Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke on Thursday blamed the FBI for its “security failure” in protecting Americans from acts of terrorism, saying a new domestic security entity is needed to better deal with intelligence.
“ISIS has declared war on America,” the outspoken conservative sheriff wrote in an op-ed for The Hill. “We need to use a war model to prosecute this campaign and instead we are using a law-enforcement model which seeks probable cause to arrest, a very high standard often times not achievable until after an attack (crime) occurs and then enough evidence that will stand up in a court of law.
“As a law-enforcement leader who deals with domestic terrorism and attacks on our population on the front lines, it is imperative that I relay one crucial bit of intelligence from my end: we are not structured properly and thus unable to defend the homeland adequately until our domestic intelligence apparatus changes drastically,” he argued.
Sheriff Clarke wrote that he has been speaking out on this issue for several years now, calling on Americans to demand a change from the government.
“Our lives continue to be lost, people maimed, and populations increasingly terrorized, for the simple reason that we have put the wrong organization with the wrong mission in charge: the FBI,” he continued.
He said the bombings over the weekend in New York and New Jersey that left 29 people wounded was an “intelligence failure” by the FBI.
“Continuing to ask the FBI to handle domestic security is wrongheaded and dangerous for one simple reason: the FBI is structured to investigate law violations, not produce intelligence,” he wrote. “In the wake of recent attacks on American soil, from Orlando to San Bernardino and now Minnesota and New York City, it is clearer than ever that the FBI’s law-enforcement approach is unable to disrupt enough fatal and dangerous attacks against our domestic targets before they happen.”
“It’s up to the American people to demand that a new domestic security entity take up the protection of the homeland,” Sheriff Clarke wrote. “This organization does not exist here as of yet, but it needs to, and quick. A new entity focused on protection, not prosecution, is the only way to protect Americans.”
Law enforcement officials believe agents did not miss anything during their 2014 investigation of Ahmad Khan Rahami, which the FBI opened after he stabbed his brother. During the investigation, Mr. Rahami’s father revealed that his son might be a terrorist, but the FBI closed the case within month without interviewing Mr. Rahami, who was jailed after the stabbing, The New York Times reported.
Mr. Rahami is accused of injuring two police officers in a shootout Monday before he was arrested in connection with several bombings and bombing attempts in Seaside Park, Elizabeth and Manhattan. Authorities said he was not part of a terrorist cell, but was motivated by extremist Islamic ideology.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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