{"id":86144,"date":"2017-02-06T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2017-02-06T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=86144"},"modified":"2017-01-31T16:11:13","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T16:11:13","slug":"secret-docs-reveal-president-trump-has-inherited-an-fbi-with-vast-hidden-powers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/02\/secret-docs-reveal-president-trump-has-inherited-an-fbi-with-vast-hidden-powers\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret Docs Reveal: President Trump Has Inherited an FBI with Vast Hidden Powers"},"content":{"rendered":"

READ OUR INVESTIGATION ON THE FBI\u2019S SECRET RULES<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

31 Jan 2017 – <\/em>In the wake of President Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration,\u00a0the FBI assumes\u00a0an importance and influence it has not wielded since\u00a0J. Edgar Hoover\u2019s death in 1972. That is what makes today\u2019s batch of stories from The Intercept, The FBI\u2019s Secret Rules<\/a>, based on a trove of long-sought confidential FBI documents, so critical: It\u00a0shines a bright light on the vast powers\u00a0of this law enforcement agency, particularly when it comes to its ability to monitor\u00a0dissent and carry out\u00a0a domestic\u00a0war on terror, at the beginning of an era highly likely\u00a0to be marked by\u00a0vociferous protest and reactionary state repression.<\/p>\n

In order to understand how the FBI makes decisions about matters such as infiltrating religious or political organizations, civil liberties advocates have sued the government for access to crucial FBI manuals\u00a0\u2014 but thanks to a federal judiciary highly subservient to government interests<\/a>, those attempts have been largely unsuccessful. Because their disclosure is squarely in the public interest, The Intercept is publishing this series of reports along with annotated versions of the documents we obtained.<\/p>\n

Trump values loyalty to himself above all other traits, so it is surely\u00a0not lost on him that\u00a0few entities were as devoted to his victory, or played as critical a role in helping to achieve it, as the FBI. One of the more\u00a0unusual\u00a0aspects of the 2016 election, perhaps the one that will prove to be most\u00a0consequential, was the covert political war waged between the CIA and FBI. While the top echelon of the CIA community was vehemently<\/a> pro-Clinton<\/a>, certain factions within the FBI were aggressively supportive of\u00a0Trump. Hillary Clinton herself blames James Comey<\/a> and his election-week letter for her defeat. Elements\u00a0within the\u00a0powerful New York field office\u00a0were furious that Comey refused to indict Clinton, and embittered agents reportedly\u00a0shoveled\u00a0anti-Clinton leaks\u00a0to Rudy Giuliani<\/a>.\u00a0The FBI\u2019s 35,000 employees\u00a0across the country are therefore likely\u00a0to be protected and empowered. Trump\u2019s decision to retain Comey \u2014\u00a0while jettisoning all other\u00a0top government officials \u2014 suggests that this has already begun to happen.<\/p>\n

When married to Trump\u2019s clear disdain for domestic dissent \u2014 he venerates strongman authoritarians, called for a crackdown on\u00a0free press protections, and suggested citizenship-stripping for flag-burning \u2014 the authorities\u00a0vested\u00a0in\u00a0the FBI with regard to domestic political activism are among the most menacing threats Americans face. Trump is also poised to\u00a0expand the powers of\u00a0law\u00a0enforcement to\u00a0surveil populations deemed suspicious and deny their rights in the name of fighting terrorism, as he has already done\u00a0with his odious restrictions on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. Understanding how the federal government\u2019s law enforcement agency\u00a0interprets the legal limits on its own\u00a0powers is, in this context, more essential than ever. Until now, however, the rules governing the FBI have largely been kept secret.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Donald Trump enters the stage at the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio. Photo: Alex Wong\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

Today\u2019s publication is the result of months of investigation by our staff, and we planned\u00a0to publish these articles and documents\u00a0regardless of the outcome of the 2016 election. The public has an interest in understanding\u00a0the FBI\u2019s practices no matter who occupies the White House. But in the wake of Trump\u2019s victory, and the unique circumstances\u00a0that follow from it, these revelations take on\u00a0even more urgency.<\/p>\n

After Congress\u2019s\u00a01976 Church Committee investigated the excesses of Hoover\u2019s FBI,\u00a0in particular the infamous COINTELPRO program \u2014\u00a0in which agents targeted and subverted any political groups the government\u00a0deemed threatening, including anti-war protesters, black nationalists, and civil rights activists\u00a0\u2014 a series of reforms were enacted to rein in the FBI\u2019s domestic powers. As The Intercept\u00a0and other news outlets have amply documented<\/a>, in the guise of the war on terror\u00a0the FBI has engaged in a variety of tactics that are redolent of the\u00a0COINTELPRO abuses<\/a> \u2014 including, for example, repeatedly enticing innocent Muslims\u00a0into fake terror schemes<\/a> concocted by the bureau\u2019s\u00a0own informants. What The Intercept\u2019s reporting on this new trove of\u00a0documents shows is how the FBI\u00a0has quietly transformed\u00a0the\u00a0system of\u00a0rules and restraints put in place after the scandals of the \u201970s, opening the door\u00a0for\u00a0a new wave\u00a0of civil liberties violations. When asked to respond to this critique, the FBI provided\u00a0the following statement:<\/p>\n

