As for the comment a while back about the FBI only having five screw-ups, let me ask you this: How many screw-ups did the FBI have in the old days under JE Hoover? You say you don't recall? Exactly the point. Hoover fired anyone for the slightest exercise of poor judgement. To even get a job at the FBI you had to be a physician, lawyer, accountant or other highly educated field. The standards were extremely high, and because of those high standards, people flocked to the Bueareau by the hundreds because back then, when a man said he was a G man, it meant that he was the absolute best. If your kid was lost, and the FBI showed up, you had faith that your kid was going to be found. If a bank was robbed, they caught the robber. They WERE a professional organization with high standards and accountablility.
The FBI now pretty much does as it pleases, has lowered the standards to get in (now a BS or BA gets you in), and they refuse to hold a few bad apples accountable and even go so far as to promote the ones who trample human rights. This encourages bad behavior.
Here's a list of RECENT FBI Screwups:
1. Timothy McVeigh's evidence. How could they risk screwing up the case of the decade?
2. Wen Ho Lee. They kept this man in Solitary confinement for a year (you nor I can imagine the psychological torture of SC) and destroyed his life, and when the Judge said to produce the evidence against this most dangerous criminal, the FBI couldn't produce a stick of evidence that pointed to his guilt. Shame on the FBI. At least Vicky Weaver went quickly. Wen Ho Lee knows the meaning of suffering.
3. Waco. No federal jurisdiction. No federal crimes. Falsified warrant. Perjury. Need I say more?
4. TWA flight 800. We could argue all day long about this one, but I sure don't believe the story they gave. They also didn't bother to interview or take notes of the most credible witness'.
5. The Atlanta Olympics bombing. I forget the name of the security guard who was the hero of the thing, but for two years they destroyed his life, and cast a cloud of doubt over his story. When it turned out that he was a genuine hero, they let it quietly fade into the darkness.
6. FBI Lab falsifying evidence to gain convictions. I can't for the life of me understand why any cop would want a conviction so bad that it would be willing to falsify evidence against the innocent so they get their conviction. Shame on the FBI.
7. Allowing a KNOWN innocent man to spend a decade in prison so as not to give away their informants, yet the informants were known murderers.
8. Allowing another known innocent man to spend twenty years in prison prior to fessing up. Again, to protect the identities of known murderers who were providing the Bueareau with questionable information.
I suppose the list could go on, but when I think back to the J. E. Hoover days, none of this stuff happened. He may have been a moral vacuum himself, but he kept the FBI clean, honest, and professional.
I'm about to move to a new location and I can tell you honestly that I would not knowingly move in next-door to an agent of the FBI or ATF if I could help it. I don't want my kids to have such poor moral examples. To even work for an agency that has such contempt for the principles that built this country is a display of moral cowardice. I would however feel safe knowing a Deputy or other local police officer lived next-door. Why? Because the local guy is held accountable for his actions, the Federal guy is not.
The FBI now pretty much does as it pleases, has lowered the standards to get in (now a BS or BA gets you in), and they refuse to hold a few bad apples accountable and even go so far as to promote the ones who trample human rights. This encourages bad behavior.
Here's a list of RECENT FBI Screwups:
1. Timothy McVeigh's evidence. How could they risk screwing up the case of the decade?
2. Wen Ho Lee. They kept this man in Solitary confinement for a year (you nor I can imagine the psychological torture of SC) and destroyed his life, and when the Judge said to produce the evidence against this most dangerous criminal, the FBI couldn't produce a stick of evidence that pointed to his guilt. Shame on the FBI. At least Vicky Weaver went quickly. Wen Ho Lee knows the meaning of suffering.
3. Waco. No federal jurisdiction. No federal crimes. Falsified warrant. Perjury. Need I say more?
4. TWA flight 800. We could argue all day long about this one, but I sure don't believe the story they gave. They also didn't bother to interview or take notes of the most credible witness'.
5. The Atlanta Olympics bombing. I forget the name of the security guard who was the hero of the thing, but for two years they destroyed his life, and cast a cloud of doubt over his story. When it turned out that he was a genuine hero, they let it quietly fade into the darkness.
6. FBI Lab falsifying evidence to gain convictions. I can't for the life of me understand why any cop would want a conviction so bad that it would be willing to falsify evidence against the innocent so they get their conviction. Shame on the FBI.
7. Allowing a KNOWN innocent man to spend a decade in prison so as not to give away their informants, yet the informants were known murderers.
8. Allowing another known innocent man to spend twenty years in prison prior to fessing up. Again, to protect the identities of known murderers who were providing the Bueareau with questionable information.
I suppose the list could go on, but when I think back to the J. E. Hoover days, none of this stuff happened. He may have been a moral vacuum himself, but he kept the FBI clean, honest, and professional.
I'm about to move to a new location and I can tell you honestly that I would not knowingly move in next-door to an agent of the FBI or ATF if I could help it. I don't want my kids to have such poor moral examples. To even work for an agency that has such contempt for the principles that built this country is a display of moral cowardice. I would however feel safe knowing a Deputy or other local police officer lived next-door. Why? Because the local guy is held accountable for his actions, the Federal guy is not.
