Who Was Invited And Who Wasn’t Invited

On Thursday, The New York Times posted an article stating that the the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, was not invited to the three-day conference this week on countering violent extremism in the United States and abroad. The White House explained that an invitation was not issued to Director Comey because the administration did not want the event too focused on law enforcement issues.

The article reports:

But Mr. Comey’s Russian counterpart — Aleksandr V. Bortnikov, the director of the Russian Federal Security Service, the post-Soviet K.G.B. — was at the meeting, even though international human rights groups have repeatedly accused the Russian security service of unjustly detaining and spying on Russians and others.

The service also declined to provide American counterterrorism and intelligence officials with information before the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings that would probably have led to more scrutiny of one of the suspects.

Also attending the meeting was Salam al-Marayati, leader of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood.

It is amazing to me that the Obama Administration stated that they did not want the meeting too focused on law enforcement issues. The Obama Administration has been trying for years to get terrorists out of the military justice system and into the civilian justice system. They have consistently treated terrorism as a law enforcement issue.

The article notes:

Stopping terrorist attacks has been the F.B.I.’s highest priority since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The bureau oversees joint terrorism task forces in every major American city that bring together federal, state and local authorities to investigate terrorism.

Excluding the FBI Director from the violent extremism conference was not wise. Including Muslims tied to the Muslim Brotherhood in the conference was also not wise. After a while, you begin to questions to wisdom and goals of the Obama Administration regarding terrorism.