A WTF? moment, courtesy of the FBI:
The top brass at the FBI only found out about the Westboro invitations after more than 200 officers and agents had attended the sessions. Almost immediately afterward, the officers and agents sent memos asking why the group had been invited.
The FBI official responsible for bringing in the church group did not want to be identified by name. He said he found the group personally distasteful, but thought police and FBI agents needed to learn how to engage people they disagreed with and find ways to build relationships with them.
He conceded that inviting a group that pickets military funerals to a military base was, at best, problematic. Officials said it was one of the reasons the fourth session took place at the FBI facility in Manassass.
The relationship has been severed.
I can sort of understand the rationale -- training agents and police officials do deal with awful people (they've invited representatives of the KKK in the past), except that given the recent history of police raids in Dallas, Atlanta, and most lately, New York, you have to wonder if the police really disagree with the Phelpses.
And inviting someone from a "church" that pickets military funerals to speak at a military base? What were they thinking?
One wonders.
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