Over six months after Wired.com’s Spencer Ackerman released his expose on some of the untoward material contained within the FBI’s training manuals, the bureau has finally told Congress that the offending material has been “removed,” though public copies of the new manuals have not been made available to confirm that everything was indeed changed.
The manuals contained a wide variety of bizarre material, including repeated warnings that “mainstream” US Muslims are probably in league with terrorists and a specific claim that the FBI “has the ability to bend or suspend the law” in certain cases.
In one case, a training slide touts the “Western Mind” as calm and reserved, while declaring that Arabs, in contrast, are prone to “outbursts and loss of control.” Another admonishes, for no conceivable reason, that agents should “never attempt to shake hands with an Asian.”
The FBI has insisted that all “offensive or inaccurate” statements have now been removed. The sheer quantity of gaffes within the manuals and materials, however, leaves open the question of how capable the FBI is of telling the difference between “offensive or inaccurate” statements and truth.
P.C. rules.