The FBI is in the news these days. They’re targeting enemies of our country, starting with domestic “terrorists.” Jim Jordan is on that case, and he sent a letter to Chris Wray demanding all sorts of information, based on whistleblower reports that the FBI is inflating—right, inflation is the number one concern going into Election 2022—domestic “terrorism” numbers. Hey, good luck with that!
Here’s the substance of the letter:
Dear Director Wray:
We continue to hear from brave whistleblowers about disturbing conduct at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. From recent protected disclosures, we have learned that FBI officials are pressuring agents to reclassify cases as “domestic violent extremism” even if the cases do not meet the criteria for such a classification. Given the narrative pushed by the Biden Administration that domestic violent extremism is the “greatest threat” facing our country, the revelation that the FBI may be artificially padding domestic terrorism data is scandalous.
Anyone who has worked for the federal government knows exactly how this works. Nothing could be less surprising than that the FBI should be seeking to please its masters by manipulating data of this sort.
The FBI defines a domestic violent extremist (DVE) as “an individual based and operating primarily within the United States or its territories without direction or inspiration from a foreign terrorist group or other foreign power who seeks to further political or social goals wholly or in part through unlawful acts of force or violence.” According to you and other Biden Administration officials, investigations into DVEs have increased “significantly.” In June 2021, you testified that the FBI has a “very, very active domestic terrorism investigation program” and that you had “doubled the amount of domestic terrorism investigations.” Attorney General Merrick Garland has repeated this talking point, stating that “[t]he number of open FBI domestic terrorism investigations this year has increased significantly.”
That’s pretty easy, isn’t it, doubling investigations—when you define parents speaking up at local school board meetings as DVEs. And I’m sure that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Watch Laura Ingraham interviewing Jordan, here, to get some idea of the types of people the FBI is probably designating as DVEs—which just might explain why the attacks on Crisis Pregnancy Centers and churches aren’t being aggressively investigated, even though these attacks are obviously coordinated on a national scale. That type of redefinition wouldn’t have flown in prior years, but in this woke time anything goes.
New whistleblower disclosures made by multiple FBI employees from different field offices indicate that the Biden Administration’s narrative may be misleading. We have received accusations that FBI agents are bolstering the number of cases of DVEs to satisfy their superiors. For example, one whistleblower explained that because agents are not finding enough DVE cases, they are encouraged and incentivized to reclassify cases as DVE cases even though there is minimal, circumstantial evidence to support the reclassification. Another whistleblower—who led at least one high profile domestic terrorism investigation—stated that a field office Counterterrorism Assistant Special Agent in Charge and the FBI’s Director of the Counterterrorism Division have pressured agents to move cases into the DVE category to hit self-created performance metrics. According to whistleblowers, the FBI uses these metrics to dispense awards and promotions. Every whistleblower has called it an environment of “pressure” within the FBI.
Some might shrug their shoulders and suggest that this all amounts to paper shuffling and reclassification that will go away at some point. But the reference to “awards and promotions” tells you how an institution like the FBI gets corrupted. That happens when a major criterium for promotion requires that the aspirant be willing to squat and ask, What color? every time a superior says, Sh*t! That’s how management ranks become filled with unprincipled Yes Men, as we saw in the Russia Hoax. It doesn’t happen by accident.
These whistleblower allegations that the FBI is padding its domestic violent extremist data cheapens actual examples of violent extremism. This information also reinforces our concerns—about which we have written to you several times—regarding the FBI’s politicization under your leadership. As we have detailed, multiple whistleblowers have disclosed how the Biden FBI is conducting a “purge” of FBI employees holding conservative views. You have ignored these concerns. It appears instead that the FBI is more focused on classifying investigations to meet a woke left-wing agenda.
The purge starts at the top. And then it moves down through the ranks. Finally, conservatives who apply—those few who may be willing to put up with the chickensh*t—are preemptively weeded out. It’s exactly what’s going on in the military and what has already gone on through many other branches of the federal bureaucracy.
Now for those foreign enemies. Larry Kudlow did a nearly 7 minute interview on Fox today. For some reason I’m unable to embed the tweet and retain the video, so you’ll have follow the link.
The first part, naturally enough, focuses on the Fed’s interest rate increase. It’s one of those weird interviews in which the participants babble on without getting down to the real issues of why the US economy is in a mess, has been in a mess for decades, and will continue to worsen—at least from the perspective of ordinary, normal Americans trying to make a living and raise families.
Anyway, later in the interview the focus shifts to Chinese targeting of the Fed—the other big FBI story. Predictably, Larry wants Zhou to “get tough” with the Chinese when “he and Xi” talk. He’s all for Pelosi going to Taiwan and etc.
Again, this story is a bit of a puzzle. When you read about it, say, here:
Chinese spy program targeted Federal Reserve as economic espionage op, senator warns
you learn that this has been going on since 2013. That’s nearly ten years ago. So why are we only hearing about this now? Is it part of getting the war drums pounding?
Again, it’s difficult to determine exactly what the Chinese are looking for. The letter from Rob Portman suggests that the Chinese are seeking to “undermine American economic and monetary policy.” Of course, what’s left unasked is, What would the Chinese do to undermine sound US economic and monetary policy that we haven’t already done ourselves? Are they simply monitoring our downward trajectory?
The reality is, of course, that all major powers spy on each other. The difference between us and the Chinese is that the Chinese find our spies and kill them. We, apparently find their spies—a few of them—ten years after the fact. And, in fact, government policy may actually hamper legit FBI counterespionage efforts for all sorts of reasons. This is the kind of thing that happens when a country outsources its real economy to other countries, like, the US to China. The result is China acquires all sorts of leverage, including the leverage to get the US to hamstring sensible security practices.
Another angle is simply this. The US military has spent decades trying to bomb select third world countries back to the fourth world—wherever that is. That’s not really an option with Russia and China and our NATO vassals when they irk us, so the US instead wages economic, financial, and monetary war against those countries to try to force them back into line—our line. Why are our senators surprised that those countries want to learn, by hook or by crook, what’s going on with US monetary and economic policy—to get the real inside information?
The bottom line is, I suspect that this is one more instance of the Zhou administration attempting to gin up a new level of hysteria against furriners, as also against DVEs here at home. The National Security State thrives on a constant diet of hysteria, be it foreign threat, the enemy next door, or germs. The populace cannot be allowed to become complacent. Hysteria becomes a national imperative. And our elected representatives buy into the charade to keep getting reelected.
I can't find another post to link this to,
but have you considered addressing the problems evident in FBI intel analyst Dr. Brian Auten's treatment of .... well, just about everything.
He's everywhere. Steele dossier, Mueller investigation, approving and pressing for FISAs, spiking the investigation of Hunter Biden's laptop, you name it, he's somehow connected.
There's something not right about Auten. Spent some hours poking around today, and can't find a bio.
The very limit bits and pieces of his career make me believe he was in the IC before FBI. His background and detailed research are heavily defense / arms control, for which the FBI traditionally has no responsibility.
My thesis is he laterally transferred or got a promotion into the FBI from a position in the IC.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/03/30/meet_the_russiagate_prober_who_couldnt_verify_anything_in_the_steele_dossier_yet_said_nothing_for_years_769667.html
I wondered if the new found interest in the Fed CCP influence was a reflection of Tom Luongo's thinking that the Fed is aligned against Davos, and by extension, the FBI. We're witnessing an effort to tarnish the Fed in real time.