How deeply is law enforcement interfering in the daily lives of American citizens?
For example, it was recently reported that the FBI labeled Americans who “support the biological basis for sex and gender distinction as potential domestic terrorists.”
Then what? What does the FBI, and those who cooperate with the FBI, do to such Americans?
Does the FBI label FBI employees who support biology as potential terrorists? Or, is the FBI saying that no FBI employees support the biological basis for sex and gender distinction?
The FBI and local police keep their specific actions, methods, and technologies mostly secret; thus, one cannot say with certainty what occurs after the FBI labels a person as a potential domestic terrorist.
Americans might study the history of the FBI and local police cooperating with the FBI for hints about what might occur after being labeled as a potential domestic terrorist. One might closely study the “Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, 1975-76.” The secret actions of the FBI and police cooperating with the FBI were summarized as follows:
…intelligence activity in the past decades has, all too often, exceeded the restraints on the exercise of governmental power which are imposed by our country’s Constitution, laws, and traditions […]
Intelligence activity […] is generally covert. It is concealed from its victims and is seldom described in statutes or explicit executive orders. The victim may never suspect that his misfortunes are the intended result of activities undertaken by his government, and accordingly may have no opportunity to challenge the actions taken against him. (Pages 2-3)
Government employees have harmed Americans – caused them “misfortunes” – in the past. American citizens did not even know such harm was intentionally done to them, nor did they know it was government employees who secretly harmed them. Would current government employees do such things?
Now, if one is familiar with the above Senate Committee from the 1970s, one might respond by saying something like, “yeah, but the FBI was going after gangsters, druggies, commies, and groups who were racist against Caucasians. They were going after some murderers. I’m not in any of those groups, I just believe a man is a man and want to watch basketball!”
It is not clear how to convince such people other than by trying to argue from common sense.
There is the phenomenon of government officials, particularly those in fear of losing their ability to control others, creating a government entity or technology initially described as being good – say, to protect the citizens from terrorists, communists, gangsters, etc.
The government entity employs millions of people, again attempting to convince the citizens that the secret policing entity or technology is a great thing.
After the technology or government entity is fully operational and widespread, and after millions of people are fully dependent on government welfare disguised as government employment in the secret policing entity, then those few people (who could be in another country) in charge of the government then are able to control the masses.
Again, it is common sense: some government officials try to convince citizens something is good (surveillance technologies, secret police entity, etc.) and then use it to control and harm the citizens.
While the specific actions and technologies of the FBI and other secretly operating entities are mostly not publicized, there is one U.S. government document which suggests possible actions of the FBI.
The U.S. government document is entitled “The Attorney General’s Guidelines on Federal Bureau of Investigation Undercover Operations.”
Those guidelines importantly mention that FBI operations might involve local police or “local law enforcement agency working under the direction and control of the FBI.”
Additionally, the guidelines mention that the FBI is apparently allowed to secretly own and operate businesses and corporations, make “untrue representations” of other peoples’ actions, and engage “in activity having a significant effect on or constituting a significant intrusion into the legitimate operation of a Federal, state, or local governmental entity.”
Does the FBI “engage in activity having a significant effect on” juries, U.S. Congress, the presidency, or the Supreme Court? Does the FBI engage “in activity having a significant effect on or constituting a significant intrusion into the legitimate” national and local elections?
The FBI guidelines apparently also suggest employees and cooperators might “supply falsely sworn testimony or false documentation in any legal or administrative proceeding” and the FBI and others might commit “otherwise illegal activity,” apparently including “violence or physical injury to individuals or a significant risk of financial loss.”
Those guidelines on FBI operations seem to imply that there are many people in cities throughout America employed as secret government operatives who present themselves as everyday citizens but might actually be participating in schemes or “mitigating opportunities.”
Finally, another potential method publicized by the FBI and others is establishing rapport, which means friendly relationship enabling communication, with people they target. FBI wrote that “Building rapport, perhaps, is the most important technique that investigators use,” and government agencies require a “staff of professional officers skilled as conversationalists and rapport developers.”
If there is a national secret police entity in America, those employees might be informed that some of the easiest people for the FBI or local secret police to establish rapport with and thus go after, deceive, and “mitigate” are their own employees or others who cooperate in secret operations, while the employees or cooperators think they are going after someone else. If your boss and co-workers require you to lie to other people, then your boss and co-workers might also lie to you.
Either way, it seems reasonable to suggest that most Americans should be taught and thoroughly study the guidelines on FBI undercover operations.
Image: Federal Bureau of Investigation, via Flickr // PDM 1.0 DEED | public domain
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