Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
With all the hoopla over the firing of James Comey, it seems an opportune time to take a look at FBI history. In his farewell letter, Comey said
Quote:
Originally Posted by Comey
..the American people should see the FBI as a rock of competence, honesty, and independence. What makes leaving the FBI hard is the nature and quality of its people, who together make it that rock for America.
The FBI traces its origin back to a group of 34 'special agents' in the Dept. of Justice that was formed in 1908. Congress was leery of a national police force, and denied the agents either the power to carry guns, or to make arrests. Instead they were to work with local police or US Marshals when such was needed.
The group doubled in size after the Mann Act (federal anti-prostitution law) passed in 1910. This was a project of progressives of the time; prior to this, prostitution had been largely tolerated in the US. Lately the FBI has returned to these roots and become very active in prostitution busts. Writer James Bovard pointed out that
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bovard
As planes were smashing into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center [on 9/11]...the FBI proudly announced the indictment of a dozen hookers and madams [in New Orleans]....law professor Jonathan Turley quipped, 'Only the FBI could go into the French Quarter and find only a dozen prostitutes after a year of investigation.'
J. Edgar Hoover became director in 1924, and started the transformation of what was still a fairly small agency that still did not have guns. Hoover was master of two things: PR, and manipulating the elected politicians who were purportedly his bosses.
Hoover worked with friendly film makers to produce 'G-men' flicks' wherein FBI agents were always, always portrayed as heroic, brave, and honest. Hoover kept a coterie of journalists to whom he fed 'Interesting case memoranda' in exchange for favorable coverage. Walter Winchell and Hoover were particularly close.
FBI political hijinks really took off under the administration of FDR. Hoover provided FDR with over 200 reports of dirt on political opponents. The FBI went from 355 agents in 1933 to 4380 when FDR died in office in 1945. The practice of dirt digging continued through the decades. In 1971, Pres. Nixon wanted to fire Hoover, but backed down. Hoover had made sure Nixon was aware that the FBI had uncovered an affair of Nixon's. As a young lawyer working in Hong Kong, Nixon had an affair with a pretty married woman named Marianna Liu. "Hoover's got files on everybody, God Damn it," Nixon grumbled.
Nor can it credibly be argued that this was the bad old FBI, and that today's FBI is deserving of the 'Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity' version of its acronym. Scandals have continued long after Hoover died. The sagas of Ruby Ridge and Richard Jewell are examples. In the latter case the FBI blatantly tried to frame and railroad a security guard for a bombing.
For most Americans, the image of the FBI is still formed by fawning Hollywood productions such as the series starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., along with other more recent TV and film adventures. The real history yields a starkly different image.
Perhaps one of the biggest scandals of FBI history was connected with the 9/11 attacks. The FBI had arrested Zacarius Moussaoui, one of the 9/11 plotters, on August 16, 2001, about 2 weeks before the attack. They had his laptop computer, which Sen. Arlen Specter, who was intel committee chair, later called a 'veritable roadmap' to the 9/11 attacks.
The FBI, according to James Bovard, failed to get a search warrant for the computer and thus failed to head off the attacks. The FBI was reluctant to submit a regular warrant request because if rejected it would be harder to get a FISA warrant approved (FISA requests are held to a lower standard). But Bovard surmises that they may have been reluctant to submit even a FISA warrant request because, in a recent decision, the FISA court had berated the FBI for repeatedly submitting false and misleading statements in connection with search warrant requests.
Obviously this should have generated major headlines, but an obscure book by an obscure writer ('Terrorism and Tyranny' by James Bovard) is the only place I have ever seen this even mentioned.
We knew this would be the tactic , the same tired old tactic.
threads attacking pretending to questions.
threads attacking pretending to be news.
threads attacking pretending to an ethical issue.
threads attacking pretending to be seeking the truth.
BUt they will all just cheap attempts to smear good honest Americans who have given their lives to service.
SHAME on you paid shills of Putin, You rabid Trumpers, You zealots of the hard right.
Comey , Mueller the FBI who will be next on you smear list.? attack after attack all posed as innocent questions seeking truth, but really it is smear smear and smear .
Yes, let's do look at the sorry, sordid history of the FBI, DOJ, NSA, CIA... and why not the Mounties while we're at it?
Smear campaigns, untrue political attacks are Republican go-to moves.
In fact, the term "swift boating" comes from one of the Republican's more despicable attacks.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
