The FBI Was Always Corrupt

With the impending(?) release of THE memo the topic of FBI corruption has cropped up. The Right acts like the revelation of an FBI that is corrupt and acts in favor of a political candidate over another is the greatest scandal to strike US politics. The Left acts like the FBI have been paragons of morality and virtue over its storied history. And I'm sitting here thinking, "When did everyone just decide to forget that the FBI has always been corrupt?"

Even if we look at the days before it was called the FBI and was simply the Bureau of Investigation it was linked to some serious corruption issues. The most notorious of course being the Teapot Dome Scandal. While the BOI was not directly involved in the scandal itself, it was BOI Director William Burns that tried to shut down the Senate investigation into the matter. He was so disgraced by his activities that he was forced to step down from the position. His replacement was J. Edgar Hoover. The man whose name became synonymous with the FBI and is probably the most famous lawman in American history. He would head the BOI starting in 1924 and would hold that position through to its transition to the FBI and continue on until his death in 1972.

Even before 1935 though the groundwork started being laid for the FBI. While the initial job of the BOI was to crack down on prostitution, by the 1930s organized crime was the biggest issue facing the nation. To help combat this growing threat in 1932 the BOI was merged with the Bureau of Prohibition, the agency that was primarily tasked with dealing with organized crime. Now to illustrate how rampant corruption was in the Bureau of Prohibition one only needs to look at Elliot Ness and his Untouchables. Ness was a BOP agent tasked with taking down Al Capone and his operation. To aid in his mission he was told to put together a task force. After pouring over every BOP agent Ness was only able to come up with 11 agents that he was positive weren't corrupt.

Jump ahead a few years to the Hoover years. While it seemed like Hoover was man who could get things done, it turns out that he was a man that was running his own agenda. Under Hoover agents would regularly be used to target blacks, homosexuals, and liberals. In fact under Hoover the FBI has been linked to such high profile assassinations as MLK, Malcolm X, Harvey Milk, and even the Kennedys.

Shortly following Hoover's death in 1972 a certain break in occurred at the Watergate hotel. While the FBI was not involved in the actual burglary it was a former FBI agent that responsible for wiretapping and monitoring the DNC. Hoover's successor L. Patrick Gray also ended up resigning in disgrace after admitting to destroying Watergate files. Funny enough, it was an FBI agent that blew the whistle on the whole Watergate scandal, Mark Felt aka Deep Throat.

Even in the more modern era we have things like Waco and Ruby Ridge to point at for examples of FBI corruption. In fact these events inspired many to join communities like ATS. The idea of FBI corruption is so prevalent in pop culture that it became a main plot point in the X-Files. Even in the past couple of years the Right has taken issue with the FBI's shooting of LaVoy Finicum. At the same time the FBI has raised the Left's ire by creating the nebulous term Black Identity Extremist that evokes memories of Hoover.

So why are both sides arguing over the FBI's corruption when it has been a fact of the agency's life?

Very true.
Add to your list the countless entrapment schemes to "catch" terrorists with bombs.
Bombs the FBI either gave them or supplied materials for after talking these men in to committing these acts.

Eta: Will we ever find out who in the FBI was responsible for shutting down the investigation of the 9/11 terrorists before the attack? Did it reach all the way to Mueller?

a reply to: Xcalibur254

There was a thread one time that discusses about how the FBI uses the Geek Squad to put the populace under surveillance.

Wasnt JOE FRIDAY FBI? Dragnet.

originally posted by: carewemust
Wasnt JOE FRIDAY FBI? Dragnet.

LAPD...

a reply to: olaru12

Oh.. LAPD was more dignified then.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

I dont agree. People may have been imperfect, but corruption is a choice.

Why didnt Hoover just get some marines to kill the criminals?

Why use a legal system? It would be better to take a knife and kill helpless criminals that a dozen paid enforcers beat into restraints.

Why were 11 agents chosen by Hoover that werent corrupt? Why not just pay a few corrupt ones to kill the rest?

The reason is that no one can be openly corrupt. Society would not function and be able to support things like an FBI. They arent a charity you know. They take allot to keep around.....

If the FBI operates outside the law and is known for it, I doubt many aspiring lawmen would want to join.

If it is so corrupt and cant help itself, then start stripping it of powers that as a nation we cant ever take the risk of falling into corrupt hands.

If the FBI was a known criminal organization why would anyone help them when they put up the most wanted list? Those people may be innocent after all.

and so on.

