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Before Tiller Murder, FBI Got Detailed Info On Roeder's Illegal Activity
Earlier this week, we raised questions about whether the FBI acted aggressively enough after getting a tip about Scott Roeder, who's been charged with murdering Kansas doctor George Tiller.
And those questions are only getting louder. Last night, the abortion clinic worker who had provided that tip went on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show, where he laid out Roeder's various efforts to vandalize the clinic -- starting in 2000 and culminating the day before Tiller's murder -- as well as the detailed information that the FBI received about the incidents.
Watch:
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In a nutshell, here's what the worker -- using the pseudonym "Jeffrey Pederson" to protect his identity -- told Maddow:
Back in 2000, Pederson saw Roeder supergluing the front and back door locks to the clinic -- preventing anyone from entering or leaving -- two weekends in a row. Pederson gave the FBI the security videotape of the incident, as well as the license number of Roeder's car, which he had taken down. In response, the bureau said the pictures were not clear enough to build a case, but that they'd talk to Roeder.
That may have had some effect, because the worker said Roeder wasn't seen around the clinic again until 2006. At that time, he returned for several months, joining the group of anti-abortion protesters that would gather outside the clinic. Then he went away for a while again.
On the morning of Monday, May 25, 2009, clinic staff showed up to work to find the doors super-glued. When Pederson got in, he replaced the locks, then called the local police and the FBI. He viewed the security tape but was unable to identify the vandal. But on the 28th, he viewed the tape again and was able to identify Roeder. He gave that tape to the FBI.
On the morning of the 30th, the day before Tiller's shooting, Roeder returned. A staff member saw him gluing the back door of the clinic. She chased him away, and he fled, yelling "baby killer." She noted his license number, and told Pederson about the incident. He reported the incident to the FBI, making clear that this was the same person as had vandalized the clinic the previous week. In response, the FBI said that in order to take any action to stop Roeder, they'd need to convene a grand jury and get a warrant.
In the same segment, Maddow also points out that a specific federal law, the FACE Act, makes it a federal crime to intentionally damage the property of an abortion facility. It would appear that the FBI had been given evidence -- tapes, witness interviews, a license number -- indicating that Roeder had repeatedly done that. The FBI also knew that Roeder had been arrested in 1996 for having bomb-making parts in his car, and had past ties to violent extremist groups. And yet, prosecutors charge, Roeder was left free the following day to shoot Tiller at close range in church.
There's also a larger story here, which involves what appears to be a sharp drop off, during the Bush years, in efforts to enforce the FACE Act and otherwise to ensure the safety of abortion providers. Could the general turn by law enforcement in recent years toward a focus on Islamic and environmental terrorism, and away from right-wing terrorism, have played a role in what looks like the FBI's casual response? And is it time to rethink that shift? It's certainly worth asking.
Late Update: Bridget Patton, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Kansas City office, tells TPMmuckraker that after receiving the information about Roeder from Pederson, the office opened an investigation. She declined to elaborate, citing that ongoing investigation. A spokesman with the FBI's national office declined to comment, referring us to Kansas City or the Department of Justice. A message left with DOJ public affairs was not immediately returned.
Josh
Zachary
One more FBI failure to add to the litany.
June 4, 2009 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...after receiving the information about Roeder from Pederson, the (Kansas City FBI) office opened an investigation."
What happened to the obvious follow-up question: "Was this investigation opened before or after Tiller was shot?".
Also, reporters keep saying "The FBI did this or the FBI did that." Bull. An organization cannot take action by itself. People in an organization use this as a means to hide their culpability and their responsibilities. Someone in the FBI took or did not take action. How about reporting on who was responsible for taking or not taking action in the Roeder case.
In addition, why aren't judges issuing restraining orders to prevent these anti-abortion fanatics from getting anywhere near an abortion clinic?
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June 5, 2009 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
If anyone doubts that the actions of groups like Operation Rescue are meant to terrify, and indeed do terrify, I have a story.
In the mid-to late 90s, my daughter was a college student in Boston who lived a block or two away from a women's health clinic. On Saturday mornings, the protestors would come out and bang trash can lids and scream at the building. A college student waked unnecessarily on Saturday morning is never going to be a happy camper, but this went a step further. She was startled out of a sound sleep by the sounds of an angry mob. If you've never been near an angry mob, count your blessings-it's incredibly frightening. Your heart pounds and your fight or flight response kicks into high gear. In her case she calmed as she realized what the noise was, but I wonder if the protesters had any idea the impression they were leaving. When she went to Boston she was very young and hadn't had much cause to think the abortion question through. After a year of Saturday morning protests she had a very firm opinion: the angry mob were scary, nasty people and the health clinic personnel and patrons were victims just minding their own business.
Groups like OR always worry about kids being brainwashed with liberal thinking while away at university, but in this case they were the ones who cemented her views.
June 4, 2009 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
You would almost think from the FBI non-response that there was some sympathy for the murderer and his cause. There should damn well be an investigation and whomever was responsible for taking a pass on addressing this situation BEFORE it turned to murder .... should be fired! That would be a nice notice to all other FBI personnel dealing with similar situations, that going soft on domestic terrorists will cost you your job.
June 4, 2009 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, it is the Kansas FBI. When it comes to abortion, Kansas is a different planet.
June 4, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is this a joke or is this actually a difference between the "Kansas FBI" an the national FBI?
June 4, 2009 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Keep in mind that the FBI is part of the DOJ - other parts of which were systematically politicized during the Bush years (the US Attorney Scandal).
Not saying this is what's going on, but if it turned out to be the case that there was subtle (or not so subtle) pressure on the agents to pursue anti-abortion activities with minimal aggressiveness, or efforts to make sure that whoever would be handling these cases was more likely to be on the anti-choice side of the issue, I would not be surprised in the least.
