The FBI Must Go

The following is a letter to the editor of Salon.com from "name withheld" published in Sept. 1999, but more relevant today than ever

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It has been an absolutely nauseating experience listening to the press spin alibis (for the past six years!) for the conduct of the FBI and the ATF at Waco in 1993. One of these agencies, the FBI, had a role in the MOVE firebombing in Philadelphia and during the siege at Wounded Knee; in both cases, the press was actively prevented from covering the story -- and corporate media sources twisted that story as soon as they were allowed to tell it. There are even indications that the FBI may have abetted the person(s) responsible for bombing Earth First-er Judi Bari's car.

In the past three decades, we have learned that the FBI lab is actually very poorly run and unreliable; that COINTELPRO-type operations not only did exist, but are in all likelihood ongoing; that the FBI both actively and passively assisted organized crime, going so far as to interfere in the operations of local and state police forces; and that the power and authority of the FBI were largely established by J. Edgar Hoover's blackmailing of congressmembers and others.

It is long past time that the FBI be dissolved, and their investigative function devolved to state and local authorities. The United States does not need a national police force; no KGB or Gestapo is required to coordinate the efforts of smaller-scale law enforcement agencies. A national databank of fingerprints, criminal records, etc. already exists; most states have agencies capable of rigorous investigation, and those that don't can borrow personnel under existing laws. The mystique of the Feds was largely created by Walter Winchell and by Hoover's manipulated statistics; today, knowing all that we do, we need not delude ourselves further. The FBI must go.

--name withheld