The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 39

The reality after graduation Firing Mueller not the answer years out of college While I did have a solid liberal arts education I wish there had been a class titled Culture 10b From the Classroom to the Work The semester-long syllabus would consist of lessons on surviving in a bureaucracy including sessions on filling out reimbursement forms ordering toner for the fax machine and maximizing the quality of cheap drip coffee The professor would also host a lecture series with special guest experts such as: I Counts: The Art of Annual with Kenneth Lay 0 Time With Coworkers: Throwing a Successful Staff with Martha Stewart 1 Mother Work Here: A Guide to Kitchen with Judith Martin I Might Actually Read It: The Importance of Memo with FBI Agent Kenneth Williams In addition each week undergraduates would tackle a different type of problematic work persona learning how to render the troublemaker benign Here are but a few tricky types and solutions identified so far: I Chatterbox: This person uses almost every minute of the work Last week some called for the res ignation of FBI Director Robert Mueller who was among the first to admit that the bureau had something less than a winning season Yet the real problem is not management but interoffice rivalry Long-standing competition among bureaus and even departments within bureaus has led them to keep secrets from one another Rivalry has become so fierce that the players forgot that they were a part of the same team That reckless behavior may well have allowed the enemy a relatively easy path to terrorism on US soil The FBI is not alone The ball was dropped by several players including CIA chief George Tenet whose team failed to tell the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service what it had learned LEWIS about the terror- ists The result of that failure: Nearly 3000 people killed in the Sept 11 attacks Getting rid of Mueller may provide instant gratification but it solve the underlying problems I am in no way suggesting that the FBI handled all its responsibilities without error But we now know that several of our so-called protective agencies held significant pieces in the massive terrorist puzzle well before Sept 1L For example it is inexcusable fhht the CIA withheld crucial information from the FBI Much of the information was secreted within individual departments The agencies communicate with one another or with top brass very well Everyone it seemed forgot the main job: to help protect this nation In addition memos that should have caused great concern among FBI agents were ignored by top management There is a good chance that the dbsed hearings currently underway in Congress will reveal other missed cues on the part of the FBI the CIA The real problem is not management but interoffice rivalry and the National Security Agency Congress is seeking answers to such questions as how the FBI mishandled information on Zacarias Mous-saoui an Islamic extremist arrested in Minneapolis in August and later accused of conspiring with the Sept 11 hijackers The CIA knew about Mous-saoui under an alias as early as the spring of 200L French intelligence told the CIA about Moussaoui in mid-August but the agency match the two names until after the attacks CIA operatives knew even more but neither that agency nor the FBI gave the data enough credence to alert domestic authorities to watch for the enemy at US points of entry until three weeks before the attacks By then the terrorists had already infiltrated the United States In addition President Bush was informed on Aug 6 that Osama bin Laden might seek to hijack American aircraft Firing Mueller would be the easy way out That decision might make the Bush administration seem tough But the truth is that Mueller was a new kid on the block having been sworn into office on Sept 4 Were he and other administration officials properly briefed on what was known? Answers to these and many other vexing questions are certain to come to light during the open hearings scheduled to begin on June 25 we do the deep probe of our agencies never know what went wrong and what went right and what to build on for the said Richard Shelby R-Ala vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee That implies that our security problems are deeply ingrained and systemic and it stresses that making a scapegoat of Mueller is way off base Claude Lewis is a retired columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer BYBILLCESSATO My morning at the office had become fairly routine: drink coffee check e-mail skim the newspaper and make an English muffin topped with cream cheese and raspberry jam That is until the day I confirmed my worst suspicion A colleague had been surreptitiously dipping into my jam For weeks I knew something wicked lurked in our communal kitchen Each morning I had the eerie sensation that my jam was decreasing at a rate faster than I was consuming it But I always convinced myself that grown paranoid After all those nice people at work would never scam my jam Then one morning a telltale smudge of jam appeared on the countertop revealing the hideous truth! A thief ran rampant in our office What next? Should