FBI Lets Informants Commit CrimesStephen Lendman Homeland Security and FBI operate like Gestapo. They menace freedom. They terrorize. They dont protect. They do so for wealth, power, privilege and unchallenged dominance. FBI calls itself an intelligence-driven and a threat-focused national security organization with both intelligence and law enforcement responsibilities. Its mission is to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners. Its 10 functions include: 1. Protect(ing) the United States from terrorist attack 2. Protect(ing) the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage 3. Protect(ing) the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes 4. Combat(ting) public corruption at all levels 5. Protect(ing) civil rights 6. Combat(ting) transnational/national criminal organizations and enterprises 7. Combat(ting) major white-collar crime 8. Combat(ting) significant violent crime 9. Support(ing) federal, state, local and international partners 10. Upgrad(ing) technology to successfully perform the FBIs mission Its far worse than ever now. It threatens fundamental freedoms. Theyre on the chopping block for elimination. FBIs mandated to destroy them. Theyre practically gone already. FBI operatives are responsible for so-called US terror plots. Sting operations entrap innocent victims. It happens repeatedly. Thousands of undercover FBI informants do so. They target law abiding people. They do it to hype fear. They do it for political advantage. They do it to advance destructive policies. They do it for what harms millions most. Theyre well paid. They earn about $100,000 or more per assignment. They get to keep all they can steal. They take full advantage. FBI complicity facilitates crime. America operates extrajudicially. Its longstanding practice. Post-9/11, its off the charts. International, constitutional and US statute laws are ignored. They repeatedly spurned. Its done with impunity. Advancing Washingtons imperium alone matters. Mounting body counts are a small price to pay. Lawlessness is longstanding US policy. Its deep-rooted at home and abroad. On August 4, USA Today headlined Exclusive: FBI allowed informants to commit 5,600 crimes, saying: Heavily redacted FBI documents show (t)he FBI gave its informants permission to break the law at least 5,658 times in a single year. Over a decade ago, the Justice Department ordered the FBI to begin tracking crimes by its informants. It did so after agency officials admitted letting Boston mobster James Whitey Bulger operate a brutal crime ring in exchange for information about the Mafia. Annual reports are prepared. Theyre submitted to Justice Department officials. Until now, they never were made public. FOIA-obtained 2011 documents beg the question. How much worse are things than acknowledged? Perhaps too lawless to release. Vital questions demand answers. Theyre not forthcoming. Just enough to show agency officials operate extrajudicially. Theyre not law enforcers. Theyre law breakers. They claim doing sos essential to fight crime. How does state-sanctioned criminal activity prevent it? How does breaking the law make things right? How does operating extrajudicially preserve law and order? According to USA Today, FBI agents authorized 15 crimes a day, on average. Theyre not pretty. They include everything from buying and selling illegal drugs to bribing government officials and plotting robberies. For sure they include murder. Working with mob bosses like Bulger assures it. Contract killings are standard practice. FOIA-obtained document exclude what types of crimes (FBI) agents authorized, or how serious they were. They included no information about crimes the bureaus sources were known to have committed without the governments permission. Theyre included under so-called Tier I and II classifications. Tier I crimes are most serious. They include: any activity that would constitute a misdemeanor or felony under federal, state, or local law if engaged in by a person acting without authorization and that involves the commission or the significant risk of the commission of certain offenses, including acts of violence; corrupt conduct by senior federal, state, or local public officials; or the manufacture, importing, exporting, possession, or trafficking in controlled substances of certain quantities. Tier II includes similar crimes. Theyre committed by informants acting without federal prosecutor permission. Authorizations only from a senior agency field manager. FBI authorized crimes comprise a tiny fraction of the total number of offenses committed by informants for local, state and federal agencies each year. FBI operatives are responsible for only about 10% of federally prosecuted 2011 crimes. (F)ederal prosecutions are vastly outnumbered by criminal cases filed by state and local authorities. They have their own network of crooks and other type lawbreakers. According to Law Professor Alexandra Natapoff: The million-dollar question is: How much crime is the government tolerating from its informants? Im sure that if we really knew that number, we would all be shocked. FBI spokeswoman Denise Ballew declined to give USA Today further information. She said only that ways informants are allowed to operate lawlessly are situational (and) tightly controlled. Much goes on secretly. Otherwise imagine the uproar. Imagine the consequences. If Americas premier crime fighting agency operates extrajudicially, it practically invites widespread lawlessness nationwide. So-called Justice Department rules dont wash. Allegedly they put tight limits on what FBI operatives call otherwise illegal activity. Activitys either legal or illegal. Theres no ambiguity. Theres nothing in between. Theres nothing otherwise about it. Claiming agents arent allowed to authorize violent crimes rings hollow. Working with mobsters proves it. Rules they obey are their own. They reflect anything goes. They dont ask permission to do what they want. Power and bottom line priorities alone matter. America operates the same way. Rogue states do what they please. According to FBIs 2005 Inspector General report, the agency routinely fails to follow alleged rules. It makes things up as conditions warrant. It does whatever it wants. It says one thing. It does another. Its public comments lack credibility. Its a longstanding rogue agency. Its one of many in Washington. It operates by its own rules. It invents them to suit policy. Out-of-control agencies operate that way. It doesnt surprise. USA Today asked FBI officials for all reports since 2006. They claimed they could only locate one. They lied. Documents released for 2011 redact(ed) nearly all of the details. The damning stuff was omitted. AFT, DEA, and other federal agencies told USA Today they cannot determine how often their informants are allowed to break the law. False! They keep detailed records. Theyre required to do so. They claim otherwise. According to Rep. Stephen Lynch (D. MA): This is all being operated clandestinely. Congress doesnt even have the information. I think theres a problem here, and we should have full disclosure to Congress. Lynch sponsored a bill requiring federal agencies to notify lawmakers about the most serious crimes their informants commit. It hardly matters. It bears repeating. FBI, CIA and other federal agencies operate their own way. They do so extrajudicially. Their rules alone matter. Theyre beholden to no one but themselves. They operate with impunity. Congress facilitates crimes. Its complicit with the worst of what goes on at home and abroad. So is Obama and administration officials. Law and orders a quaint artifact. It works only on TV. It doesnt reflect what goes on. Dirty underside realitys too ugly to reveal. Its the American way. Its always been that way. It by far worse than ever now. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War.Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. 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