If you build it, they will use it Part XXIV

If you build it, they will use it Part XXIV

by digby

Mother Jones has published an investigative series on the FBI that is just mind-blowing.

The Informants

The FBI has built a massive network of spies to prevent another domestic attack. But are they busting terrorist plots—or leading them?– Trevor Aaronson

Locked Up Abroad—for the FBI

How our government enlists foreign regimes to detain and interrogate American citizens. —Nick Baumann

Radical Leftist or Feds’ BFF?

To many on the left, Brandon Darby was a hero. To federal agents consumed with busting anarchist terror cells, he was the perfect snitch. —Josh Harkinson

There’s more at the link. It’s all good, but I found the story of the leftist turned informant to be most interesting. It’s a fascinating look into what little exists of the radical left in America and it’s not particularly inspiring. But then we see this sort of personality on all levels of life (more so in politics than elsewhere, I’ve found) as certain charismatic but immature personalities flit from one insight to the next and reinvent the wheel over and over again. (Also, too, they are susceptible to bullshitters and con artists.)

This article is about a radical who apparently became impatient with his leftist comrades and so became and FBI informant. That trip from radical to snitch is a fascinating one.

There’s also a movie about the case. Here’s the trailer:

All the articles illustrate exactly how creeping authoritarianism overtakes a free nation. All it takes is a boogeyman and government sanction to build the institutions and create the processes that over time become the norm.

In all this discussion of budget cutting and “shared sacrifice”, I’ve seen no talk of taking a look at the Homeland Security — an entirely new bureaucracy that has had virtually no scrutiny — and FBI budgets, swollen after 9/11 to previously unimaginable numbers. This has become another sacrosanct area that cannot be touched or questioned.