I don a Col-umbo-style trench coat and search my teeth for raspberry seeds? Should I enlist the FBI to dust the lid for fingerprints? Or should I hire a private eye to set up a sting operation in the kitchen? Instead regaining composure I decided to take the perfect office approach Gossip I told anyone who would listen about the jam thefts hoping that the perpetrator would hear my rants know I was closing in and end the reign of terror My plan worked The thief who remains at large quit stealing This latest jam has shown me that still learning a great deal about navigating the oddities of office life even after several ARABS ADMIRERS 1 I I 1 5 I 4 SEC chairman must go 1 rf 'I 0 r(j I LANGERARGENTINA Abu Ali IT 1 i currently ruling Syria and Iraq (One leader proudly recounted: were racists admiring Nazism read-r mg their books and sources of theli thought We were the first who thought of translating Mein Kampf Praise for Hitler among Arabs did' not vanish after the war In 1965 a Moroccan commentator on Middle! East affairs wrote this in the French magazine Les Temps Modernes: Hitlerian myth is being cultivated on a popular level massacre of the Jews' is eulogized It is even1 believed that Hitleri did not die His arrival is longed In mid-2001 an' Egyptian columnisV wrote in the ment-sponsored Al-Akhbar: you Hitler of blessed memory who on behalf of the Palestinians avenged in advance against the most vile criminals on Two months later Press Syndicate awarded this writer its highest distinction I Since ascent to power 1933 the Arabs have been adulating Nazism It seems that some things never change or perhaps some things do Now the Arabs accuse the Jews of being Nazis In this way Hit-! loyal fans are equating the pri-i mary victims of his genocide with the' Nazi executioners themselves The defining expression of chutz pah is a man who murders his parents and then begs the jury for pity on the grounds that he is an orphan But the' perverse historical and moral inversion requires a new definition for the term For chutzpah cannot suffi-i ciently represent this incredible gall I Julian Schvindlerman is a political analyst and journalist in Washington DC day to find out the latest news If you indulge this person for too long your own work will suffer Remedy: When busy politely ignore this person For example continue typing or if the situation gets so bad excuse yourself to the restroom 0 Crank: This person harbors deep bitterness about some long-forgotten office slight and takes every opportunity to remind people like the head ghost in a haunted mansion riling the others to clank their chains and emit moans of despair Remedy: Exorcise the ghosts before they get out of control by keeping everyone focused on the topic at hand 1 Slacken This person does not pull his weight around the office To avoid confrontation the boss often assigns the tasks to other more-capable workers crushing office morale Remedy: Be professional and assertive Do that duties well and take appropriate credit for your work I Windbag: This person cannot stop talking In meetings he strays off topic regularly using bureaucratic jargon such as brainstorm proactive synergy and to dialogue He ignores the fact that no one in the room cares about what saying Remedy: Bring some other written work to do This will save you time back at your desk During the past few weeks proud graduates heard from commencement speakers about their future roles in leading the world critiquing society and giving back to the community Yet my advice is far more mundane: Guard your food in the office kitchen allow the mountains of paperwork and endless meetings bog you down and have fun learning how to handle the new cast of characters in your post-college life i When Hitler became public and the greatest deterrent to would-be scam artists Put simply SEC prosecutors go for greatest bang for the Against this effort Pitt has indulged in an enormous appearance of gross impropriety by holding meetings with a former major client from his law-practice days even though that client (an accounting firm to boot) and its client are both currently under SEC investigation Exacerbating the bad form the persons with whom he met represent entities reportedly under investigation for Enron-type accounting practices involving profit misstatements By the way Pitt represented accountant Arthur Anderson for years Anderson also audited the books of Global Crossing a telecommunications firm that may have the fourth most expensive bankruptcy in history Pitt expect SEC attorneys to make cases that may involve his ex-clients when these have private access him Compare these private meetings in his SEC office with his old clients to his recent meeting with investors At the meeting attendees had to submit written questions for him in advance and he picked those he would deign to answer Pitt has squandered the image and reputation perhaps because he wanted to remain on good terms with his former clients The SEC chairman expect front-line attorneys to make enforcement cases that may involve his former clients when those clients can have private meetings with him And the chairman pick and choose which questions to answer from the investing public A good