You get my point? They like to be known as being a rock of professionalism and HONOR.

If thats a lie, then they need to own it, because this is new.

I would say they have been corrupt since day number one. IMHO...they were created as a boogey man to Americans and at the same time a warm & fuzzy to other Americans. There a government agency , spawned by the government, for the purpose of the Government...when did they ever work for the people?

a reply to: openyourmind1262

If thats true, then all FBI agents joined to partake in corruption. They arent dumb, so they must have been motivated by the corruption they knew of.

a reply to: tadaman

They didn't choose to partake in corruption. They chose to join as agency they thought does good for the world. And it does. But it's heart is black.

Just look at Waco and Ruby Ridge. Do you think an agent would have committed those acts if left to their own devices? They obeyed the commands of their superiors who are playing they're own game.

It's like the Nazis. Even the lowest level private is guilty of atrocities. But he was simply following orders. So is he actually guilty?

Partisan politics is division to make sure the people don't come together to realize the control organizations are just as corrupt if not more so in the play for power than the politicians that are bought and paid for by the lobbyist who also control the agencies.

Let's be at our throats for political causes that no # we will never all agree with. That's what counts!11111

With the FBI and other alphabet agencies: Some things never change, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely"- Lord Acton.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

Lon Tomohisa Horiuchi was charged with manslaughter for the claimed accidental death of Vikki Weaver.

"There was also no evidence from which it could be concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that Horiuchi actually saw Vicki Weaver at the time he fired the shot that killed her," the department said in summarizing its conclusion. The department noted Thursday that federal prosecutors and Idaho prosecutors enforce "different criminal laws, using different legal standards" in examining Horiuchi's conduct.

"No federal crime covers the reckless, careless, or negligent use of a firearm," the department said. "The federal investigation, which involved hundreds of interviews and hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, concluded that the available evidence did not support a federal criminal prosecution of Horiuchi."

Source

a reply to: Xcalibur254

Illegal orders are illegal.

If they knew it was very corrupt and joined then they joined a corrupt agency to partake in its activities.

I think they thought it was something else, since it says its something else A LOT.

Leadership is not the only one to blame. STAFF too. Once you play ball you are in the game.

a reply to: tadaman

Illegal orders are illegal.

Tell that to J. Edgar Hoover.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

I would. I guess we are looking for the right type of criminality.

The FBI has outlived its purpose. It needs another FBI to take it down and maybe another Hoover to use means that are not legal to achieve some level of order.

In this instance, today in age, the FBI is an agent of moral and societal affront. DO they do good?

Lets say: They catch a pedo ring, but if the operators are well connected they keep doing business, WHY? I thought we had badass cowboy do gooders.

Maybe they get a low level child pornography ring one day that an informant sold to them and the FBI stops them. OK. Would that be true for a major child pornography ring they were told to protect out of national security since VIPs use it?

What if that major child exploitation ring that is asking for FBI protection was the source of all the other minor ones that the FBI catches and uses to justify their "work"?

If its the criminal element we employ to achieve order then the agents of that force are criminals. Criminals tasked with creating a semblance of order.

The implications of an all powerful and entirely corrupt federal entity are repugnant. They could do so much harm that their touted "residual good" can kiss my ass. I know better.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

The FBI falsified witness statements during the Vince Foster investigation and Congress protected the FBI.

I don't know why anyone thinks Congress if fit to oversee the FBI. They aren't. No one in the federal government is interested in seeing the FBI operate ethically and lawfully.

Patrick Knowlton Story

I never have really cared for the FBI. Those guys seem to be too pushy and don't listen well to the other cops. I do back our local police departments though, I have known many cops in my lifetime. Some regular cops are overbearing, but not many, and most of the worst ones don't even compare to the FBI personal I met or was told about by some cop friends of mine years ago. I do not know if it is still that way though, that must have been twenty years ago now.

The corruption and authoritarian systems of domination have no political label...

I don't believe it is very corrupt, if it was everyone would have a horror story about them like Russia had with the KBG.

I think people should stop making wild, unsupported accusations.

originally posted by: CB328
I don't believe it is very corrupt, if it was everyone would have a horror story about them like Russia had with the KBG.

I think people should stop making wild, unsupported accusations.

And a lot of people do have horror stories, whether you're familiar with them or not.

Hope you aren't waiting for CNN to report on them before you even bother to consider them.