FBI drops Law Enforcement as its major mission

[Ichingcarpenter]

McClanahan noticed the change last month while reviewing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the agency. The FBI fact sheet accompanies every FOIA response and highlights a variety of facts about the agency. After noticing the change, McClanahan reviewed his records and saw that the revised fact sheets began going out this summer. "I think they're trying to rebrand," he said. "So many good things happen to your agency when you tie it to national security."

Although a spokesman with the agency declined to weigh in on the timing of the change, he said the agency is just keeping up with the times. "When our mission changed after 9/11, our fact sheet changed to reflect that," FBI spokesman Paul Bresson told Foreign Policy. He noted that the FBI's website has long-emphasized the agency's national security focus. "We rank our top 10 priorities and CT [counterterrorism] is first, counterintel is second, cyber is third," he said. "So it is certainly accurate to say our primary function is national security." On numerous occasions, former FBI Director Robert Mueller also emphasized the FBI's national security focus in speeches and statements.
- See more at:

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/01/05/fbi_drops_law_enforcement_as_primary_mission#sthash.dTe9DVfT.mIFhlhsY.dpuf

Director Mueller, along with Acting Attorney General James B. Comey, offered to resign from office in March 2004 if the White House overruled a Department of Justice finding that domestic wiretapping without a court warrant was unconstitutional.[11] Attorney General John D. Ashcroft denied his consent to attempts by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales to waive the Justice Department ruling and permit the domestic warrantless eavesdropping program to proceed. On March 12, 2004,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mueller

[truedelphi]

1. Yep, so many good things happen to an agency and its agents

Once the agency rebrands itself.

FBI agents used to have to work hard on criminal cases. Now they can spend their time talking up 20 something bi polar youth, and driving them to the shopping mall and convincing them they should buy timers and duct tape. That way the youth can be arrested for terrorism, and the FBI can then announce that yet another terrorist plot was thwarted.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. The frog in the cooking pot

"If you tie yourself to national security, you get funding and you get exemptions on disclosure cases," said McClanahan. "You get all the wonderful arguments about how if you don't get your way, buildings will blow up and the country will be less safe."


That statement blew my mind

Also this fact on the FBI



The reductions in white-collar crime investigations became obvious. Back in 2000, the FBI sent prosecutors 10,000 cases. That fell to a paltry 3,500 cases by 2005. "Had the FBI continued investigating financial crimes at the same rate as it had before the terror attacks, about 2,000 more white-collar criminals would be behind bars," the report concluded. As a result, the agency fielded criticism for failing to crack down on financial crimes ahead of the Great Recession and losing sight of real-estate fraud ahead of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. -

[truedelphi]

9. The substantial factual information presented in your last paragraph

Is sickening.

[Enthusiast]

3. I do not approve of this mission change.

If we ever needed law enforcement it is now, particularly in the financial sector. This is just one more change contributing to the fucking up of the nation.

[mpcamb]

4. This reminds me of the "War on Terror".

Take a big amorphous, poorly defined issue and rush at it with wads of money and no end point in sight.

Further, When you chase people around for "National Security" it gets to sound suspiciously like the type of "crime against the state" people in the old communist block countries spent years in jail for.

It's a can of worms, like the Patriot Act and only harm will come of it.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. That explains a lot.

[spanone]

6. you can get away with ANYTHING under the guise of 'national security'

and get unlimited funds

[rock]

7. "Law Enforcement" is ambiguous enough

But, "National Security" doesn't even make it to vague. It did make it to practically meaningless though.

[woo me with science]

8. Corporate fascism, and we are their enemy. nt

[woo me with science]

10. Kick

[woo me with science]

11. K&R

[ananda]

12. And by national security they mean ..

.. targeting "domestic terrorism" and going after protesters,
dissenters, pro-environmentalists, and unions.

[jsr]

13. National security is a nice big umbrella that covers everything

and hides everything.

[Uncle Joe]

14. "National Security" is an extremely vague term begging to be abused.

Thanks for the thread, Ichingcarpenter.