The Rise Of The American Gestapo
4
August, 2019
“Adolf Hitler is alive and well in the United States, and he is fast rising to power.”
- Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, on the danger posed by the FBI to our civil liberties
Despite the finger-pointing and outcries of dismay from those who are watching the government discard the rule of law at every turn, the question is not whether Donald Trump is the new Adolf Hitler but whether the American Police State is the new Third Reich.
For
those who can view the present and past political landscape without
partisan blinders, the
warning signs are unmistakable: the Deep State’s love affair with
totalitarianism began long ago.
Indeed,
the U.S. government so admired the Nazi regime that following the
second World War, it secretly recruited Hitler’s employees, adopted
his protocols, embraced his mindset about law and order, implemented
his tactics in incremental steps, and began to lay the foundations
for the rise of the Fourth Reich.
Sounds
far-fetched? Read on. It’s all documented.
As
historian Robert Gellately recounts,
“After five years of Hitler’s dictatorship, the Nazi
police had won the FBI’s seal of approval.”
The Nazi police state was initially so admired for
its efficiency and order by the world
powers of
the day that J. Edgar Hoover, then-head of the FBI, actually sent one
of his right-hand men, Edmund Patrick Coffey, to Berlin in January
1938 at the invitation of Germany’s secret police—the Gestapo.
The
FBI was so impressed with the Nazi regime that, according to the New
York Times, in
the decades after World War II, the FBI, along with other government
agencies, aggressively recruited
at least a thousand Nazis,
including some of Hitler’s highest henchmen.
All
told, thousands of Nazi collaborators—including
the head of a Nazi concentration camp, among others—were
given secret visas and brought to America by way of Project
Paperclip. Subsequently, they were hired on as spies and informants,
and then camouflaged to ensure that their true identities and ties to
Hitler’s holocaust machine would remain unknown. All
the while, thousands
of Jewish refugees were refused entry visas to
the U.S. on the grounds that it could threaten national security.
Adding
further insult to injury, American
taxpayers have been paying to keep these ex-Nazis on the U.S.
government’s payroll ever
since. And in true Gestapo fashion, anyone
who has dared to blow the whistle on the FBI’s illicit Nazi ties
has found himself spied upon,
intimidated, harassed and labeled a threat to national security.
As
if the government’s covert,
taxpayer-funded employment of Nazis after World War II wasn’t
bad enough, U.S. government agencies—the FBI, CIA and the
military—have fully embraced many of the Nazi’s well-honed
policing tactics, and have used them repeatedly against American
citizens.
Indeed,
with every passing day, the United States government borrows yet
another leaf from Nazi Germany’s playbook:
Secret police. Secret courts. Secret government agencies. Surveillance. Censorship. Intimidation. Harassment. Torture. Brutality. Widespread corruption. Entrapment. Indoctrination. Indefinite detention.
Secret police. Secret courts. Secret government agencies. Surveillance. Censorship. Intimidation. Harassment. Torture. Brutality. Widespread corruption. Entrapment. Indoctrination. Indefinite detention.
These
are not tactics used by constitutional republics, where the rule of
law and the rights of the citizenry reign supreme. Rather, they are
the hallmarks of authoritarian regimes, where the only law that
counts comes in the form of heavy-handed, unilateral dictates from a
supreme ruler who uses a secret police to control the populace.
That
danger is now posed by the FBI, whose laundry list of crimes against
the American people includes surveillance, disinformation, blackmail,
entrapment, intimidation tactics, harassment and indoctrination,
governmental overreach, abuse, misconduct, trespassing, enabling
criminal activity, and damaging private property, and that’s just
based on what we know.
Whether
the FBI is planting undercover agents in churches, synagogues and
mosques; issuing fake emergency letters to gain access to Americans’
phone records; using intimidation
tactics to
silence Americans who are critical of the government; recruiting
high school students to spy on and report fellow students who
show signs of being future terrorists; or persuading impressionable
individuals to plot acts of terror and then entrapping
them,
the overall impression of the nation’s secret police force is that
of a well-dressed thug, flexing its muscles and doing the boss’
dirty work of ensuring compliance, keeping tabs on potential
dissidents, and punishing those who dare to challenge the status quo.
