Timothy Birdnow

A recovering FBI agent dishes on how to reform the that corrupted institution in an essay at The Daily Caller.

Sadly his prescription is short (very short) on practical workable solutions; author Richard Stout calls for depoliticizing and actually asks for MORE investiagory power. I think he misses the point; the FBI was in fact a corrupt agaency and has always been to a large degree. Why does he think J. Edgar Hoover was in power so long? He was BLACKMAILING Presidents and Senators for years (while not wearing women's clothes that is).And he bent or broke the rules as he saw fit; when John Dillinger embarassed the FBI the order went out to not arrest him but assassinate him, simply be judge and jury to Dillinger because otherwise he'd make a fool of them again.

But the average field office worked to maintain a degree of integrity. And in fact they had a strict honor code in place.

I would add that there is no Constitutional provision for a national police force and when it was created there was a big fight about this very thing; policing was and should be a state matter alone.

At any rate you can't reform something once it becomes too corrupted; you have to simply disband it and start anew. Otherwise the same rats who ran things will remain in place. (It's why Trump's hopes to "drain the swamp" will likely fail as he is working with the same gators and water snakes to try to fix something that nobody wants fixed, nobody who has the power to fix it anyway.)

We do not have to actually dissolve the FBI, but we should limit it's mission and downsize it considerably. Maybe make it an organization that can only deal with, say, international drug cartels and perhaps FOREIGN terrorism only. Take away it's power to indict Americans on RICO charges. Do not let it be able to access FISA courts to spy on Americans. Make it like the U.S. Cavalry - once an important branch of the military deployed within the U.S. and now mainly helicopter soldiers overseas. Any way you slice it we have to redefine it's mission at this point.

Until we do that the FBI will continue to act as Praetorian Guard for the Ruling Class at the expense of Middle America.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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