The FBI invited the Westboro Baptists to participate in training programs.

Showing, yet again, that people with government jobs must have had their common sense gene removed as a condition of employment, the FBI invited the Westboro Baptist "Church" to speak at training sessions for law enforcement officers.

FBI Invited Controversial Church To Talk To Agents

the FBI recently invited leaders of the fundamentalist church to the Quantico Marine base in Virginia to talk to FBI agents as part of the bureau's counterterrorism training program. But after four sessions this spring, the FBI canceled the arrangement amid criticism from inside the bureau, while church leaders claimed that they had been misled.

Timothy Phelps, a church leader and the youngest son of Fred Phelps, said he spoke to local law enforcement professionals at the FBI Academy at Quantico and then again to agents who had been in the bureau three years or less at an FBI facility in Manassass.

He said the program was designed to teach agents "how to stay measured when they are speaking with a witness or a suspect with whom they have a strong, visceral disagreement."

Phelps conceded that strong, visceral disagreement is one of the emotions Westboro inspires. And that's what he found in the classrooms he visited. Officials say there were about 50 local law enforcement officials and agents in each session, and they say Westboro wasn't paid for its participation. Phelps confirmed that no money exchanged hands.

Law enforcement officials who attended the session said it was focused on domestic terrorism. They were told that the FBI invited Westboro members to the class so police officers and agents could see extremists up close and understand what makes them tick.

The FBI claims the church group knew this. But Phelps said he had no idea he was part of a domestic terrorism curriculum.

Phelps said if the FBI lied to them about why they were there, he would not be surprised. "Law enforcement across this nation uses false information frequently with us," he said. But there were people at the FBI who were surprised — and angry — when they found out about the Westboro sessions.

NPR


It makes you wonder if they aren't trying to cover their asses with the "domestic terrorist training" cover story. Its good to see that someone near the top had the sense to put an end to all of this but, by giving them a forum in a FBI training program it provides an air of legitimacy to this despicable "church".

What's even more shocking is that they had many of these training sessions on military bases at the same time the Westboro Baptists were fighting in the Supreme court for the right to protest soldiers funerals.

I heard that this morning on the radio.
The government is a walking cluster. Actually invite these guys to speak on a military base?
I'd be pissed off to no end if I was a soldier.