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How The IRS & Homeland Security Are Expanding Undercover Work
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Those guidelines apply only to the law enforcement agencies overseen by the Justice Department. Within the Treasury Department, undercover agents at the I.R.S., for example, appear to have far more latitude than do those at many other agencies. I.R.S. rules say that, with prior approval, “an undercover employee or cooperating private individual may pose as an attorney, physician, clergyman or member of the news media.”
Across the federal government, undercover work has become common enough that undercover agents sometimes find themselves investigating a supposed criminal who turns out to be someone from a different agency, law enforcement officials said. In a few situations, agents have even drawn their weapons on each other before realizing that both worked for the federal government.
- From the New York Times article: More Federal Agencies Are Using Undercover Operations
If this article doesn’t prove to you without a shadow of a doubt what the prosecutorial priorities of the U.S. federal government are I don’t know what will. I have been railing for years on this site about how the rule of law is dead and buried in the USA. How the “justice” system is targeting average citizens for non crimes, while allowing the large financial criminals responsible for destroying the global economy to get off on DPAs, or deferred prosecution agreements originally crafted to deal with juveniles (see: The U.S. Department of Justice Handles Banker Criminals Like Juvenile Offenders…Literally).
Further proof of this very disturbing trend can be seen in an article published by the New York Times over the weekend. Here are some excerpts:
WASHINGTON — The federal government has significantly expanded undercover operations in recent years, with officers from at least 40 agencies posing as business people, welfare recipients, political protesters and even doctors or ministers to ferret out wrongdoing, records and interviews show.
Wow, impressive. Even more impressive is the continued inability to put a single bank executive behind bars.
At the Supreme Court, small teams of undercover officers dress as students at large demonstrations outside the courthouse and join the protests to look for suspicious activity, according to officials familiar with the practice.
Ah, now we know why no bankers are in jail. Because dissent from the plebs poses a far greater threat to the corporate-fascist state.
At the Internal Revenue Service, dozens of undercover agents chase suspected tax evaders worldwide, by posing as tax preparers, accountants drug dealers or yacht buyers and more, court records show.
At the Agriculture Department, more than 100 undercover agents pose as food stamp recipients at thousands of neighborhood stores to spot suspicious vendors and fraud, officials said.
I guess I must have missed the section about the hundreds of agents embedded in TBTF banks.
Undercover work, inherently invasive and sometimes dangerous, was once largely the domain of the F.B.I. and a few other law enforcement agencies at the federal level. But outside public view, changes in policies and tactics over the last decade have resulted in undercover teams run by agencies in virtually every corner of the federal government, according to officials, former agents and documents.
Some agency officials say such operations give them a powerful new tool to gather evidence in ways that standard law enforcement methods do not offer, leading to more prosecutions.
“Done right, undercover work can be a very effective law enforcement method, but it carries serious risks and should only be undertaken with proper training, supervision and oversight,” said Michael German, a former F.B.I. undercover agent who is a fellow at New York University’s law school. “Ultimately it is government deceitfulness and participation in criminal activity, which is only justifiable when it is used to resolve the most serious crimes.”
At least they are focused on the most serious of crimes. You know, like illegal alcohol and cigarette sales.
At convenience stores, for example, undercover agents, sometimes using actual minors as decoys, look for illegal alcohol and cigarette sales, records show. At the Education Department, undercover agents of the Office of Inspector General infiltrate federally funded education programs looking for financial fraud. Medicare investigators sometimes pose as patients to gather evidence against health care providers. Officers at the Small Business Administration, NASA and the Smithsonian do undercover work as well, records show.
Mr. Hunker said sending federal and local agents undercover to meet with suspected money launderers “is a more direct approach than getting a tip and going out and doing all the legwork and going into a court mode.”
Those guidelines apply only to the law enforcement agencies overseen by the Justice Department. Within the Treasury Department, undercover agents at the I.R.S., for example, appear to have far more latitude than do those at many other agencies. I.R.S. rules say that, with prior approval, “an undercover employee or cooperating private individual may pose as an attorney, physician, clergyman or member of the news media.”
Yes you read that right, IRS agents “appear to have far more latitude than do those at many other agencies.” Must be a reward for targeting conservative political groups.
Oversight, though, can be minimal. A special committee meant to oversee undercover investigations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, for instance, did not meet in nearly seven years, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general. That inquiry found that more than $127 million worth of cigarettes purchased by the bureau disappeared in a series of undercover investigations that were aimed at tracing the black-market smuggling of cigarettes.
