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Kash Patel’s FBI: Chaos, Revenge, Disinformation -- COINTELPRO Redux? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-06
In early December, president-elect Donald Trump nominated MAGA insider Kash Patel as his choice to lead the FBI. As Right Wing Watch’s Peter Montgomery pointed out (
https://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch/kakistocracy-watch-kash-patel-edition), “The Nation called Patel the scariest nomination yet (
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kash-patel-trump-cabinet/).
The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus called Patel a ‘dangerous and unqualified choice’ (
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/01/kash-patel-fbi-nomination-trump-unqualified/), and wrote that his nomination is a ‘hair on fire moment’—both for Patel’s personal devotion to Trump and his deep hostility toward the agency he is being tasked to lead. Trump and Patel both seem eager to turn the FBI into a weapon against Trump’s personal and political enemies.”
“Patel, in short, is the kind of man who could become Trump’s Hoover: a man willing to push federal law enforcement into dangerously anti-democratic territory in pursuit of alleged domestic enemies,” wrote Vox’s Zack Beauchamp after listening to hours of Patel’s appearances on [Steve] Bannon’s podcast (
https://www.v). ox.com/politics/389481/kash-patel-trump-fbi-steve-bannon-podcast).
Patel has often spoke of going after the press, which he has labeled “pure evil.” Patel just might out-Hoover Hoover, in his contempt for liberal and progressive organizations opposed to Trump.
On his Substack, veteran reporter and investigative journalist David Weir recently wrote: “Under J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI conducted its notorious Cointelpro operations against activists and others Hoover deemed enemies of the state. Weir (
[email protected]) pointed out that Colbert King, writing in the Washington Post, advises that an FBI run by Patel, might replicate those dirty old days of Hoover’s Cointelpro (
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/20/patel-hoover-cointelpro-fbi/).
King pointed out that “Under Cointelpro, the FBI:
* Sent anonymous fictitious materials to targeted groups, designed to “create dissension and cause disruption.”
* Leaked informant-based or investigative materials to friendly media sources for the purpose of exposing the nature, aims and membership of those groups.
* Deployed informants to disrupt such groups’ activities by sowing dissension and exploiting disputes.
* Informed employers, prospective employers, credit bureaus and creditors of targeted people’s “illegal, immoral, radical and Communist Party activities,” aiming to damage their financial or employment status.
* Told people that the FBI was “aware” of their activity, with the goal of developing them as informants.
* Attempted to persuade religious and civic leaders to exert pressure on state and local governments, employers and landlords to the ‘detriment’ of the targeted groups.
* Sent anonymous letters, including one to a political candidate alerting him that a targeted group’s members were active in his campaign and warning him not to be a ‘tool,’ and another to a school board official, ‘purporting to be from a concerned parent,’ pointing out that some candidates for the school board were members of a certain group.
* Furnished background on a candidate for public office, including arrests and questionable marital status, to news media contacts; furnished information concerning arrests of an individual to a court that had earlier given him a suspended sentence and furnished this same information to his employer, which later fired him.
* Made ‘an anonymous telephone call to a defense attorney, after a federal prosecution had resulted in a mistrial, advising him (apparently falsely) that one of the defendants and another well-known group individual were FBI informants.’
* Put out disinformation over ‘citizens band’ radio, using the same frequency as demonstrators.
* Obtained tax returns of suspect group members, reproduced a group leader’s signature stamp and investigated a group leader’s love life.”
[END]
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