Whatever
minimal restrictions initially kept the FBI’s surveillance
activities within the bounds of the law have all but disappeared
post-9/11. Since then, the FBI has been transformed into a mammoth
federal policing and surveillance agency that largely operates as a
power unto itself, beyond the reach of established laws, court
rulings and legislative mandates.
Consider
the FBI’s far-reaching powers to surveil, detain, interrogate,
investigate, prosecute, punish, police and generally act as a law
unto themselves—much
like their Nazi cousins,
the Gestapo—and then try to convince yourself that the United
States is still a constitutional republic.
Just
like the Gestapo, the FBI has vast resources, vast investigatory
powers, and vast
discretion to determine who is an enemy of the state.
Today,
the FBI employs more than 35,000 individuals and operates more than
56 field offices in major cities across the U.S., as well as 400
resident agencies in smaller towns, and more than 50 international
offices. In addition to their “data campus,” which houses more
than 96 million sets of fingerprints from across the United States
and elsewhere, the FBI has also built a vast repository of “profiles
of tens of thousands of Americans and legal residents who are not
accused of any crime.
What they have done is appear to be acting suspiciously to a town sheriff, a traffic cop or even a neighbor.” The FBI’s burgeoning databases on Americans are not only being added to and used by local police agencies, but are also being made available to employers for real-time background checks.
All of this is made possible by the agency’s nearly unlimited resources (its minimum budget alone in fiscal year 2015 was $8.3 billion), the government’s vast arsenal of technology, the interconnectedness of government intelligence agencies, and information sharing through fusion centers—data collecting intelligence agencies spread throughout the country that constantly monitor communications (including those of American citizens), everything from internet activity and web searches to text messages, phone calls and emails.
What they have done is appear to be acting suspiciously to a town sheriff, a traffic cop or even a neighbor.” The FBI’s burgeoning databases on Americans are not only being added to and used by local police agencies, but are also being made available to employers for real-time background checks.
All of this is made possible by the agency’s nearly unlimited resources (its minimum budget alone in fiscal year 2015 was $8.3 billion), the government’s vast arsenal of technology, the interconnectedness of government intelligence agencies, and information sharing through fusion centers—data collecting intelligence agencies spread throughout the country that constantly monitor communications (including those of American citizens), everything from internet activity and web searches to text messages, phone calls and emails.
Much
like the Gestapo
spied on mail and phone calls,
FBI agents have carte blanche access to the citizenry’s most
personal information.
Working
through the U.S. Post Office, the FBI
has access to every piece of mail that passes through the postal
system:
more than 160 billion pieces are scanned and recorded annually.
Moreover, the agency’s National
Security Letters,
one of the many illicit powers authorized by the USA Patriot Act,
allows the FBI to secretly demand that banks, phone companies, and
other businesses provide them with customer information and not
disclose those demands to the customer. An internal audit of the
agency found that the FBI practice of issuing tens of thousands of
NSLs every year for sensitive information such as phone and financial
records, often in non-emergency cases, is riddled with
widespread constitutional
violations.
Much
like the Gestapo’s sophisticated surveillance programs, the FBI’s
spying capabilities can delve into Americans’ most intimate details
(and allow local police to do so, as well).
In
addition to technology (which is shared with police agencies) that
allows them to listen in on phone calls, read emails and text
messages, and monitor web activities, the FBI’s surveillance boasts
an invasive
collection of spy tools ranging
from Stingray devices that can track the location of cell phones to
Triggerfish devices which allow agents to eavesdrop on phone calls.
In one case, the FBI actually managed to remotely
reprogram a “suspect’s” wireless internet card so
that it would send “real-time cell-site location data to Verizon,
which forwarded the data to the FBI.” Law enforcement agencies are
also using social
media tracking software to
monitor Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts. Moreover, secret FBI
rules also allow
agents to spy on journalists without
significant judicial oversight.
Much
like the Gestapo’s ability to profile based on race and religion,
and its assumption of guilt
by association,
the FBI’s approach to pre-crime allows it to profile Americans
based on a broad range of characteristics including race and
religion.