SEC chairman has to understand the concept of even the appearance of Pitt seems oblivious to the whole idea He needs to go Soon Gary Langan Goodenow is a securities litigation attorney in Miami BY GARY LANGAN GOODENOW For many years I served as an attorney at the Miami office of the US Securities Exchange enforcement division This work was one of the highlights of my nearly 20 years as a Florida attorney With some regret but not much I join the growing chorus calling upon Chairman Harvey Pitt to resign tPitt has been a failure I come to this conclusion with the full conviction of one who has seen the demimonde of securities fraud in general At the SEC I investigated and prosecuted cases enforcing federal securi-' ties laws As a senior trial counsel there I was responsible for litigating in federal court about 30 enforcement cases at any one time And then as a senior counsel I made the final recommendation on which cases the office would investigate and prosecute and which cases it would decline I worked on the big Florida frauds: ESM $350 million: Premium Sales $425 million The mission to be the advocate seemed viable worthwhile and for me downright promising But later when I left the SEC I sensed that the enforcement division seemed to be slightly short of breath last nine months of chairmanship have demonstrated that the agency has arteriosclerosis In fairness not all his fault The last three SEC chairmen departed in failure and bequeathed a legacy of new crises NO DETERRENT EFFECTS The difference is that Pitt cavalierly and against his own SEC staffs advice has flouted the proprieties of tjie relationship between an investigative law-enforcement agency and any entity or person under investigation I doing so he has completely undercut the deterrent effects of the whole SEC law-enforcement program The SEC is a relatively small agency It makes no pretense that it will prosecute all fraud and it cannot make criminal prosecutions at all ieaving that to the Justice Department For these reasons the SEC enforcement division prosecutes those violations of the federal securities laws that through publicity have the most educational benefit to the investing OF NAZISM The Jordanian daily ai praised him for exterminating "members of the race of dogs and The Saudi periodical Al-Bilar saluted him for his courage The Lebanese newspaper Al-Anwar published a cartoon lamenting the fact that the Nazi officer had not killed more Jews But let us view this Arab beatification of Eichmann in its proper historical context When Hitler took power in 1933 telegrams of congratulations were dispatched from Arab capitals In 1937 Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels praised the and racial noting that flags fly in Palestine and they adorn their houses with Swastikas and portraits of In 1943 Heinrich Himmler the head of the SS spoke highly of the alliance that exists between the National-Socialism of Great Germany and the freedom- loving Muslims of the HISTORICAL INVERSION Pro-German parties and youth movements attuned to the trappings of National-Socialism sprouted in Syria Morocco Tunisia and Egypt Even Nazi slogans were translated into Arabic A Mideast song popular in the late 1930s crooned: more Monsieur no more Mister In Heaven Allah on Earth The Fuehrer himself was even Islamicized under the new name of Abu All Love of Nazism spread like wildfire in the region Among the many Nazi sympathizers at the time were Haj Amin al-Husseini Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and president of the Arab Higher Committee Ahmed Shukairi first chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization: Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat who became presidents of Egypt Islamic fundamentalist leaders and the founders of the Pan-Arab socialist party Forty years ago last week SS-Ober-stumbannfuehrer Adolf Eichmann was executed in Israel He had been arrested at the end of World War II and confined to an American internment camp but he managed to escape to Argentina He lived there for 10 years under the name Ricardo Kle-ment until Israeli secret agents abducted him in 1960 and spirited him to Israel Eight months after his trial opened in Jerusalem Eichmann was found guilty of crimes against humanity and the Jewish people and was sentenced to death He was executed on May 31 1962 his remains were cremated and the ashes scattered over the Mediterranean Sea outside Israeli waters This is the only case in which the death penalty has been carried out in Israel record is notorious He was the head of the Department for Jewish Affairs in the Gestapo from 1941 to 1945 and was chief of operations in sending three million Jews to the extermination camps After the war he became one of the most sought-out Nazi fugitives The international community condemned kidnapping of Eichmann but it was nonetheless able to see the justice in and legitimacy of action The trial itself marked by strict adherence to legal procedure elicited worldwide admiration and the execution was seen everywhere as a crucial vindication in the post-Holocaust era Everywhere that is but in the Arab world There capture trial and execution were condemned and Eichmann was venerated as a 2.