Well at least someone is getting paid…
Financial oversight was found lacking in the I.R.S.’s undercover operations as well. Detailed reviews of the money spent in some of its undercover operations took as long as four and a half years to complete, according to a 2012 review by the Treasury Department’s inspector general.
Does it get any more ironic than that?
Across the federal government, undercover work has become common enough that undercover agents sometimes find themselves investigating a supposed criminal who turns out to be someone from a different agency, law enforcement officials said. In a few situations, agents have even drawn their weapons on each other before realizing that both worked for the federal government.
It is impossible to tell how effective the government’s operations are or evaluate whether the benefits outweigh the costs, since little information about them is publicly disclosed. Most federal agencies declined to discuss the number of undercover agents they employed or the types of investigations they handled. The numbers are considered confidential and are not listed in public budget documents, and even Justice Department officials say they are uncertain how many agents work undercover.
Can’t make this stuff up if you tried.
But current and former law enforcement officials said the number of federal agents doing such work appeared to total well into the thousands, with many agencies beefing up their ranks in recent years, or starting new undercover units. An intelligence official at the Department of Homeland Security, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters, said the agency alone spent $100 million annually on its undercover operations. With large numbers of undercover agents at the F.B.I. and elsewhere, the costs could reach hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
As an example of a case the DHS worked on, read this post: “War on Terror” Targets Underwear – Department of Homeland Security Raids Maker of Unlicensed World Series Panties.
A Supreme Court spokesman, citing a policy of not discussing security practices, declined to talk about the use of undercover officers. Mr. German, the former F.B.I. undercover agent, said he was troubled to learn that the Supreme Court routinely used undercover officers to pose as demonstrators and monitor large protests.
“There is a danger to democracy,” he said, “in having police infiltrate protests when there isn’t a reasonable basis to suspect criminality.”
Just another day in the American oligarchy.
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They didn't buy all those hollow points for deer hunting.
Deer (in the headlights) taxpayer, it has come to our attention that you feel we are an illegitimate agency and therefore owe us nothing....
They were infiltrating Vietnam war protests with agents-provocateurs back when. Hell, i remember even being called by name to "join in" by people I didn't even know and when asked one how he knew me, he said we know all about you "Knukles"
this NYT article is possibly simply a psy-op ... i see no real supporting evidence (links, names, etc) supporting any of the article's claims , just alot of "unnamed officials" , "court documents" , "former agents" etc etc ... let me say that i don't for a microsecond put this kind of 1984-ish illegal immoral behavior past our .gov , but just sayin...potentially a psy-op plant in a widely-followed(and elite-controlled) media source ... thoughts ? ?
irony is that American are left with no place in the world to hide. doomed.
Huh? What about all those countries we freedomed, democratilized and asymetrically liberotomized?
Those people LOVE us. They'll throw us a frickin' parade when we bug out to wherever that is.
That's the benefit of being the most admired nation on earth (well, right after Israel).
People participating in this blog should ask to the author of that piece of garbage how much money he owes in credit cards, mortgage, car and student loans and if that loser has been punctually filing his tax returns with the IRS. Appealing to patriotic bullshit seems to be the marketing technique used by the good-for-nothing of Mike Krieger to make some money.
I like your dictionary
Be safe: Walk with FATCA
"irony is that Americans are left with no place in the world to hide. doomed."
You can say that again! US expats be aware:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/11/us-banks-expats-idUSKBN0EM16V2...
I worked for a hospital that had the exclusive contract to do lab work for the city jails for 5 years. Over that time got a good understanding of the hard core criminals and where they were coming from. Most were frequent fliers. None were Joe average Americans. This could be stopped if they cared to stop it. However, there is no money in that.
I can see how this collected information on average people could be far more lucrative in the long term.
Miffed
There is a lot of money for a lot of people in locking other people up. Phony undercover cops get paid. Jailers get paid. Judges, baillifs, court reporters, etc. get paid. Lawyers get paid. We have become the soviet union where we have imprisoned thousands for economnic and regulatory crimes, for having the wrong opinions, and for not bowing down.
The information collection just allows them to be more precise in chosing their targets to feed the prison beast. The people that participate in this system, the prosecutors, defense attorney's, judges, and "law enforcement" officers are, often, the most despicable people you can meet - and the most banal and drone-like.
NYT has always been a bankster propaganda front.
Face it, the majority of people in this country, it would seem, would rather life as serfs taking benefits from their feudal lord than live an honest life of work and reward. So I say you get what you had coming to you, and everyone that gets caught up in this by some overzealous undercover government douchebag needs to learn the hard lesson that you do not go along to get along.
