FBI Swamped by Flood of Terror Tips
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reportedly been overwhelmed by an unprecedented number of terror tips making it difficult for the agency to keep up.
Former FBI assistant director Bill Gavin said on the FOX Business Network’s After the Bell the number of tips the bureau receives has increased exponentially since the Orlando nightclub shooting on Sunday.
“You can take some of these tips, a small percentage and immediately eliminate them as coming from people that are not totally sane. Then, you can take another part of those tips and predicate them to investigations that are already under way so they have some value,” Gavin told host Connell McShane.
The FBI is required to chase every tip, a protocol that was established following the terror attacks on September 11, 2001. The agency is reportedly working on 900 active investigations with agents handling 15 to 25 cases at the same time.
According to Gavin, the FBI’s guidelines should be modified to establish how long a case needs to remain open and what is needed for the predicate offense.
“When we have somebody that is either on the terror watch list or on the no fly watch list, when we have somebody there or has been there, they ought go into a database so if they apply to get a weapon, if they try to purchase a weapon that database has changed,” Gavin said.
He went on to say if there was someone who wanted to buy a gun after a terror case open and closed, that would give the agency the necessary authority to reopen the case for further investigation.