Politics are getting in the FBI's way when it comes to doing its job, retired Army Col. Derek Harvey told
Newsmax TV.
Harvey, a former intelligence officer and a former advisor to retired Gen. David Petraeus, told Miranda Khan on "Newsmax Prime" the bureau needs a bit of a longer leash.
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"What I hear from my FBI sources and others in law enforcement is … that the policies that are in place, driven by politics, are undermining the ability of investigators to take the leads to their natural sources," Harvey said.
Harvey's comments came
one day after the Orlando terror attack that left 49 people dead and more than 50 wounded. The FBI had previously investigated the alleged attacker but found
he was not a serious threat.
Harvey said there needs to be a better system in place for conducting background checks for terror links, whether it's someone like Omar Mateen, the alleged shooter in Orlando who was killed by police, or migrants coming to the U.S. from the Middle East.
"In order to do the background checks on the refugees and immigrants coming from particular countries like Syria, Iraq, and a good part of the Middle East today, there is not a database in a sourcing capability that will allow us to have any reliability about who these people are," Harvey said.
"We do not have a good background check process in place to verify who these people are."
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