[identity profile] sophia-sadek.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] talkpolitics
Ali Soufan is a naturalized American citizen who recently published a memoir of his stint working for the FBI. He describes his experience interrogating members of al-Qaeda in order to obtain actionable intelligence on subsequent operations. He also details some of the more serious problems caused by "enhanced" interrogation methods and the practice of rendering suspects to despotic regimes. Soufan's memoir is a must-read for anyone looking for sinister activity on the part of the American intelligence community. The fact that Soufan found refuge in the private sector is a testament to the bitter in-fighting he encountered while working for the Bureau.

Soufan is not a typical Hoover boy. he does not fit the mold of the corn-fed fundamentalist Christian zealot that people think of when they think of the FBI. He did not grow up in the rabidly anti-Communist environment of the American bosom. He did not spend time kowtowing to the American flag each day as a young child. His wealth of experience made him an exceptional FBI officer.

J. Edgar Hoover once remarked that he refused to read the Washington Post because it reminded him of the Daily Worker. This gives you an idea of the closed nature of the mind at the top of the organization back in the day. When he was alive, people lived in fear of his ruthless methods. A visit from the FBI to the workplace often resulted in dismissal. Visits to neighbors could precipitate isolation of an entire family from a community. The Bureau used mere suspicion as a weapon against free thought and free association. The Bureau worked with local police forces to sow the seeds of internacine conflict among dissident groups. Ward Churchill documents some of their tactics in his book on the Bureau, Agents of Repression.

Soufan contrasts sharply with W. Cleon Skousen who fits the mold of the Hoover boy to a tee. The latter served as the inspiration for Glenn Beck and his brand of conspiracy crusading. It is refreshing to see that the Bureau has opened its ranks to a more cosmopolitan breed of recruits such as Soufan. It goes to show that reform is possible in the most unlikely places.

Do you have any experience with the tactics of the FBI?

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 16:34 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meus-ovatio.livejournal.com
Soufan is not a typical Hoover boy. he does not fit the mold of the corn-fed fundamentalist Christian zealot that people think of when they think of the FBI.
lolwhut?

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 16:52 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] paedraggaidin.livejournal.com
Heh, when I think of the FBI, I think of hard-drinking Irish Catholics from Boston, Chicago, and New York.

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 16:55 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meus-ovatio.livejournal.com
There's all kinds of tropes about the FBI, and "corn-fed Christian fundamentalist" ain't one of them. Someone is far too gone in their own soup to realize that their idiosyncratic world-view isn't very representative of other people's world-views.

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 16:59 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meus-ovatio.livejournal.com
"Corn-fed fundamentalist Christian zealots" can't compete with the Yaley, Harvard, Columbia, Standford and law-school trained white-collar types who make up the Federal Bureau of Accountants With Guns.

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 17:20 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] policraticus.livejournal.com
Someone is far too gone in their own soup to realize that their idiosyncratic world-view isn't very representative of other people's world-viewsreality.

There you go. All better.

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 18:30 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gunslnger.livejournal.com
Seriously.

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 17:31 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] telemann.livejournal.com
Heh I think of *THIS* FBI agent.

Image

(no subject)

Date: 21/3/12 03:03 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] existentme.livejournal.com
Excuse me, is that, is that a Duster! Why yes, yes, I think it is.

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 17:31 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] underlankers.livejournal.com
So the FBI is the family from Blue Bloods? ;P

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 17:24 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] telemann.livejournal.com
Totally. I don't get this.

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 17:31 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] underlankers.livejournal.com
Yeah, there's a lot that could be said about the Hoover-era FBI, but corn-fed and fundamentalist Christian zealot is nowhere in the list. Ol' J. Edgar Hoover had some particular quirks that would immediately disqualify him from *that* list.

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 18:05 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meus-ovatio.livejournal.com
Nothing says "fundie Christian" like "Mormon" amirite? (Skousen)

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 18:18 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] underlankers.livejournal.com
Dude, you expect basic research in this kind of thread? ;P

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 18:33 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meus-ovatio.livejournal.com
Well you know, he was an admin who eventually found himself spied upon by the very "Hoover boys" he is ostensibly representative of. Sophia is just getting way too sloppy, even for his/her usual grade of "sloppy".

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 18:48 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] underlankers.livejournal.com
Again, you bring the logic and reason with a flair.

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 17:30 (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 17:57 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] luvdovz.livejournal.com
Of course I have. We all do. Twin Peaks and The X-Files. Duh.

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 18:27 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com
Ward Churchill wrote a book? Were there any original ideas in it?

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 18:57 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meus-ovatio.livejournal.com
He was full of "original" ideas, in that "original" means "made up, fabricated, etc. etc."

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 19:56 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meus-ovatio.livejournal.com
Who said anything about cointelpro?

(no subject)

Date: 21/3/12 00:18 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] underlankers.livejournal.com
Man faked being a Native American, he deserved every bit of the flack he gets.

(no subject)

Date: 20/3/12 20:38 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] terminator44.livejournal.com
You've brought up at least three different tangents in this post and didn't go anywhere with any of them. Keep to one topic per post, dude. It'll be easier to absorb and discuss.

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