Your tax money at work

...at least for those of you who are Americans. Others may be glad that this is not their tax money at work.

FBI is being sued for failing to promote some guy and promoting less qualified people instead in its anti-terrorism unit. During the lawsuit it turns out that FBI believes that terrorism and/or Middle East expertise is nice but not necessary for work in the counterterrorism unit.

Some choice bits:

"You need leadership. You don’t need subject-matter expertise," - FBI Executive Assistant Director Gary Bald.

Hmm, strong leadership and knowing nothing about anything? Apparently if it's good enough for the president it should be good enough for the rest of the civil servants.

"Not technically, no." - Dale Watson, the FBI’s terrorism chief in the first two years after 9/11, on the question of whether he knows the differences between the Shia and the Sunni.