Instead of declaring "law enforcement" as its "primary function," as it has for years, the FBI fact sheet now lists "national security" as its chief mission.The biggest hit to what the FBI used to do has been in prosecuting white collar crime. This has been going on for some time:
- Overall, the number of criminal cases investigated by the FBI nationally has steadily declined. In 2005, the bureau brought slightly more than 20,000 cases to federal prosecutors, compared with about 31,000 in 2000 - a 34 percent drop.The banksters and the other "white collar" criminals did far more damage to this country than Al Qaeda could ever have hoped to do. Those assholes stole trillions of dollars and they are still at it.
- FBI investigations of white-collar crime have also plummeted. In 2005, the FBI sent prosecutors 3,500 cases - a fraction of the more than 10,000 cases assigned to agents in 2000.
- 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, according to the P-I analysis, which was based on Justice Department data from 1996 through June 2006.
The DoJ and FBI prosecuted the hell out of the S&L scandal. They went after Enron. But now, they're going after loudmouth braggarts who couldn't have set off a cherry bomb without blowing off their fingers. And they're monitoring political dissidents.
The FBI is morphing back into what it was in the latter days of Hoover's reign as Director: An American Stasi.
We don't need another group of domestic spies. What we need is a Federal agency that enforces the sort of complex criminal laws that most states cannot. Cleaning up the crooks in the financial industry is a federal-level job.
But the FBI is asleep at the switch.
So if you're running some sort of really intricate swindle, like those allegedly run by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and the Bank of America, don't worry about going to jail. The worst that'll happen is that if the SEC catches you, you'll have to pay a bit of a fine and you'll be back at work the next day, scamming and stealing.
Because the Feebies are no longer on the case.
3 comments:
NSA + FBI, our Stasi is now complete.
Okay here's a stupid question, isn't protecting the public from being swindled and robbed by large criminal conspiracies (banks, private equity firms etc) part of national security?
Mike, you are forgetting the Washington D.C. definition of "national security", which is: "My Wall Street campaign contributors feel secure." They define "national" as "Wall Street and Beltway". The rest of the nation is "flyover country", what they fly over when jetting between Wall Street and the Beltway or between the Beltway and their vacation homes.
Naw, I'm not cynical, am I? :)
- Badtux the Cynical Penguin
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