F.B.I. Agents to Be Allowed to Operate Under Disguise

According to the Oct. 4, Washington Post, the Justice Department has issued a set of new FBI guidelines which

"allows investigators to recruit informants, employ physical surveillance and conduct interviews in which agents disguise their identities in an effort to assess national security threats. FBI agents could pursue each of those steps without any single fact indicating a person has ties to a terrorist organization."

Of course, true criminals should be rooted out and brought to justice. But, evidence is mounting that the Bush administration, in its waning months, continues to implement police-state policies in virtually all areas of law enforcement. Can you imagine an F.B.I. which allows agents to disguise themselves and go out and investigate a citizen with no evidence that person has any ties to a "terrorist" organization? This has nothing to do with investigating terrorism. This is a tactic of authoritarian regimes the world over. "Going undercover" is a long-standing habit of law enforcement, though not without controversy. But going under-cover with no factual suspicion of a crime? That is not law enforcement. That is intimidation.

This is what the Bush administration is about: trying to tamp down dissent and to close an open society. (See earlier posts here on the work of Naomi Wolf.) We now have an army unit assigned to the United States. Much, much more can be said. Americans need to be aware and take appropriate action to oppose un-Constitutional and un-American activities by the government.