Sometimes you gotta make a choice and stick with it. Shun, shame and deny those who take the public benefits, the handouts from the Rapacious Mollech, for they are the destroyers of this world. If you don't, just know that it was all lost...because of you.
I am Chumbawamba.
Karl Rove was head of the Young repubicans during the Viet Nam war. He was the dirty trickster for the right wing. Hence the "protesters" spitting on returning soldiers. You will find them all the way through including OWS. "The dirty hippies".
The stories of people spitting on returning veterans of the Vietnam war are urban legends. No on ever seems to have witnessed it first hand.
If it ever happened it would have been quickly followed by a "hippie gets beaten to death by angy veteran" story.
THey were certainly called baby killers.
They surely wouldn't shoot their own countrymen if they where told to do so...
I'm sure Hitler is a fine chap and is in it for the greater good.
All for the greater good of a free and just society for all
Honestly
Ultimately one day people will curse Hitler for doing a sloppy job.
“There is a danger to democracy,” he said, “in having police infiltrate protests when there isn’t a reasonable basis to suspect criminality.”
American democracy died decades ago. Now we have a fascist, police state where only the 0.1% matter and they have more wealth than the bottom 90%.
The NSA spies on Congress, Supreme Court, White House and you all the time. The Department of Homeland Security with its $60 billion annual budget is there to terrify you. Fluoride was first used by Hitler to sap the will of prisoners so they stop trying to escape. Despite being a developmental toxin and being completely banned in Israel it is still being added to drinking water in the land of the free. The Patriot Act and NDAA have shredded any pretense of freedom or democracy. The police have been militarized and can commit highway robbery - $2.5 billion liberated so far.
If democracy exists in America, it exists only in the American dream. But you have to be asleep to experience it.
The Praetorian Class.
Just wait until that Cadillac tax from Obamacare hits next year. IRS agents will be posing as gyno's ready to see if your ladies are hiding any cash in their camel toes.
This country is startng to give Nazi Germany and the USSR a good name in the footnotes of history.
And about them Nazis; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnu5uW9No8g
IRS & Homeland reply, ‘I had something of a pain in the gulliver so had to sleep’
Senate Report 113-198 - DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS BILL, 2015 TAX-BASED CITIZENSHIP RENUNCIANTS Under section 212(a)(10)(E) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Department of Homeland Security has the authority to deny admission to former U.S. citizens that are deemed to have expatriated for purposes of tax avoidance. In over a decade, the Department has not issued regulations nor has it undertaken any significant steps to enforce this provision. The Committee directs the Secretary to report within 90 days on the steps the Department is undertaking to enforce this law, including a schedule for issuing guidance or regulations, if necessary.
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/113th-congress/senate-repo...
As long as we don't have any corporations trying to pull off that kind of scam...
Structuring Israeli/U.S. Intercompany Relationships to Minimize (Eliminate) U.S. Taxes
by Lewis J. Greenwald and David H. Kaplan1
It's ok, as long as ZOG types are in charge ie Chertoff, Lerner,Lerner's Boss etc... they always have your back...
Lets talk money, thanks to information leaked by Edward Snowden we found out the "black budget" last year was a massive 52 billion dollars. This is the money used in "secret" spy operations.
This is enough to send shivers down the back of those that have read about the totalitarian society of Oceania described in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In Orwell's novel, all citizens of Oceania are monitored by cameras and are fed fabricated news stories by the government. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/09/are-we-creating-orwellian-society.html
Collapse or reset/revolt cannot come soon enough. Fuck this place and the assholes ru(i)nning it.
Leaking this stuff out is a great way to make people fear getting organized.
It also teaches people to censor themselves.
(Jimmy Swaggart says hallelujah!)
Well screw that. I think that all these unlawful law enforcement turds (prosecutors and judges included) should off themselves. They only win when we are afraid to speak out. There is not a federal judge who is not a criminal. There is not a federal prosecutor who is not a criminal. I will not censor myself.
exactly , like i said above...psy-ops101 . good chance this whole NYT article is all fluff , made up to spook the sheep , stifle dissent. note the article is full of "unnamed officials" , "court documents" , "former agents" , blah blah ...
part of jeremy bentham's panopticon.
every prisoner surrounded by dark windows - may be empty, maybe not.
welcome to the vast machine.
The greatest contradiction in my mind is the fact that liberties have been eroded to such an extent in a country that has its citizenry armed to the teeth. I am not advocating that they pull out their gunds and use them, but the intellectual and moral decline of the average American leaves me almost breathless and stunned.
perhaps you're taking as average the americans that get noticed.
maybe the unnoticed ones are paying attention, and can be expected to emerge... soon.
