FBI Entrapment and Weaponization

[kalm]

This lends credence to claims of right wing entrapment. I’m warming up to the idea that the FBI from top down needs to investigated and seriously shaken up…

HE YOUNG WOMAN with long pink hair claimed to be from Washington state. One day during the summer of 2020, she walked into the Chinook Center, a community space for left-wing activists in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and offered to volunteer.

“She dressed in a way that was sort of noticeable,” said Samantha Christiansen, a co-founder of the Chinook Center. But no one among the activists found that unusual or alarming; everyone has their own style. They accepted her into the community.

The pink-haired woman said her name was Chelsie. She also dropped regular hints about her chosen profession.

“She implied over the course of getting to know her that she was a sex worker,” said Jon Christiansen, Samantha’s husband and another co-founder of the Chinook Center.

“I think somebody else had told me that, and I just was like, ‘Oh, OK. That makes sense,’” said Autum Carter-Wallace, an activist in Colorado Springs. “I never questioned it.”

But Chelsie’s identity was as fake as her long pink hair. The young woman, whose real name is April Rogers, is a detective at the Colorado Springs Police Department. The FBI enlisted her to infiltrate and spy on racial justice groups during the summer of 2020.

April Rogers (left), a police officer who went undercover for the FBI in the Colorado Springs activist community, participated in a housing-rights march during which several activists were arrested.April Rogers, left, a police officer who went undercover for the FBI in the Colorado Springs activist community, participating in a housing-rights march during which several activists were arrested. Photo courtesy of Chinook Center.

The work of Rogers, or “Chelsie,” is a direct offshoot of the FBI’s summer of 2020 investigation in Denver, where Mickey Windecker, a paid FBI informant, drove a silver hearse, rose to a leadership role in the racial justice movement, and encouraged activists to become violent. Windecker provided information to the FBI about an activist who attended demonstrations in both Denver and Colorado Springs, prompting federal agents to launch a new investigation in the smaller Colorado city. I tell the story of Windecker and his FBI work, as well as the investigation in Colorado Springs, in “Alphabet Boys,” a 10-episode documentary podcast from Western Sound and iHeartPodcasts.
As the FBI’s Colorado Springs investigation reveals, Denver wasn’t the only city where federal agents infiltrated racial justice groups that summer. Working through the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership with local police, the FBI assembled files on local activists using information secretly gathered by Rogers.

Once Rogers gained trust among the activists, she tried to set up at least two young men in gun-running conspiracies. Her tactics mirrored those of Windecker, who tried to entrap two Denver racial justice activists in crimes, including an FBI-engineered plot to assassinate Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser that went nowhere.

To reveal what happened in Colorado Springs, I obtained search warrant applications, body-camera video from local police assisting the FBI investigation, and recordings of conversations involving federal agents; reviewed hundreds of pages of internal FBI records about Social Media Exploitation, a program federal agents used to monitor racial justice activists nationwide; and interviewed about a dozen activists who were targeted in the federal probe……..

Summey wrote a search warrant application for Armendariz Unzueta’s home. In it, he observed that demonstrators at the housing march carried red flags. “The red flag is significant in that it is a radical political symbol, and designates the march … as revolutionary and radical in nature,” he wrote, basing his claim on this website about red flags, which notes that “the red flag has, predominantly, become a symbol of socialism and communism.”

Summey’s application suggested that the FBI was using political ideology as a basis for investigation, which is against the bureau’s stated policy. “We don’t investigate ideology,” the FBI’s Director Christopher Wray told a Senate committee in 2019.

Summey also attached pictures of Armendariz Unzueta from social media, including a nearly full-page photo of her in a bikini that had no relevance to the investigation.

“Sometimes you’ve got to laugh to keep from crying,” Armendariz Unzueta told me when I asked her about it.

Police searched her home, took her bicycle and electronic devices, and charged her with attempted aggravated assault on a police officer — a second-degree felony.

https://theintercept.com/2023/03/21/fbi ... veillance/

[Winterborn]

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

The words "socialist, trade unionist, and Jew" can be replaced by multiple words these days. Power corrupts.....

[kalm]

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

The words "socialist, trade unionist, and Jew" can be replaced by multiple words these days. Power corrupts.....

Indeed. Give a little power and practically anyone can turn authoritarian.

[Winterborn]

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

The words "socialist, trade unionist, and Jew" can be replaced by multiple words these days. Power corrupts.....

Indeed. Give a little power and practically anyone can turn authoritarian.

