A critical Look at the FBI and its Domestic Surveillance Approach — Then and Now
Christopher M. Piehota 11/25/2024
Crestview, Fl. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has long been regarded as the preeminent domestic law enforcement agency in the United States, entrusted with “protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution”. Over the course of my 25-year FBI career, I have seen a shift in the bureau’s practices in domestic surveillance and this shift has sparked serious concerns about possible abuses of power, political bias, and violations of privacy and civil liberties. What many people currently find troubling are the FBI’s surveillance activities that appear to target political views and religious beliefs. While the FBI generally justifies its actions as necessary in support of national security, a closer examination reveals some significant implications for how the public might view the FBI’s perceived objectivity and social trust.
Political Views and Surveillance
Concerns about the FBI’s domestic surveillance history have been fueled by controversial surveillance programs that targeted individuals and groups based on their political ideologies or religious affiliations. Maybe the most concerning of these historical FBI surveillance programs was the COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) initiative, which was active from 1956 to 1971. Under COINTELPRO, the FBI infiltrated, surveilled, and disrupted civil rights organizations, anti-war movements, and other so-called “progressive groups”. The FBI surveilled social figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. The Black Panther Party was also subjected to intense scrutiny. These FBI surveillance targets may not have been monitored for criminal activity but, instead, for challenging social norms and advocating for change. Some historical views hold that the FBI’s motivations for these actions were likely based on political bias rather than real security concerns. A review of historical documents from the COINTELPRO era revealed that this program actually sought to “neutralize” social leaders who were perceived as threats to the political status quo.
More recently, the FBI has been reprimanded in various circles for reported surveillance of parents who protested against or disagreed with school board policies, decisions, and actions. According to media reports, the FBI’s counterterrorism and criminal investigative programs created an “EDUOFFICIALS” threat designator to track case activities that involved threats against “school board administrators, board members, teachers, and staff”. In October 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the FBI to address threats of violence against school officials. This letter was generated in response to a National School Boards Association letter requesting federal assistance to address threats against school board members. Subsequently, whistleblowers revealed that the FBI opened a number of investigations into parents who were identified as protesting prevailing education policies, to include parents who were upset over previous mask mandates. While the FBI denied this type of activity, there have been repeated calls by national leaders for additional investigation. In the end, the FBI’s perceived targeting of people or groups who dissented from school policies and political positions could have undermined democratic principles, chilled free speech, and fostered a culture of fear in our otherwise free and open society.
Christopher M Piehota, Wanted: The FBI I Once Knew (Freiling LLC, 2024). Available at Barnes and Noble and at Amazon.com .
Religious Views and Surveillance
In addition, the FBI has also been accused of religious profiling in its investigative practices. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the bureau intensified its focus on Muslim communities, often equating religious practices with potential threats. The FBI’s reported use of undercover informants in mosques and Islamic community centers were cited as examples of this troubling approach. Looking back, it was found that a number of FBI informants may have erroneously targeted individuals with no evidence of criminal or terror activity and created an atmosphere of distrust within communities.
In a more recent issue, the FBI received a great deal of negative attention when a leaked internal intelligence document warned that “radical traditionalist” Catholics pose an extremist threat. This memo discussed monitoring “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” and their possible interest in “Radical-Traditionalist Catholicism”. Basically, this FBI intelligence document noted a growing overlap between the far-right white nationalist movement and Radical Transnational Catholicism, which was described as adhering to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBT, and white supremacy ideologies. People were shocked at this type of FBI investigative position and the FBI Director confirmed the document was removed from bureau systems, as it did not meet FBI standards. Why did FBI managers allow that kind of intelligence document to be authored to begin with? Maybe, the FBI organizational culture and resultant views and practices merit a critical review for other types of potential bias or shortfalls in objectivity? Such views and practices can alienate affected religious communities, and further exacerbate societal division. We can plainly see how FBI surveillance and intelligence activities can raise questions about the bureau’s observance of the constitutional protections afforded under the First Amendment.
Conclusion
The FBI’s domestic surveillance activities can have far-reaching consequences for the preservation of our democratic governance and civil liberties. Any actual targeting of individuals or groups based on political views or religious beliefs can undermine our foundational principles of freedom of speech, assembly, and religion. These principles are essential to sustaining our democratic processes. Also, questionable FBI’s surveillance activities can erode public trust in law enforcement and domestic security operations. The chilling effect of biased or poorly managed domestic surveillance activities cannot be overstated with targeted people and groups. Knowing that people’s lives and activities may be monitored by the government due to political activism or religious practices can result in self-censorship, stifling dissenting opinions, and weakening of the fabric of our civil society.
The FBI has an awesome responsibility in balancing its domestic surveillance practices and operational effectiveness with the preservation of our foundational principles of democracy, privacy, and justice. While national security is an undeniable priority, security cannot and should not be had at the expense of civil liberties and constitutional rights. The examples above can give the FBI a chance to re-evaluate its current organizational culture, leadership environment, and operational practices in how it is meeting the needs of the American people. Only by addressing these issues with honesty, objectivity, and humility can the FBI do right for the American people. The American people who provide the public trust that the FBI operates under. This is the same public trust that demands that the FBI fulfill its mandate to protect all communities and uphold the Constitution without bias, political hedging, or religious prejudice.
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Press Release:
November 8, 2024 – Chris Piehota, a 25-year FBI Special Agent who retired as one of the bureau’s eight most senior career executives, shares his personal observations regarding the FBI’s organizational challenges. He shares his thoughts on FBI shortfalls in leadership, cultural norms, and operational decision-making that contributed to the FBI’s current diminished state.
“Wanted: The FBI I Once Knew” (at Barnes and Noble in paper, at Amazon on Kindle) provides an insider’s view and tells a cautionary tale of how the FBI, once one of the world’s highest-performing organizations, could fall victim to leadership atrophy, cultural erosion, complacency, and core mission distraction. Claims of FBI political polarization and agency misconduct have become the norm. Politicians have discussed the bureau’s disbanding and the American public is losing faith in what was once one of our most trusted and revered institutions.
“Wanted” covers how the FBI fundamentally changed after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and shifted away from its roots. These drastic shifts in FBI leadership approaches and organizational philosophies negatively impacted what was one of our most respected federal agencies. ‘Wanted” provides the author’s insights and recommendations on how to put our FBI back on a path to restored confidence and credibility in its service to the American people.
“Today’s FBI could benefit greatly from a return to the leadership models, cultural traits, and operational practices that made it great. To some degree, these factors were deprioritized, watered down, and sometimes discarded for new-era management approaches embraced by corporate America…” (Excerpt from “Wanted – The FBI I Once Knew).
“Wanted: The FBI I Once Knew” Published by The Freiling Agency and released in November 2024. (https://www.freilingagency.com/).