westboro members to the class so police officers and agents could see extremists up close and understand what makes them tick," NPR reported.
But if that was the case, nobody told Timothy Phelps, who told Temple-Raston that WBC members were brought to Quantico to help train officers in the best ways to deal with provocative suspects. Phelps told the show that he thought the WBC was there to teach the FBI agents "how to stay measured when they are speaking with a witness or a suspect with whom they have a strong, visceral disagreement."
When told that the FBI claims that wasn't really the case and WBC knew it wasn't, Phelps wasn't too shocked, telling NPR that the law lies to WBC members all the damn time.
After FBI higher-ups found out that the group had been invited to speak to agents, a flurry of memos was sent around asking about why the WBC was invited and telling FBI officials to not invite the church back. But Phelps says he would return to chat with agents, even though he felt misled about his reason for being there.
blogs.pitch.com/plog/2011/06/npr_westboro_baptist_chuch_use.php
By Ben Palosaari Wed., Jun. 29 2011 at 11:00 AM
WBC members aren't welcome at the FBI anymore.
Waking up to news about Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church is never a good way to start the day. But, thanks to an NPR report on Morning Edition, that's what millions of Americans did today. And the news was bizarre, even by WBC standards.
Reporter Dina Temple-Raston told the story of the FBI inviting WBC members to training sessions with agents, and the resulting internal controversy. Temple-Raston's journalism-textbook-worthy nut graph explains:
Yet the FBI recently invited leaders of the fundamentalist church to the Quantico Marine base in Virginia to talk to FBI agents as part of the bureau's counterterrorism training program. But after four sessions this spring, the FBI canceled the arrangement amid criticism from inside the bureau, while church leaders claimed that they had been misled.
It appears that the FBI brought in some WBC characters to give their agents some hands-on interaction with potential domestic terrorists. "[Law enforcement agents] were told that the FBI invited Westboro members to the class so police officers and agents could see extremists up close and understand what makes them tick," NPR reported.
But if that was the case, nobody told Timothy Phelps, who told Temple-Raston that WBC members were brought to Quantico to help train officers in the best ways to deal with provocative suspects. Phelps told the show that he thought the WBC was there to teach the FBI agents "how to stay measured when they are speaking with a witness or a suspect with whom they have a strong, visceral disagreement."
When told that the FBI claims that wasn't really the case and WBC knew it wasn't, Phelps wasn't too shocked, telling NPR that the law lies to WBC members all the damn time.
After FBI higher-ups found out that the group had been invited to speak to agents, a flurry of memos was sent around asking about why the WBC was invited and telling FBI officials to not invite the church back. But Phelps says he would return to chat with agents, even though he felt misled about his reason for being there.
blogs.pitch.com/plog/2011/06/npr_westboro_baptist_chuch_use.php