The
agency’s biometric
database has
grown to massive proportions, the largest in the world, encompassing
everything from fingerprints, palm, face and iris scans to DNA,
and is being increasingly
shared between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in
an effort to target potential criminals long before they ever commit
a crime. This is what’s known as pre-crime. Yet it’s not just
your actions that will get you in trouble. In many cases, it’s
also who
you know—even
minimally—and where your sympathies lie that could land you on a
government watch list. Moreover, as the Intercept reports,
despite anti-profiling prohibitions, the bureau “claims
considerable latitude to use race, ethnicity, nationality, and
religion in deciding which people and communities to investigate.”
Much
like the Gestapo’s power to render anyone an enemy of the state,
the FBI has the power to label anyone a domestic terrorist.
As
part of the government’s so-called ongoing war on terror, the
nation’s de facto secret police force has begun using the terms
“anti-government,” “extremist” and
“terrorist” interchangeably.
Moreover, the government continues to add to its growing list of
characteristics that can be used to identify an individual
(especially anyone who disagrees with the government) as
a potential domestic
terrorist. For instance, you might be a domestic terrorist in the
eyes of the FBI (and its network of snitches) if you:
-
express libertarian philosophies (statements, bumper stickers)
-
exhibit Second Amendment-oriented views (NRA or gun club membership)
-
read survivalist literature, including apocalyptic fictional books
-
show signs of self-sufficiency (stockpiling food, ammo, hand tools, medical supplies)
-
fear an economic collapse
-
buy gold and barter items
-
subscribe to religious views concerning the book of Revelation
-
voice fears about Big Brother or big government
-
expound about constitutional rights and civil liberties
-
believe in a New World Order conspiracy
Much
like the Gestapo infiltrated communities in order to spy on the
German citizenry, the FBI routinely infiltrates political and
religious groups, as well as businesses.
As
Cora Currier writes
for the Intercept:
“Using loopholes it has kept secret for years, the FBI can in
certain circumstances bypass its own rules in order to send
undercover agents or informants into political and religious
organizations, as well as schools, clubs, and businesses...” The
FBI has even been paying
Geek Squad technicians at Best Buy to spy on customers’
computers without
a warrant.
Just
as the Gestapo united and militarized Germany’s police forces into
a national police force, America’s police forces have largely been
federalized and turned into a national police force.
In
addition to government programs that provide the nation’s police
forces with military equipment and training, the FBI
also operates a National Academy that
trains thousands of police chiefs every year and indoctrinates them
into an agency mindset that advocates the use of surveillance
technology and information sharing between local, state, federal, and
international agencies.
Just
as the Gestapo’s
secret files on
political leaders were used to intimidate and coerce, the FBI’s
files on anyone suspected of “anti-government” sentiment have
been similarly abused.
As countless documents make clear, the FBI has no qualms about using its extensive powers in order to blackmail politicians, spy on celebrities and high-ranking government officials, and intimidate and attempt to discredit dissidents of all stripes. For example, not only did the FBI follow Martin Luther King Jr. and bug his phones and hotel rooms, but agents also sent him anonymous letters urging him to commit suicide and pressured a Massachusetts college into dropping King as its commencement speaker.
As countless documents make clear, the FBI has no qualms about using its extensive powers in order to blackmail politicians, spy on celebrities and high-ranking government officials, and intimidate and attempt to discredit dissidents of all stripes. For example, not only did the FBI follow Martin Luther King Jr. and bug his phones and hotel rooms, but agents also sent him anonymous letters urging him to commit suicide and pressured a Massachusetts college into dropping King as its commencement speaker.
Just
as the Gestapo carried out entrapment operations, the FBI has become
a master in the art of entrapment.
