FRANK FIGLIUZZI-SECURITY AT DNC

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast
more what You Hear weekday afternoons on the Drive.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
He was the.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Assistant Director for counter Intelligence at the FBI, where he
served twenty five years as a special agent and directed
all espionage investigations across the government. Frank Figliuzi is now
a columnist at the National Security Analyst and author of
the recently published Long Haul about Trucker serial Killers, had
him on about that a couple of weeks ago. Democrat
National Convention is beginning, and Frank, given the recent actions

(00:35):
of the Secret Service and FBI, there are a lot
of questions as to how it'll go.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Well, the spotlight will certainly be on the Secret Service
for sure. I mean, they've had a colossal failure. It
can't happen again. They've got to get this right. But
you know, you can't have a more stark contrast between
an open field rally in a small town in Pennsylvania
and a hardened venue convention center in a major city.

(01:05):
So they'll have the convention venue under control. Where I'm
looking at is the softer perimeter and the protesters. So
here's the latest intel with regard to security in Chicago.
The protesters have been moved by a federal judge as
of yesterday or just just this week a mile away.

(01:28):
Now what am I talking about? They are expecting a
minimum of twenty five thousand pro Palestinian protesters. And let
me lay this scenario out for you. Imagine when the
convention starts, that hostilities begin in the Middle East with
Iran lobbing missiles at Israel, which is expected, and Hesbola

(01:50):
simultaneously from Lebanon lobbing missiles at Israel. US feels compelled
to intervene militarily. And now those twenty five thousand pro
Palestine and protesters on the streets of Chicago turn into
fifty thousand. That's a scenario we're going to be watching.
And then so combine that with not only an international
terror threat with ISIS and others, but a domestic terror

(02:13):
threat that we know can turn violent, and.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Keep hearing comparisons to nineteen sixty eight. I disagree on
a number of angles on that we are not in
a war that is wildly unpopular. We're not sending eighteen
to twenty one year olds to their deaths. We don't
have a president that supports one or the other, nor
a candidate that is at this convention supporting one or

(02:37):
the other. What are your thoughts on a repeat of
nineteen and sixty eight.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, the police back in sixty eight were wholly unprepared
for what was happening and really untrained to deal with
what broke out. We've had the Chicago Police chief this
week come out publicly at a press conference and say
they are not going to talk tolerate rioting. They have
a plan to intervene quickly as soon as any violence

(03:05):
looks like it's breaking out. I'm confident we're not going
to have that kind of repeat of sixty eight, But
I would keep my eye on the issue of loan
actors that like Butler Pennsylvania as the young man who
tried to assassinate Trump. Those people are very hard to
guard against except to keep them far away from the venue.

(03:27):
So if the activity occurs illegally, we're going to see
it happen in the soft perimeter or beyond. And I'm
going to watch that pro protest crowd and see if
they turn violent and try to breach the perimeter. And
then let's not forget that the FBI director has told
us multiple times that within the FBI's domestic terror case slope,

(03:48):
it's the race based and hate based domestic terror that
is most lethal. That's his quote. What do we have
with regard to the convention. We have a mixed race
person of color who is going to be the nominee
for a party that is not going over well with
some of the white supremacy, white hate based groups that

(04:10):
we're looking at.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Frank Figliuzi is with us. He is a security expert,
former Assistant director for counter intelligence at the FBI, is
now an author and analyst, and you may remember we
had him on to talk about his book recently, Long Haul,
talking about the security at the upcoming Democrat National Convention. Now, Frank,
we all witnessed what happened last week in Vienna at

(04:33):
the Taylor Swift Concerts. Those terrorists, as it turned out,
looked like they were cultivated within the country itself, and
we're starting to see some of that here in the
United States. It's not foreign actors, it's cultivated and conditioned
domestic actors. Are we starting to see a bigger threat

(04:54):
from our own people than those trying to come into
our country and hurt us?

Speaker 3 (05:00):
For sure? I'm seeing disturbingly the online radicalization of people.
And by the way, this applies to the left, to
the right, to domestic terror, to international terror. The action
is happening online and what we're watching is an increasing
speed to radicalization is what we call it. By that,

(05:22):
we mean the time it takes for a young person
to become radicalized from the first time they're exposed to
an extremist ideology, whether they're watching a cleric talk about
killing the Jews, for example, or they're watching beheading videos,
to the time they're willing to act out violently themselves
is increasing rapidly. So you can take a seventeen year

(05:45):
old young man who's seeking something in his life. You
can expose into this training, to this ideology, and literally
within two months they're willing to commit an act of
terror that happens within our own borders.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
And as was the case in Vienna with the Taylor
Swift situation, they shut things down, secret service taking notes
on that.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Oh for sure. I mean again, the young people that
are not necessarily known. Thank god, the FBI actually tipped
off the Austrians to that. So we're doing okay here
from him. Yeah, it's been established that the FBI tipped
off the Austrians. So that's good news of course that
we have eyes on some of these people. But but
you can't get it right every single time, and the

(06:31):
bad guy only needs to get it right once. And
so yes, that is a concern here. So a bomb device,
is any kind of improvised explosive, is a biochem threat.
Here's the good news. This event has been designated a
National security Special event. That means the entire toolkit of
the federal government, including some classified techniques that will look

(06:54):
for say a dirty bomb or some kind of improvised device,
that's all going to be on the ground, even in
the air in Chicago. And that does give me some
high level of confidence.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Frank Figliuosi, assistant director, former assistant director for counter intelligence
at the FBI, and the security at the Democrat National
Committee coming up in Chicago, and I get, what's the
worst case scenario?

Speaker 3 (07:19):
You think, oh, my goodness, Well, a breach, So on
a general level, a breach of the actual venue site
is going to would obviously be horrific. But you know,
we saw that on January sixth at the Capitol. They
got inside. Now you can argue how they got inside,
but they got me breached and they got inside, that
would be worse. But let's talk on the international level.

(07:41):
Or anybody who has gotten their hands on some radiological
device and wants to detonate a small dirty bomb in
the crowd outside the venue that has a tremendous fear
factor associated with it, and that's what they'll be looking for,
is some kind of mass killing device outside the vent.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Frank Figliosi, thank you for joining us, and again his
book is still out by the way, Long Haul, about
the trucking industry and the infiltration of sex traffickers and
drug traffickers as well into that industry. Will thank you
for joining us again, thanks for

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Having me, Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews
the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The
Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia
presentation