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I remember as a kid that everyone wanted to be a G man. The guy in a crisp white shirt, suit and tie that could solve any crime. Granted, J. Edgar Hoover ran the FBI with an iron fist, had dirt on every potential enemy and apparently had some unusual habits. Efrem Zimbalist Jr. was the perfect image at the time. What happened and why?
 
Posts: 17177 | Location: Stuck at home | Registered: January 02, 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Oriental Redneck
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Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
.... What happened and why?

Politicians took over.


Q






 
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Cogito Ergo Sum
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^^^^^^^
Nailed it!
 
Posts: 5691 | Registered: August 01, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Freethinker
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I won’t argue that some things changed in very fundamental ways, but the FBI has been criticized many times in the past, and did things in the past that would be unacceptable—not to mention felony crimes if the movie was accurate—today (at least to outsiders).

The COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) was an active measures operation started in the mid-1950s that was originally directed at US communists. Somewhat later it was expanded to include the Ku Klux Klan (among others). All that was fine with the people who knew about it at the time—who could object to targeting a bunch of racist southerners (except for those targeted, of course)?
At one point, though, it also targeted the civil rights movement, including ML King Jr. Then it became unacceptable and the FBI was heavily criticized for continuing to do much the same things that were applauded earlier.

As I’ve mentioned before, the science fiction editor John W. Campbell reportedly observed, “It is not power which corrupts, but immunity.” When the FBI has been given immunity for what it does, some of its people have been corrupted. I believe the organization still consists of many excellent people who do excellent things. What’s the chance that an agent chasing bank robbers in Topeka knew anything about, much less was involved, in the corruption that occurred prior to the last election?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sigfreund,




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Posts: 47365 | Location: 10,150 Feet Above Sea Level in Colorado | Registered: April 04, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Just because you can,
doesn't mean you should
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I know there are good people there then and now but a lot of other stuff happens we don't know and never will.
The taxpayers and the good agents deserve better.
We'll never hear all the J. Edgar Hoover stuff but I hope some of the recent stuff doesn't go unpunished.


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I believe in the
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That was TV, no more reflective of actual real life than Ozzie and Harriet.

There were and always have been dedicated, hard working, scrupulously straight agents, but there have also been some working both sides of the street.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
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Some clown lost the neutralizer, so they can’t cover up the mistakes...



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quarter MOA visionary
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It's never been the same since Efrem Zimbalist Jr. left.
 
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A fish rots from the head down. Comey before him Mueller for 12 years.


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Posts: 13386 | Location: Bottom of Lake Washington | Registered: March 06, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I worked with many FBI agents in the field over the years and as a group have found them to be conscientious and patriots of the first order. That said I can tell you my friends in FBI have been consistently critical of the upper echelons. Far too many of those people have succumbed to Potomac Fever.


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Sigforum K9 handler
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quote:
Originally posted by HayesGreener:
I worked with many FBI agents in the field over the years and as a group have found them to be conscientious and patriots of the first order. That said I can tell you my friends in FBI have been consistently critical of the upper echelons. Far too many of those people have succumbed to Potomac Fever.


Yep. This. But, virtually every alphabet agency I work with are the same. We work a lot with the USMS and ATF. Great bunch of guys.




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Posts: 37084 | Location: Logical | Registered: September 12, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Only dead fish
go with the flow
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Everyone likes to sing the praises of the lower-level agents in these agencies. I guess that's the politically correct thing to do. But other than some whispered criticism of "management" that comes to us second hand via anecdotal accounts, what have these people actually done about the corruption in their own backyard?

The major players in these agencies could not have insulated themselves to the extent that no one else in the club has information or evidence of wrongdoing.
 
Posts: 1517 | Registered: March 25, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Originally posted by pessimist:
I guess that's the politically correct thing to do. But other than some whispered criticism of "management" that comes to us second hand via anecdotal accounts, what have these people actually done about the corruption in their own backyard?

The major players in these agencies could not have insulated themselves to the extent that no one else in the club has information or evidence of wrongdoing.


It's actually not PC to opine on the honesty, valor, and work ethic of the lower-level agents... it's just facts. If you've ever spent time in the military I can provide a good analogy:

You're a young troop that has been in the military for less than five years. You are TAUGHT that you're supposed to do something a certain way at basic and advanced schools. You are TAUGHT to follow orders and respect the rank/experience of those Sergeants and Officers above you.

One day you see "something" that appears to be in direct contradiction to what you were TAUGHT in the previous years. You bring it to the attention of your Sergeants, then Officers in the chain of command. They tell you that what you were TAUGHT is indeed correct, but to follow orders and do it a different way, or disregard previous training. Not wanting to piss off the chain of command, and believing that you're following orders, and seeking a promotion.... you conform.

End of story.
 
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Now in Florida
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It's O'Sullivan's Law....Any institution that is not explicitly right wing will become left wing over time

O'Sullivan was the former editor of the National Review.
 
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