In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks the FBI has not only targeted vulnerable individuals but has also lured or blackmailed them into fake terror plots while actually equipping them with the organization, money, weapons and motivation to carry out the plots—entrapment—and then jailing or deporting them for their so-called terrorist plotting. This is what the FBI characterizes as “forward leaning—preventative—prosecutions.” In addition to creating certain crimes in order to then “solve” them, the FBI also gives certain informants permission to break the law, “including everything from buying and selling illegal drugs to bribing government officials and plotting robberies,” in exchange for their cooperation on other fronts. USA Todayestimates that agents have authorized criminals to engage in as many as 15 crimes a day. Some of these informants are getting paid astronomical sums: one particularly unsavory fellow, later arrested for attempting to run over a police officer, was actually paid $85,000 for his help laying the trap for an entrapment scheme.
In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks the FBI has not only targeted vulnerable individuals but has also lured or blackmailed them into fake terror plots while actually equipping them with the organization, money, weapons and motivation to carry out the plots—entrapment—and then jailing or deporting them for their so-called terrorist plotting. This is what the FBI characterizes as “forward leaning—preventative—prosecutions.” In addition to creating certain crimes in order to then “solve” them, the FBI also gives certain informants permission to break the law, “including everything from buying and selling illegal drugs to bribing government officials and plotting robberies,” in exchange for their cooperation on other fronts. USA Todayestimates that agents have authorized criminals to engage in as many as 15 crimes a day. Some of these informants are getting paid astronomical sums: one particularly unsavory fellow, later arrested for attempting to run over a police officer, was actually paid $85,000 for his help laying the trap for an entrapment scheme.
When
and if a true history of the FBI is ever written, it will not only
track the rise of the American police state but it will also chart
the decline of freedom in America, in much the same way that the
empowerment of Germany’s secret police tracked with the rise of the
Nazi regime.
How
did the Gestapo become the terror of the Third Reich?
It
did so by creating a sophisticated surveillance and law enforcement
system that relied for its success on the cooperation of the
military, the police, the intelligence community, neighborhood
watchdogs, government workers for the post office and railroads,
ordinary civil servants, and a nation of snitches inclined to report
“rumors,
deviant behavior, or even just loose talk.”
In other words, ordinary citizens working with government agents helped create the monster that became Nazi Germany. Writing for the New York Times, Barry Ewen paints a particularly chilling portrait of how an entire nation becomes complicit in its own downfall by looking the other way:
In other words, ordinary citizens working with government agents helped create the monster that became Nazi Germany. Writing for the New York Times, Barry Ewen paints a particularly chilling portrait of how an entire nation becomes complicit in its own downfall by looking the other way:
In what may be his most provocative statement, [author Eric A.] Johnson says that ‘‘most Germans may not even have realized until very late in the war, if ever, that they were living in a vile dictatorship.’’ This is not to say that they were unaware of the Holocaust; Johnson demonstrates that millions of Germans must have known at least some of the truth. But, he concludes, ‘‘a tacit Faustian bargain was struck between the regime and the citizenry.’’ The government looked the other way when petty crimes were being committed. Ordinary Germans looked the other way when Jews were being rounded up and murdered; they abetted one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century not through active collaboration but through passivity, denial and indifference.Much like the German people, “we the people” have become passive, polarized, gullible, easily manipulated, and lacking in critical thinking skills. Distracted by entertainment spectacles, politics and screen devices, we too are complicit, silent partners in creating a police state similar to the terror practiced by former regimes.
Had
the government tried to ram such a state of affairs down our throats
suddenly, it might have had a rebellion on its hands.
Instead,
the American people have been given the boiling frog treatment,
immersed in water that slowly is heated up—degree by degree—so
that they’ve fail to notice that they’re being trapped and cooked
and killed.
“We
the people” are in hot water now.
The Constitution doesn’t stand a chance against a federalized, globalized standing army of government henchmen protected by legislative, judicial and executive branches that are all on the same side, no matter what political views they subscribe to: suffice it to say, they are not on our side or the side of freedom.
From
Clinton to Bush, then Obama and now Trump, it’s as if we’ve been
caught in a time loop, forced to re-live the same thing over and over
again: the same assaults on our freedoms, the same disregard for the
rule of law, the same subservience to the Deep State, and the same
corrupt, self-serving government that exists only to amass power,
enrich its shareholders and ensure its continued domination.
Can
the Fourth Reich happen here?
As
I point out in my book Battlefield
America: The War on the American People,
it’s already
happening right under our noses.
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