It is why Justice is depicted blindfolded. That reason has become forgotten by most people in the quest to have their hurt feelings assuaged.

[GannonFan]

I want the FBI to be vigilant and even aggressive. Just also need to make sure whoever is supposed to be watching over them is also vigilant and aggressive.

[kalm]

Indeed. Give a little power and practically anyone can turn authoritarian.

It is why Justice is depicted blindfolded. That reason has become forgotten by most people in the quest to have their hurt feelings assuaged.

I think it’s also who we’ve become in part as an identity. We often champion the scoundrel. It’s only illegal if you get caught. Revenge and gotcha culture. Measuring success by arrest and incarceration rates. Unpunished financial and corporate crimes.

[houndawg]

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

The words "socialist, trade unionist, and Jew" can be replaced by multiple words these days. Power corrupts.....

no replacement needed, they're still on the list

[UNI88]

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

The words "socialist, trade unionist, and Jew" can be replaced by multiple words these days. Power corrupts.....

no replacement needed, they're still on someone’s list

FYP - there are other groups with others on their list.

Populists are on Biden’s list. Winter and I are on kalm’s list …


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[houndawg]

no replacement needed, they're still on someone’s list

FYP - there are other groups with others on their list.

Populists are on Biden’s list. Winter and I are on kalm’s list …


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mr. Born to be Mild is on somebody's list? Whatever for?

[houndawg]

Indeed. Give a little power and practically anyone can turn authoritarian.

It is why Justice is depicted blindfolded. That reason has become forgotten by most people in the quest to have their hurt feelings assuaged.

Yep, its amazing how many "Backers of the Blue" parrots have stfu about our heros when the rules get applied to them. The rest of us have known the FBI is crooked since at least Vietnam. Where have you people been all these years and why weren't you listening when the lefties were telling you the truth decades ago? Now you gotta live with it, kid.

[Ibanez]

Weaponization is overused. Republicans have weaponized the IRS and the HoR to investigate people they don't like as well as legal proceedings against Trump. Democrats weaponized the HoR against Trump b/c he was an asshole that won an election. They've muddled the waters so much that any investigation, even legit, is quickly covered in mud. And then they go on TV saying how it's wrong and people are tired of political games.

I don't put too much stock (or any) into any politician having the vapors over any alleged weaponization or the politicization of anything really. They all subscribe to " Rules For Thee but Not for Me." It's all fodder for their brainless bases to get amped up.

[houndawg]

Weaponization is overused. Republicans have weaponized the IRS and the HoR to investigate people they don't like as well as legal proceedings against Trump. Democrats weaponized the HoR against Trump b/c he was an asshole that won an election. They've muddled the waters so much that any investigation, even legit, is quickly covered in mud. And then they go on TV saying how it's wrong and people are tired of political games.

I don't put too much stock (or any) into any politician having the vapors over any alleged weaponization or the politicization of anything really. They all subscribe to " Rules For Thee but Not for Me." It's all fodder for their brainless bases to get amped up.

Trut so pure

[Winterborn]

Weaponization is overused. Republicans have weaponized the IRS and the HoR to investigate people they don't like as well as legal proceedings against Trump. Democrats weaponized the HoR against Trump b/c he was an asshole that won an election. They've muddled the waters so much that any investigation, even legit, is quickly covered in mud. And then they go on TV saying how it's wrong and people are tired of political games.

I don't put too much stock (or any) into any politician having the vapors over any alleged weaponization or the politicization of anything really. They all subscribe to " Rules For Thee but Not for Me." It's all fodder for their brainless bases to get amped up.

The joke in DC is if you want an investigation to go nowhere, you put a committee on it.

[kalm]

Weaponization is overused. Republicans have weaponized the IRS and the HoR to investigate people they don't like as well as legal proceedings against Trump. Democrats weaponized the HoR against Trump b/c he was an asshole that won an election. They've muddled the waters so much that any investigation, even legit, is quickly covered in mud. And then they go on TV saying how it's wrong and people are tired of political games.

I don't put too much stock (or any) into any politician having the vapors over any alleged weaponization or the politicization of anything really. They all subscribe to " Rules For Thee but Not for Me." It's all fodder for their brainless bases to get amped up.

The joke in DC is if you want an investigation to go nowhere, you put a committee on it.

Likely true…

However we do severely need a new and actual Church z committee.

