At the end of last week, the FBI made clear that they had ended their anti-Muslim training program, saying "that the agency did host one training session six months ago that described Muslims as more likely to be violent as they increased in devotion to their faith."
Well, sort of, as Spencer Ackerman, who originally broke the story about the program, points out.
The FBI?s line is that the briefings happened one time, in April 2011. Or at least it was. With no fanfare, the FBI today updated its official response to our story ? same URL, same date (Thursday) even ? by saying, ?As of August 2011, the individual who delivered the presentation no longer provides training on behalf of the FBI.? So he kept delivering these briefings until August now.
The agency's statement was quite strong:
"The FBI is committed to protecting Americans' rights under the U.S. Constitution, including a person's right to live, work, and worship as they wish. Strong religious beliefs should never be confused with violent extremism," the Bureau said in a statement Friday. "Views that are contrary should not and will not be taught to FBI employees."
But there's still a bit of a problem beyond the date fudging here.
An FBI spokesman told TPM that the presenter "was an analyst that was temporarily given the opportunity to be an instructor." He remains an analyst for the bureau.
Should an analyst who was A-okay with presenting clearly inappropriate (to say the least), anti-Muslim, bigoted materials in the form anti-terrorism training continue to be trusted as an analyst for the agency? Still seems slightly problematic, no?
It's a symptom of the larger disease, which Ackerman's colleague at WIRED, Kris Alexander, writes about from the perspective of a military officer who's been on the receiving end of this bad training. It's also evident in the CIA/NYPD "Democraphics Unit" which has been targeting Muslim-American communities in the northeast.
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