The Seattle Times got its hands on that much-hyped “Shirtless FBI Agent” photo, and it’s not at all what we were led to believe. Apparently the photo was a joke the agent sent out to multiple friends, including Jill Kelley and a Seattle Times reporter, back in 2010. It shows the agent outside of MacDill Air Force Base, posing in between two SWAT target dummies that look a lot like him. The caption reads: ”Which One’s Fred?”
The Seattle Times, which also interviewed the shirtless agent (real name: Frederick Humphries), reports:
The picture, which was sent to a reporter at The Seattle Times in 2010, was taken following a “hard workout” with the SWAT team at MacDill Air Force Base. He’s posed between a pair of target dummies that have a remarkable likeness to the buff agent. The caption on the photo, which was sent from a personal email account, reads, “Which One’s Fred?” …
Humphries, 47, said he sent the photo to Kelley and others in the fall of 2010, shortly after he had transferred to the Tampa office from Guantánamo Bay, where Humphries had been an FBI liaison to the CIA at the detention facility there.
Indeed, among his friends and associates, Humphries was known to send dumb-joke emails in which the punch line was provided by opening an attached photo.
[Retired FBI agent Charlie] Mandigo confirmed he received a copy of the photo as well and described it as “joking.” The photo was sent from a joint personal email account shared by Humphries’ wife. Humphries said that, at one point, his supervisor posted the picture on an FBI bulletin board as a joke and that his wife, a teacher, has a framed copy.
Unless there’s more to this, the FBI has some explaining to do. Not only is Humphries being investigated for by the Office of Professional Responsibility for what now appears to be a non-issue, but anonymous FBI sources have also spent days dragging his name through the mud by implying the photo was inappropriate and a sign he was “obsessed” with Jill Kelley. Again, maybe there’s something we’re missing, but it’s starting to sound like his infraction was simply being a whistle-blower to Congress. Considering President Obama’s professed support for national security whistle-blower protection, it will be interesting to see what the White House has to say about this.
I don't know about legally, but ethically he is on damn solid ground going to his former (now retired) supervisor for advice as to how he should proceed, and the Seattle Times states that it was the retired Special Agent In Charge who suggested he go to the Congressman. n nAssuming that the former supervisor retired on good terms with the Bureau — and retiring as a SIAC makes me kinda think he did, then we have an objective opinion that the Bureau appeared to be dragging its feet on the investigation. Why? n nBetween the harassment of this guy and the continuing investigation into Broadwell's possession of classified documents, which she allegedly took from government offices (and how did she get into those government offices?), it is start of sorta looking like someone is trying to intimidate folks into shutting up. n nWhy? n nAnd then we have all kinds of things coming loose around Israel right now, and I have to wonder what really going on and what it is that folk are afraid of coming out. n nI can say this — it is a fact that the classified Congressional session appeared to run until 6PM and if DiFi had thought it would run 4 hours, I can't help but think she would have scheduled it to start earlier. Hmmm…..
Poor judgement perhaps, but I would much rather have an FBI agent who makes an error of judgment like this than have one who mistakes a woman breastfeeding a child for a man with a full beard and mistakenly shoots her in the head. I am talking about Vicci Weaver and regardless of everything else, there aren't a whole lot of women with full beards who are biologically capable of breastfeeding a child. n nFred may have been a little bit unprofessional, but no one died.