Excellent read and historical backdrop here:

”After Republicans narrowly reclaimed the House majority, Republican Representative Jim Jordan—one of former President Trump’s most ardent allies—came forth with a noble-sounding proposal for the new Congress, the creation of what has now become the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Jordan referred to the group as a “new Church Committee,” a lofty comparison likening it to the blockbuster series of bipartisan investigations helmed by Idaho Democratic Senator Frank Church in 1975 and which cataloged decades’ worth of improprieties by the federal government that spanned multiple administrations.
The committee produced six hulking books containing more than 2,700 pages, covering thirty years of activity and constituting the most extensive investigation of the U.S. intelligence apparatus ever made available to the public. Shocking in its revelations, the final report alone documented brazen attacks on free speech, privacy, human rights, and democratic institutions, including the CIA’s unethical experiments with psychedelics, the FBI’s surveillance and infiltration of Black and other leftist radicals, and more. The Committee is considered the gold standard of Congressional inquiries for its breadth, rigor, and evenhandedness.
Jim Jordan’s use of the “Church” moniker, then, implies that his 21st-century committee would have a similarly exhaustive quality, tirelessly documenting decades worth of improprieties. But Jordan admitted that the group would primarily focus on the DOJ’s supposed “double standard” against conservatives—the idea that, in the words of Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, organizations like the FBI and DOJ “operate as vital partners of the left-wing political movement.”
Some of its main tasks, according to an interview from Jordan on Fox News, will be to poke holes in the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago, the government’s role in policing online disinformation, the Jan. 6 Capitol investigation, and the investigations into Trump’s dealings with the Russian government. While these activities do warrant oversight and accountability, they are far from the greatest overreaches the intelligence bureaucracy has made in even the last decade.

In fact, over the past decade, the FBI, CIA, and other tentacles of the executive branch bureaucracy have engaged in behaviors that rival the skullduggery of the Cold War era. But because many of these actions contradict or complicate the contrived image that Subcommittee members hope to paint of our intelligence agencies as a ruthless Marxist cabal set to persecute freedom-loving conservatives, Jordan and his henchmen will ignore them. And because these actions also complicate the image Jordan’s opponents have of these agencies as bastions of the Rule of Law against an increasingly lawless Republican party and misbehaving foreign heads of state, many Democrats will ignore them, too. Perhaps worst of all, to the uninformed viewer watching this play out, it might seem that the worst thing our intelligence agencies have done in the last decade or so is investigate Donald Trump too hard“

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/03/ ... st-century

[BDKJMU]

Weaponization is overused. Republicans have weaponized the IRS and the HoR to investigate people they don't like as well as legal proceedings against Trump. Democrats weaponized the HoR against Trump b/c he was an asshole that won an election. They've muddled the waters so much that any investigation, even legit, is quickly covered in mud. And then they go on TV saying how it's wrong and people are tired of political games.

I don't put too much stock (or any) into any politician having the vapors over any alleged weaponization or the politicization of anything really. They all subscribe to " Rules For Thee but Not for Me." It's all fodder for their brainless bases to get amped up.

So have the donks. Just go back to under Obama when numerous conservative groups were targeted.

[Ibanez]

Weaponization is overused. Republicans have weaponized the IRS and the HoR to investigate people they don't like as well as legal proceedings against Trump. Democrats weaponized the HoR against Trump b/c he was an asshole that won an election. They've muddled the waters so much that any investigation, even legit, is quickly covered in mud. And then they go on TV saying how it's wrong and people are tired of political games.

I don't put too much stock (or any) into any politician having the vapors over any alleged weaponization or the politicization of anything really. They all subscribe to " Rules For Thee but Not for Me." It's all fodder for their brainless bases to get amped up.

The joke in DC is if you want an investigation to go nowhere, you put a committee on it.

What is it called when a joke is reality....?

[Ibanez]

Weaponization is overused. Republicans have weaponized the IRS and the HoR to investigate people they don't like as well as legal proceedings against Trump. Democrats weaponized the HoR against Trump b/c he was an asshole that won an election. They've muddled the waters so much that any investigation, even legit, is quickly covered in mud. And then they go on TV saying how it's wrong and people are tired of political games.

I don't put too much stock (or any) into any politician having the vapors over any alleged weaponization or the politicization of anything really. They all subscribe to " Rules For Thee but Not for Me." It's all fodder for their brainless bases to get amped up.

So have the donks. Just go back to under Obama when numerous conservative groups were targeted.

I said the Democrats have done it as well. It goes back even further...the FBI has historically been weaponized (and abused its power). That doesn't make right. That sort of rationalization doesn't help your cause. It's the school yard equivalent of " he hit me first!"

Doesn't make it right and really doesn't give either side the high ground.