Umm, if an IRS agent is undercover as a priest, and I give him my religious confession, I'll bet the government will, at trial, say that the clergy-penitent privilege does not apply, since the agent wasn't a real priest.
The whole idea behind confessions is to collect info. The bible says nothing about confessing to a pervy priest.
If the shithead IRS agent will lie about being a priest he will lie about everything else. Got a recording? Right, they can "record" you saying anything they want you to say with digital technology. The non-violent power we have resides in the jury and they way to reach them is before anyone goes to jury selection. Never vote guilty for any consensual "crime." Never vote guilty for a tax crime.
I feel so much safer. They need to double or triple hiring.
They certainly are paying attention to Ferguson.
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/11/18/navy-veteran-fired-for-posting-pho...
Notice how many commentators support his ex-employer's position (and how many "up-votes" their comments have garnered, presumably in support from other "like-minded Citizens").
If you're expecting their "support" when the truth comes out, maybe you'll need to think again . . . . . .
In the new and not so improved USSA you've got to consider your fellow comrade as a cell mate - be careful what you say, he might be a jailhouse snitch.
So is Ferguson a "Free Speech Zone" or not?
It's all just business as usual until the shit really hits the fan.
When the people rise up fo real, anyone above the rank of junior file clerk in local, state, and federal government will be ducking for cover and running for their lives.
this shit is for real. At a low point in my life, I was waiting tables at a corporate chain and they'd send underage guys in there trying to buy alchohol and they'd bust your ass if you sold it to them.
Went to the original Tea Party rally and my dad and I were randomly approached by a very talkative gentleman.
He took a turn to the extreme (i.e. discussing violence, and gauging our opinion) very quickly.
We believed he was probably a plant -- there was just something "off" about how it all happened.
If we had an informed, educated citizenry none of this would be going on. For example, Obama said we would have a discussion about NSA spying. Have you seen any such thing? Participated in it? It is just all bullshit all the time and no one is buying it anymore.
They've been doing this for many years, it's hardly new. I remember being at a gun show in the 90s and had some guy try to sell me C4, and it was obvious it was a plant/setup by the ATF, because who the fuck walks up to random people at a gunshow trying to offload clearly illegal explosives?
This is why you always hear about the Fed's latest terrorism busts and a few weeks later buried in the back pages is a discussion with the poor bastard's family about how great a guy he was supporting himself even though he was mentally retarded.
Ya know, I am not crazy about having secret squirrel monitoring all of my internet and phone traffic. It causes havoc when trying to change things with my internet provider (as I am currently finding out ...all of the up front people are simply mystified as to why they cannot get things working).
But, it is what it is. Do they have so much excess capacity to monitor benign non-power-seeking nobodies?. Guess so.
I imagine they are on double-overtime in Ferguson, Missouri.
There are so many freaking laws on the books already that even a Trappest Monk breaks a dozen of them each day.
If .gov wants your ass in an orange jumpsuit, they will have no trouble finding a reason to send a testosterone-crazed SWAT team into your bedroom.
Government started looking at blackmarket money when they became
aware that they were indentured servants after Henry Paulson sold them down the river with private bank bailouts. TARP was the beginning of BIG Government search for survival and mo money streams for the gubberment coffers. Pre-2008 the government knew how much it was losing in tax, but they were making money hand over fist so they did not care. Post-2008 governments all over the planet have lost revenue and tax base leading them on a mass search for any sort of monetary gains they can muster. Moreover, governments do not have the funding or manpower to investigate fraud in a superstructure that is itself built on a more complex fraud that serves the ruling classless kleptocrats. This article paints an incorrect picture of the degree to which BIG Government is actively involved in the investigation of black market activity in North America. The simple truth of the matter is that government cannot afford to hire enough investigators to effectively control the activity in any meaningful way. Whatever investment BIG government makes into blackmarket activity is always paltry in comparison with the actual investments needed to make a difference or a dent. Governments typically do not reveal their tactics because if the people knew how little they track blackmarket activity the people would likely invest more in it themselves. Lastly, government is involved in blackmarket activity at all levels because government is criminally based and corrupt to the core of their mandates to fleece the people.
All of these oppressive ideas are imported from the continent of Europe and are obviously foreign. That they have taken root over here is regrettable but not irreversible.
We'll knock them over and then..
http://youtu.be/veYIbxaU0A8
We'll get the guys in back of them
http://youtu.be/i5oWH6JWBJY