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Contributors
Cliff Kincaid- Contributor
Cliff Kincaid, serves as editor of the Accuracy
in Media (AIM)
Report. A veteran journalist and media critic, Cliff has
appeared on the Fox News programs Hannity & Colmes and
The O'Reilly Factor, where he debated O'Reilly on global
warming, the death penalty,
and the homosexual agenda. He was a guest co-host on CNN's Crossfire
(filling in for Pat Buchanan) in the 1980s, where he confronted
the then-Libyan Ambassador to the U.N. with evidence of Libyan
involvement in international terrorism. Through his America's
Survival, Inc., organization (www.usasurvival.org), he has been
an advocate on behalf of the families of victims of terrorism
and has published reports and held conferences critical of the
United Nations. His articles have appeared in the Washington
Post, Washington Times, Chronicles, Human Events, Insight, and
other publications. He served on the staff of Human Events for
several years and was an editorial writer and newsletter editor
for former National Security Council staffer Oliver North at
his Freedom Alliance educational foundation. He has written or
co-authored nine books on media and cultural affairs and foreign
policy issues. Cliff is married and has three sons.[go to
Kincaid index]
 The
FBI's Anthrax TV Show
Looking
in all the wrong places?...
[Cliff Kincaid] 8/17/04
The public was treated
to a new FBI television reality show when federal agents swooped
into Wellsville, New York, to target
Dr. Kenneth Berry in connection with the nearly three-year-old
unsolved anthrax letters case. Pastor Richard “Dick” Helms,
a resident of the area and friend of Berry’s, saw the media
manipulation up close, as satellite trucks and news vans were
on the scene, tipped off by the FBI in advance, to record the
raids on any place Berry had lived or spent time. Some federal
agents wore protective biosuits even while telling local officials
there was no health threat. It was an absurd spectacle, the pastor
said, done to impress the media and the public.
Helms says they spent
13 hours in one house, left in the middle of the night, “and nobody has heard anything from them
since then,” although a local newspaper editor was told
that the FBI staged the raid to eliminate Berry as a possible
suspect in the case.
Helms understands
the need to eliminate people as suspects but questions why
there had to be such a big media show. He says
Berry also “understands they have to track these things
down. But the way they did it was wrong.” He adds, “I
heard the home was a wreck when the family got back.”
Helms has worked with Berry on his PREEMPT counter-terrorism
project, designed to prepare the U.S. against chemical and biological
warfare agents. Berry had appeared at conferences around the
country as a bioterrorism expert before 9/11. Because of his
association with Berry, Helms says that he, too, has been questioned
by the FBI in the case.
The big show also
occurred in the case of Dr. Steven Hatfill, another FBI target,
who had his home raided under the glare of
television cameras and journalists, some of them circling in
helicopters overhead. The FBI then raided and ransacked his girlfriend’s
apartment. These raids are designed to convince people that the
FBI is making progress in the case.
Helms says Berry,
a Bible-believing Christian, is a “super
guy” and a brilliant doctor “passionate about protecting
America” from chemical and biological warfare. Helms explains, “He
was training first-responders and medical personnel long before
it was fashionable, and what people don’t know is that
he did most of that out of his own pocket, without any reimbursement
at all. He’s a really good man and a true patriot.”
Helms has known Berry
for eight years and knows his character well. He said there’s no way he had anything to do with
the anthrax letters. Besides, in the time period before 9/11
and the mailing of the anthrax letters a week after that, Berry
was very busy making arrangements to get married. Immediately
after 9/11, said Helms, Berry’s PREEMPT.net web site became
a national resource for information about the terrorist threat,
and Berry himself took some time to go down to Ground Zero to
assist in the recovery efforts.
Helms says that, because
of the FBI raids, “I fear that
the FBI’s actions will deprive America of a real asset
in our war on terrorism, if not a national treasure in that area.” Despite
the presumption of innocence in the U.S., Helms knows that the
damage has already been done and that Berry’s reputation
has been ruined. “You know how people are,” Helms
explains.
Again, all of this happened before in the Hatfill case. Hatfill,
however, fought back, filing lawsuits against the Justice Department
and the media. The foreign terrorists in al-Qaeda most likely
responsible for the anthrax letters must be laughing at the FBI
and praising Allah at the same time.
Helms has his own
web site, featuring a pro-George W. Bush ad saying, “Ten out of ten terrorists agree anybody but Bush.” He
thinks the President is doing a good job in the war on Muslim
terrorists. But one wonders if Dr. Berry shares this view after
being on the receiving end of the FBI’s reckless probe
in the anthrax case.
Before it is too late, the media should start examining whether
there has been another major FBI intelligence failure that has
left us even more vulnerable to terrorism. It would be a national
tragedy and a scandal if another anthrax attack hits America
while the first attack remains unsolved nearly three years later.
Yet, this is a distinct
possibility. At a time when Attorney General Ashcroft himself
has warned about another al-Qaeda operation
called “The Winds of Black Death,” possibly using
anthrax against America, the Bush administration would be well-advised
to subject the FBI to the scrutiny it deserves. The sooner the
better because American lives hang in the balance.CRO
copyright
2004 Accuracy in Media
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