The F. B. I. drops the ball
again. (We often wonder why the ball is ever given to them, or even if they've ever caught it when it was thrown at them.) This time not an attack on the U. S. that might have been stopped had anyone in Washington bothered to read what field agents were sending in, nor J. Edgar Hoover's (photo, right) refusal even to admit there was organized crime in This Great Nation of Ours™. (Theories on that range from organized crime having something on his transvestism or gayness all the way to his enjoying the dog tracks in Florida & not wanting them to go out of business if he clamped down on the mafia.)
Of course J. Edgar was so busy publicly battling the "menaces" of communism & "dope" that he probably couldn't invest the time in going after a real threat to the American Way of Life.
On a lower level of the Federal Bureaucracy of Investigation, many of the agents have dreams greater than merely retiring from the Bureaucracy w/ a pension & the satisfaction of having done their jobs as well as possible, keeping America safe from crime & the crazy, un-American ideas of furriners. Nope, the dream is to get a cushy, well paying job in industry as security personnel, or even that Senior Vice-President of Security gig. And two excellent places to get those jobs are banks & telecommunication companies.
Best way to get a job at a banking institution? Assemble a good record as an agent who catches bank robbers & people who commit fraud against banks. But let's face it, actually busting banks committing fraud against the public is not going to put you at the top of any employment list.
In the telecom industry, former FBI (& other former law enforcement) personnel are prized both by the company, which knows that the retirees will be able to pull strings w/ their still-employed-by-the-gov't. colleagues, and by the FBI & so on, who will pull strings w/ the "retired" agents now at the 'phone cos., in order to obtain information, wiretaps & the like w/ more ease & fewer warrants.
One hand washing the other. The end result of which is both hands remaining filthy. "Ain't that America," as some no-talent hack once sang.
That, of course, is the part of the problem that won't be covered in the
L. A. Times. And it's not entirely fair to blame greedy pig F. B. I. agents alone. The Bush Administration's pants-pissing paranoia about "turrists" plays a big part, though you'd think a few more heads would have rolled after the colossal fuck-up that resulted in the events of 11 September, 2001. That is, the heads of some F. B. I. personnel, not just of those who were murdered in the attacks.
Also vital to the safety of the United Snakes, of course, or at least Republican political contributors, is not pursuing the economic crimes that truly do the greatest damage to our once-great nation.
But the tepid response also reflects a broad realignment of law-enforcement priorities at the Justice Department in which mortgage fraud and other white-collar crimes have been subordinated to other Bush administration priorities.
That has reflected, in part, the ramp-up in national security and terrorism investigations after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the administration has also put more support behind efforts against illegal immigration and child pornography.
Oh, & illegal immigration. Isn't that ICE's job?
While no one can be in favor of the exploitation & abuse of children, sexual or otherwise, it should be noted that the Justice Dep't., especially under John "Hide Justice's Titties" Ashcroft, devoted many resources to going after smut involving adults (& attempting to establish new precedents to prosecute the smut-peddlars) just because their brand of porn was thought to be "extra-icky."
"I think most sitting U.S. attorneys now staring at the subprime crisis find scant resources available to pursue sophisticated financial crimes," said John C. Hueston, a Los Angeles lawyer who was a lead federal prosecutor in the trials of Enron executives Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling.
Absent a major shift in priorities and resources, he said, it is likely that the Justice Department and the FBI will continue on their current path of focusing on simple cases "that don't go to the heart of the problem."
At one time didn't F. B. I. agents have to be CPAs or lawyers or the like, before they could even apply? Has this changed, or is it that the simplest, slowest law school & accounting graduates just naturally gravitate to the F. B. I.? Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, or, it seems, an incompetent. Not to mention all the losers who cling to their guns & gawd, when confronted w/ the fact they'll never get a big-city job w/ a large corporation or partnership. F. B. I. academy, here they come!
The F. B. I. drops the ball again. (We often wonder why the ball is ever given to them, or even if they've ever caught it when it was thrown at them.) This time not an attack on the U. S. that might have been stopped had anyone in Washington bothered to read what field agents were sending in, nor J. Edgar Hoover's (photo, right) refusal even to admit there was organized crime in This Great Nation of Ours™. (Theories on that range from organized crime having something on his transvestism or gayness all the way to his enjoying the dog tracks in Florida & not wanting them to go out of business if he clamped down on the mafia.)
Of course J. Edgar was so busy publicly battling the "menaces" of communism & "dope" that he probably couldn't invest the time in going after a real threat to the American Way of Life.
On a lower level of the Federal Bureaucracy of Investigation, many of the agents have dreams greater than merely retiring from the Bureaucracy w/ a pension & the satisfaction of having done their jobs as well as possible, keeping America safe from crime & the crazy, un-American ideas of furriners. Nope, the dream is to get a cushy, well paying job in industry as security personnel, or even that Senior Vice-President of Security gig. And two excellent places to get those jobs are banks & telecommunication companies.
Best way to get a job at a banking institution? Assemble a good record as an agent who catches bank robbers & people who commit fraud against banks. But let's face it, actually busting banks committing fraud against the public is not going to put you at the top of any employment list.
In the telecom industry, former FBI (& other former law enforcement) personnel are prized both by the company, which knows that the retirees will be able to pull strings w/ their still-employed-by-the-gov't. colleagues, and by the FBI & so on, who will pull strings w/ the "retired" agents now at the 'phone cos., in order to obtain information, wiretaps & the like w/ more ease & fewer warrants.
One hand washing the other. The end result of which is both hands remaining filthy. "Ain't that America," as some no-talent hack once sang.
That, of course, is the part of the problem that won't be covered in the L. A. Times. And it's not entirely fair to blame greedy pig F. B. I. agents alone. The Bush Administration's pants-pissing paranoia about "turrists" plays a big part, though you'd think a few more heads would have rolled after the colossal fuck-up that resulted in the events of 11 September, 2001. That is, the heads of some F. B. I. personnel, not just of those who were murdered in the attacks.
Also vital to the safety of the United Snakes, of course, or at least Republican political contributors, is not pursuing the economic crimes that truly do the greatest damage to our once-great nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment