-Caveat Lector- ----- Original Message ----- From: J.D. Tuccille <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2001 Subject: LIBERTY WEEKLY -- Dump the FBI -- From About http://civilliberty.about.com/newsissues/civilliberty/library/weekly/aa051701a.htm> Dateline: 05/17/01 Dump the FBI The FBI is a menace to the life, liberty and property of decent people. J.D. Tuccille Strictly speaking, the fiasco with the McVeigh trial evidence wasn't the worst of it. The discovery of thousands of pages of documents which should have been surrendered to the defense, but never were, may embarrass the FBI, but it won't destroy lives. For the heavy hitter stuff, you have to look to the imprisonment of Joseph Salvati for thirty years, even though the feds knew he was innocent, or the shielding of James ''Whitey'' Bulger and Stephen Flemmi while they engaged in extortion and murder. Once you look at the full picture, then you know why the FBI should be disbanded. Scandals and scurrilous behavior are nothing new for the FBI. Joseph Salvati went to prison for murder in 1967 even though FBI agents and Boston police knew that he was innocent of the crime. The forces of law and order kept their mouths shut to protect the identities of informants they believed would be endangered if the real murderer was identified. Several of those precious informants were later implicated in murders of their own. While Salvati rotted in prison for decades, the Bureau maintained its collective silence. Even Director J. Edgar Hoover knew of the miscarriage of justice and let a man suffer for a crime he didn't commit. Salvati was released only after his lawyer ferreted out documents that proved what the FBI had done. What do the FBI agents who participated in the coverup think of their actions? Fox News quoted retired Boston FBI agent H. Paul Rico as telling a congressional hearing: "What do you want, tears? It'll be probably a nice movie or something." "Protecting informants" was also the motivation behid the unusual relationship that the FBI maintained for many years with James ''Whitey'' Bulger and Stephen Flemmi. The two Boston gangsters have been implicated in the 1981 murder of millionaire Roger Wheeler in Tulsa, Okla., and the extortion of the Rakes family of South Boston. Among his other business interests, Wheeler owned World Jai Alai, in Miami, which had been infiltrated by Bulger and Flemmi. Perhaps Wheeler didn't want to play ball with the mob — in any event, the hitman who killed him reports that he did so on orders from the two federal pets. The Rakes family, for their part, were forced to sell their liquor store at fire sale prices to Bulger and Flemmi. When they went to the police, FBI agent John J. Connolly told the mobsters that the family was making trouble. Connolly now faces criminal charges for his role in the incident. Corruption would be bad enough, but the FBI has also traditionally turned its talents to spying — and I'm not talking about agent Robert Philip Hanssen, who sold U.S. secrets to Moscow from inside the Bureau for more than 15 years without being detected. No, the FBI has engaged in a pattern of surveillance upon Americans. In a 1997 article for The Nation, author David Burnham wrote, "During a recent year federal agents listened to some 1.3 million conversations, only 15 percent of which were said to include incriminating material." And the FBI's power in this area is expanding. Referring to the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), Burnham writes: "The latest strike in the F.B.I.'s constant drive to gain access to more and more information involves two programs. Under one, the nation's telephone companies are required to install a new generation of F.B.I.-approved equipment that will make it much easier for the bureau to tap telephones and track individual suspects as they move around the country." Burnham wrote before the FBI announced its Carnivore technology for snooping on e-mails, but that should be considered as the latest evidence of the feds' continuing taste for eavesdropping. This surveillance power is often wielded in the name of fighting domestic "terrorism," with the result being that political groups across the spectrum that question government policies find themselves under the FBI's microscope. The high profile result of such policies were on view at Ruby Ridge, which resulted fom an effort to blackmail Randy Weaver into infiltrating a white supremacist group, and Waco, which seemed, at its root, to be an example of intolerance toward any group that stood apart from society. Decades ago, the targeted groups were civil rights organizations fighting for racial equality. Apparently, the feds believed that communists had an abiding interest in overturning Jim Crow laws. Never mind that, even if true, being a communist is constitutionally protected. Then there was the entrapment of the wrong man after the bombing at the Atlanta Olympics — Richard Jewell's life was turned upside down before he was finally cleared. And there was a mid-1990s scandal over the quality of work coming out of the FBI's crime lab. Much FBI forensic work was unreliable, and some "expert" testimony was simply bogus blather meant to assist prosecutors. But you get the idea. Forget old myths about spit-shined G-men standing between Americans and the forces of darkness. When not bungling its way through a chain of scandals, the FBI is a clear menace to the life, liberty and property of decent people. It's time to get rid of the whole rotten organization. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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