June 4, 2009 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is not a stretch to see this as politicization. All those Regent U grads were on record that they served the President and that he could choose which laws to enforce.
The entire Justice dept. needs a good performance review with firing authority for anyone who has not been upholding the law!
June 4, 2009 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
The FBI has an extended mission with a budget that won't let them do everything legislation declares they are supposed to do. As a result they set priorities.
That was very likely the case that led to the failures to deal with the threats that led to 9/11, which of course became a public relations disaster for the FBI. So their new priority became foreign terrorists. Domestic terrorists have apparently been prioritized to focus on environmental groups, if their publicity is any indication, and the Bush administration wanted to go nice on the anti-abortionists.
So now they have failed again.
Add that to the repeated efforts to upgrade and modernize their computer systems, for which they have spent $multi-millions only to repeatedly abandon the poorly-managed effort and start over.
The usual political result when the FBI fails at a particular type of crime seems to have been to create a new federal investigative agency, like the BATF and the DEA. That may be the next response. I might speculate that they could also face losing responsibility for the extended and manpower heavy requirements involved in overseas investigation of terrorist incidents. No telling who to.
June 4, 2009 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
After all the Evangelizing that is de rigeur, and the abuse women take, at the Air Force Academy, at other military educational institutions (VMI, Citadel, Naval Academy, etc), is anyone surprised that another military wing of the ReagaNaziCorporation has it in for women who don't toe the barefoot-and-pregnant line?
June 4, 2009 8:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
It certainly does smack of some Bush holdovers putting their personal views before their supposed profession. I hope that's not true, but at present, it doesn't pass the smell test.
June 4, 2009 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe it was covered in the Maddow piece, but couldn't local law enforcement have arrested this guy for vandalism? Is any incident at an abortion clinic automatically a federal issue?
June 4, 2009 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
In response, the FBI said that in order to take any action to stop Roeder, they'd need to convene a grand jury and get a warrant.
Sec. 3052. Powers of Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Director, Associate Director, Assistant to the Director, Assistant Directors, inspectors, and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice may carry firearms, serve warrants and subpoenas issued under the authority of the United States and make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony.
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So, why did they need to convene a grand jury and get a warrant?
June 4, 2009 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
They didn't. The truth is, the rightwing police just don't care.
June 4, 2009 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Needing a Grand Jury sounded like a good excuse for not taking any action.
To bad it was nonsense from the git-go.
Whoever spouted that particular nonsense should be fired for not understanding the way the justice system works in the USA.
And, they are working for the FBI????
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June 5, 2009 10:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Holder needs to get his act together. So far he has simply been a patsy of Obama. What happened to Holder's speech a few months ago to his people telling them to "do the right thing"? That particularly means JUSTICE FOR ALL. So where in hell is JUSTICE FOR ALL in this country?
So now the FBI's incompetence/bias is clearly responsible for a doctor being murdered in Kansas. Unbelieveable. What fools.
June 4, 2009 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was hoping that dropping charges against Stevens in Alaska was the opening salvo in cleaning out the department. But nothing seems to be changing. Anti-abortion radicals continue to terrorize. Siegelman is still being pursued by Rove's pals. Etc.
Change it not happening quickly enough to keep people alive!
June 4, 2009 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
After Tiller's murder, Holder immediately acted on it, providing federal protection to unnamed abortion providers throughout the country. It's very possible that Holder's office had no notification of Roeder's recent activities.
I'm not stating this as an apologist but a realist. Tiller himself has used private security both at this clinic and his home. Who knew he'd need it inside his church?
June 4, 2009 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
but be a high school kid with 'PLO' scratched onto your notebook, and the fibbies will be on your ass in no time:
FBI Talks to Muslim High School Student about “PLO” Initials on His Notebook
By Matthew Rothschild
December 23, 2005
Munir Mario Rashed is a 16-year-old junior at Calvine High School in Sacramento.
On September 27, two FBI agents came to the school to question him.
“I was scared,” he told the LA Times.
“I didn’t know what was going on or what I had done wrong.”
Evidently, what he had done wrong was to scribble the initials “PLO” on his binder—two years previously!
At that time, he had gotten into an argument with his math teacher.
Rashed, a fourth-generation Palestinian American, had defended the PLO, while the teacher called it a terrorist group, according to the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The FBI agents asked about the PLO, about investigations of Muslims in Lodi, California, and “whether he had pictures of suicide bombers stored on his cell phone,” the LA Times reported. “He told agents that the only photo he carried on his phone’s screen was of a mosque.”
June 4, 2009 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's getting so you need a supercomputer to keep track of the ways in which our government has failed us.
June 4, 2009 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
yeah...they can torture you, refuse due process, detain you indefinitely, extradite or render you, wiretap you, follow you, gps track you....but they cannot even follow-up a home-grown rightwing terrorist.
June 5, 2009 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm pretty sure the FBI is like any other Federal Agency - it's basically a Good-Old-Boy management chain and most of them are ex-military, conservatives. It's that way in Washington, D.C. - it's got to be even worse in field offices like Kansas. Those agents probably have wives that belong to the anti-abortion groups and go to the churches that have events supporting the protests.
Holder & Obama have a huge task ahead of them getting our Government back on focus - the last 8 years were straight down the rabbit hole. It's hard to get people back on track when they no longer see a clear path.
June 6, 2009 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
The right has been trying to build on supposed differences on the coverage of the Recruiting (AK)station and Clinic(KS) murders.
But it appears both homicides could have been prevented with even minimum attention from law enforcement. Writing up reports ex post facto doesn't make it. How about leaning on a few thugs before a capital crime?
June 7, 2009 3:10 AM | Reply | Permalink