1. OIG Hotline investigators have a very full plate.
Answer: I am not apprised of their work at all. But I see my role as giving them as much information as possible, including appropriate waivers, so that they can decide on their initiatives.
I am attempting to communicate as much detail as I can, because I feel a responsibility toward those whose circumstances, through no fault of their own, have prevented them from obtaining advocacy.
2. Despite the myriad perils of being wrongfully designated as a "target of interest," you have also had many gifts.
Answer: I have a wonderful husband. I am fortunate to have had access to higher education. I have a savings account. As a writer, I am able to wield a pen in my own defense and that of others. I have a faith which is sustaining.
And I have been fortunate in finding some wonderful people within the federal government who have listened to my concerns. OIG Hotline investigators, the Honorable Avril Haines of ODNI, and President Biden have all been courageous and determined -- and their presence has been transformative in every way.
Imagine how much more difficult life would be for a law-abiding "target of interest" who was single and working sixty hours per week to pay the rent. If such a person was defamed as a criminal, as someone who was psychologically unstable or possessing poor character in her or his personal life, what opportunity would she or he have to speak the truth?
There are many whose daily circumstances are sufficiently strained that they can be deprived of their civil liberties and human rights without any opportunity for redress.
3. You are concerned about the suggestion that "targets of interest" may be over-represented by Democrats, journalists, women and people of color.
Answer: Yes, I am deeply concerned about these reports. Falsified law enforcement reporting has anti-democratic objectives, but patterns of "targeting" and the presence of "lists" of law-abiding Americans intended to facilitate that "targeting" imply political objectives of active harm that need to be closely examined.
It's important to state that law-abiding Republicans have found their way onto the "target of interest" list, too.
Anyone who obstructs the efforts of far right FBI personnel to exert social and economic control over the American electorate is threatened with having their lives "ruined" by being placed on this "list."
So, all Americans need to be concerned about the actions of far right FBI Counterintelligence personnel as manifesting fundamentally undemocratic and unconstitutional harms toward the law-abiding American public.
4. In reading Milton Mayer's book, They Thought They Were Free, you see some similarities between the far right of Germany in the 1930's and 1940's and the far right as it is manifesting in the United States today.
Answer: They are twin movements. Both of them emerged from segments of the population that felt economically pressured and aggrieved. Unfortunately, great harms can emerge within populist movements that nurture a certain type of anger. When "lists" of scapegoats are being compiled -- citizens who are being falsely accused of wrongdoing -- human atrocities become possible.
5. Yet, human atrocities tend to be hidden from the general population.
Answer: They do. Perpetrators of these wrongs understand that such predation will never be broadly accepted or condoned. So, they conceal them with euphemistic program titles such as the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative. The public is intentionally misled by language such as this.
6. How do you answer the observation that law enforcement officers work in a dangerous profession that requires immense dedication?
Answer: I think that's absolutely true. My sense is that we need to bring heightened transparency and accountability to law enforcement reporting and the legal actions that follow from that reporting. And after that, we need to ensure that law enforcement officers are paid enough that they can refuse bribes and payoffs without worry for their families' well-being.
7. You feel that law-enforcement officers should be paid more, but held to high standards which prevent corruption from taking hold.
Answer: I do. I think we need to recognize the perils present in the fact that many law enforcement officers maintain cryptocurrency accounts. Deposits into those accounts cannot be easily traced, and we never want that lack of transparency to be present when it comes to law enforcement personnel.
8. You also believe that civilian review boards should be actively engaged with law enforcement organizations in their communities.
Answer: Yes, but I think civilian review boards need to have substantive legal authority over law enforcement agencies. In other words, the public, in the form of the civilian review board, should remain the employer of the law enforcement entity.
Infragard payments to police departments, sheriff's offices and their personnel should be disallowed, in my opinion.
9. Why?
Answer: It is my understanding that Infragard payments have been extended to local law enforcement personnel who have engaged in knowingly falsified reporting as part of NSARI and the FBI's "target of interest" program.
Those incentives need to be halted.
10. What about a civilian review board to address federal law enforcement agencies?
Answer: I believe this should be a high priority.
11. What is the remedy for growing totalitarian influences within a society?
Answer: The remedy is the spoken truth. If the American public is allowed to understand that there are those on the far right who have intentionally fanned the flames of division and hatred within our country -- then I think a new dedication to democracy becomes possible.
Sources of propaganda need to be actively addressed, because their influence is profound.
Fundamentally, democracy requires that we extend compassion and goodwill, ethics and generosity toward one another.
President Biden personifies these qualities, in my opinion, so he is the ideal Commander-in-Chief for this moment in our history. We are most fortunate in this gift. It is the fact of his character and integrity that affords democracy a chance.
12. You love the fact that President Biden grew up in a white clapboard house in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Answer: I do. President Biden is able to extend immense compassion to the American electorate, partly because he was not raised in a circumstance of extreme privilege that would have otherwise isolated him. The love within his family gifted him with wisdom, integrity, empathy, judgement and leadership -- not a trust fund.
And I think he presents a shining example of a uniquely American inheritance, in which the wealth of his family accrued within his character, not within his bank account.
He has the ability to listen to the whistleblower, the outsider -- even when others may be trying to silence that voice of concern.
And so, he possesses a capacity for defending our democracy that I believe is rare.
13. You believe his leadership is central to America's opportunity to illuminate the Constitutional violations of the far right.
Answer: Yes, I do. President Biden is not replaceable in leading us through these shoals. His courage is equal to this task. But that is a rare gift, and I hope the American electorate can come to understand why.
Lane MacWilliams
No comments:
Post a Comment