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The FBI was established by J Edgar "justice is incidental to law and order" Hoover in order to combat communists and other civil rights groups.
COINTELPRO is well documented - an FBI surveillance programme which among other things helped cover up the execution of Fred Hampton and Black Panther associates. It was via COINTELPRO that the FBI also tried to blackmail MLK into killing himself, and to an unknown extent encouraged the assassination of Malcolm X. More recently (last year I think without looking it up) a leaked FBI memo exposed illegal surveillance of "black identity extremists" - read "scary black people".
They've been called out by Human Rights Watch as having been actively involved in the planning of a number of terror plots, mostly for the purpose of entrapping suspects. Human Rights Watch concluded its report on FBI sting operations by suggesting that many of the entrapped suspects would not have committed any crime had it not been for the involvement of FBI intelligence officers. Check out the Newburgh Four for an example.
They were found to be investigating Standing Rock activists last year and were allegedly sharing information with private mercenary groups hired by DAPL. There have also been relatively recent reports of a prevalent revolving door relationship between senior FBI agents and corporations carrying out surveillance on environmental activists.
Also ACAB.
spiderpie-
So firstly yes, Newburgh Four was classic entrapment. I'm not sure how much I trust HRW generally, they are privately funded, a bit popularist and they tried to paint that case as typical.
The so called Cointelpro 2 story was (I imagine) pretty insulting to those close to the 60s Cointelpro and the damage that did. For the FBI to have a blind-spot for self-proclaimed militants would have been a dereliction of duty. There should be no sacred cow movements. White guilt or ‘being on the right side of history’ shouldn’t leave anyone untouchable either. Sure the FBI deliberately left the door open for overreach. No surprise: not ACAB but all will avoid limiting the remit of their investigation.
Their hiring practice is imperfect but ... entirely standard afiak. Hate that and ... hate all of American politics and business.
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The FBI was created in 1908. It was not created to fight communists.
miro_o
davidual
Help me out. Point me to some examples, so I know this isn’t just baseless slite that supports your hypothesis. It’s not something I remember reading in UK press.