For months cities across this nation have been set ablaze. Anarchists and Marxists have destroyed police precincts, threatened public officials, engaged in assassinations of private citizens and police officers, and caused untold millions of dollars in damage. Organizations like Refuse Fascism, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and the Revolutionary Communist Party of the United States are openly calling for the complete overthrow of the existing political, social, and economic system and the establishment of a Communist state on our soil.
And, apparently, we find out what these enemies of the state intend when mobs appear, and the burning and looting begins. We receive seemingly no advance warning of any kind from our intelligence apparatus of impending attacks.
Let that sink in.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has the charter for domestic intelligence collection. It employs roughly 35,000 people. Those individuals are assigned to 56 separate field offices scattered across the country.
And none of these 35,000 individuals apparently has any idea what is happening inside the mass movement ripping the heart out of this great nation?
The firestorm sweeping the nation receives funding through well-known organizations like the Alliance for Global Justice, the Tides Foundation and George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. Yet, we are seemingly incapable of interdicting that funding or holding those providing it impossible.
The ongoing revolution is championed and directed by individuals like Bob Avakian, Tom Burke, Mick Kelly, and Sunsara Taylor who have been in the Marxist camp for decades. Many of them have their roots in the anti-war movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Yet, we allow them to operate freely on our soil and continue their efforts to overthrow the existing democratic republic.
The foot soldiers in this insurrection are largely twenty-something white kids of college-age. Some are committed, others less so. The vast majority are new to the business, recently recruited and paid nothing. Yet, we find it impossible to get sources inside this vast mass of leftists who could give us advance warning of attacks and tell us which city will go up in flames next.
Communications within this network take place over a variety of commercially available systems and applications. Most of the software in use is simply downloaded for free from the internet. Yet, our immense signals intelligence collection apparatus cannot penetrate this system and give us advance warning of plans and intentions?
It appears we can do nothing but wait for a riot to begin and then try desperately to contain it and limit the damage.
If this were happening to us on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan it would be shameful enough. That is happening here on our own soil is virtually incomprehensible. Our domestic intelligence collection apparatus is failing catastrophically.
This is not a reflection on the quality of our personnel or the quantity of resources available. We have the best people in the world, and we have plenty of them. The reasons for this failure are systemic and political.
The FBI – as currently constructed – is the wrong tool for this job. It is built for the purpose of investigating crimes that have already been committed and ensuring that they can be prosecuted in court. That requires slow, meticulous work carefully documented.
Intelligence work requires exactly the opposite approach. Especially when it comes to penetrating terrorist and insurgent groups what is needed is bold, decisive action as quickly as humanly possible. For years the FBI has claimed that it was making the changes necessary to transition to conduct such intelligence collection. Clearly, it has failed to do so.
Even when the Bureau attempts to take the necessary action against domestic groups, particularly those with a leftist ideology it is blocked from moving ahead. A decade ago, it conducted a massive investigation of members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, one of the groups tearing the nation apart right now. The Department of Justice (DOJ) – filled with individuals sympathetic to the cause of the Marxists targeted – failed to pursue a single prosecution.
Only a few years ago, the FBI announced a focus on what it labeled the Black Identity Movement, one of the wellsprings of today’s Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. The Bureau was condemned for this “racist” action and critics – up to the level of the U.S. Congress – intervened to prevent effective action by federal law enforcement.
We have frittered away precious time. Our republic is in peril. We have a Marxist revolution on our own soil, and we know almost nothing about it, its plans or intentions. That must change. Now.
The crisis in our domestic intelligence collection must be addressed at the highest levels of this government. The FBI must immediately modify its procedures and processes and begin to collect the intelligence we need or somebody else must be given the job of doing so. Attorney General Barr must take whatever action is necessary and issue whatever guidance is required to clear the decks, push obstructionist DOJ attorneys aside and allow us to move aggressively against individuals and organizations who are committing treason and threatening us all.
Without intelligence we are blind. We have been blind too long. That must change, and it must change now.