All FBI policies are written to ensure that the FBI consistently and appropriately applies the lawful tools we use to assess and investigate criminal and national security threats to our nation. All of our authorities and techniques are founded in the Constitution, U.S. law, and Attorney General Guidelines. FBI policies and rules are audited and enforced through a rigorous internal compliance mechanism, as well as robust oversight from the Inspector General and Congress. FBI assessments and investigations are subject to responsible review and are designed to protect the rights of all Americans and the safety of our agents and sources, acting within the bounds of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Absent these documents and the facts of how the bureau actually operates,\u00a0this may\u00a0sound\u00a0reassuring. But to judge how well the bureau is living up to these abstract commitments, it is necessary to read\u00a0the fine print of its byzantine rules and regulations \u2014 which the FBI\u2019s secrecy has heretofore made it impossible for outsiders to do. Now, thanks to our access to these documents \u2014 which include the FBI\u2019s governing rulebook, known as the DIOG, and classified policy guides for counterterrorism cases and handling confidential informants \u2014 The Intercept is able to share a vital glimpse of how the FBI understands and wields its enormous power.<\/p>\n

For example,\u00a0the bureau\u2019s agents can decide that a campus organization is not \u201clegitimate\u201d<\/a> and therefore not entitled to robust protections for free speech; dig for derogatory information on potential informants<\/a> without any basis for believing they are implicated in unlawful activity; use a person\u2019s\u00a0immigration status to pressure them to collaborate and then help deport them<\/a> when they are no longer useful; conduct invasive \u201cassessments\u201d<\/a> without any reason for suspecting the targets\u00a0of wrongdoing; demand\u00a0that companies provide the bureau\u00a0with\u00a0personal data about their users\u00a0in broadly worded national security letters<\/a> without actual legal authority to do so; fan out across the internet<\/a> along with a\u00a0vast army of informants, infiltrating countless online chat rooms; peer through the walls of private homes; and more. The FBI offered various justifications\u00a0of these tactics to our reporters. But the documents and our reporting on them ultimately reveal\u00a0a bureaucracy in dire need of\u00a0greater transparency and\u00a0accountability.<\/p>\n

One of the\u00a0documents contains\u00a0an alarming observation<\/a>\u00a0about the nation\u2019s police forces, even as perceived by the FBI. Officials of the bureau\u00a0were so\u00a0concerned that many of these police forces are\u00a0linked to, at times even populated by, overt white nationalists and white supremacists, that they have deemed it necessary to take that into account in crafting policies for sharing information with them. This news arrives in an ominous context, as the nation\u2019s law enforcement agencies are among the\u00a0few institutional factions in the U.S. that supported Trump, and they did so<\/a> with virtual\u00a0unanimity<\/a>.\u00a0Trump ran on a platform of unleashing an already out-of-control police \u2014\u00a0\u201cI will restore law and order to our country,\u201d he thundered when accepting the Republican nomination \u2014 and now\u00a0the groups most loyal to Trump are those that\u00a0possess\u00a0a state monopoly over the use of force, many of which\u00a0are\u00a0infused with\u00a0racial animus.<\/p>\n

The Church Committee reforms were publicly debated and democratically enacted, based on the widespread fears of\u00a0sustained FBI overreach brought to light by aggressive reporters like Seymour Hersh. It is simply inexcusable to erode those protections in the dark, with no democratic debate.<\/p>\n

As we enter the Trump era, with a\u00a0nominated attorney general who has not hidden his contempt for press freedoms and a president who has made the news media the primary target of his vitriol,\u00a0one of the most vital weapons for safeguarding basic liberties and imposing indispensable transparency is journalism\u00a0that exposes\u00a0information the government wants to keep suppressed. For exactly that reason, it is certain to be under even more concerted\u00a0assault\u00a0than it has been during the last 15 years. The revealing,\u00a0once-secret FBI documents The Intercept is today reporting on, and publishing, demonstrate why protecting\u00a0press freedom\u00a0is more critical than ever.<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

Glenn Greenwald<\/a> \u2013 glenn.greenwald@theintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Betsy Reed<\/a> – \u2709betsy.reed@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The FBI\u2019s Secret Rules, based on a trove of long-sought confidential FBI documents, shines a bright light on the vast powers of this law enforcement agency, particularly when it comes to its ability to monitor dissent and carry out a domestic war on terror, at the beginning of an era highly likely to be marked by vociferous protest and reactionary state repression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}