The Right of An FBI Agent To Commit Murder As Part Of His Duties

Yesterday I wrote of murders and FBI agents how they are alleged to have participated in murders and have intentionally taken actions that have led to people being murdered. They continue to bring murderers into their boat to investigate others. I wonder whether FBI agents can be authorized to kill people on behalf of the government.

Our executive, which is led by the president, has the right to empower our military and civilian agencies to kill people. This is an inherent right in the ability to seek a declaration of war from Congress or to protect us when our country is under threat of attack. We’ve seen the power extended to include wars that have not been declared but in which our military becomes involved.

We see it today in the continual use of drones where we kill persons believed to be our enemies in the War on Terror, namely members of Al Qaeda and their associate organizations.  The justification for these ongoing killings is put best by quoting Maud Gonne, the great Irish nationalist, who said:  “I have always hated war and am by nature and philosophy a pacifist, but it is the English who are forcing war on us, and the first principle of war is to kill the enemy.”

We accept this because the executive has an obligation to defend the Constitution of the United States.  A nation has a right to repel a threat to itself in the form of a deadly attack against it. This right is also given to the individual.  It’s called justifiable homicide or self-defense.

This right of the military to kill is accepted during declared wars such as WWII, during semi-declared war as under the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the Resolution against Al Qaeda, even to presidential decisions as we saw in Operation Urgent Fury.  Non military assets such as the CIA have been used to arrange that people be killed. The CIA was used in the fifties in Iran to overthrow the Iranian government and install the Shah.  It was used to overthrow the government of Guatemala.   Under President Kennedy it was used to set up the Bay of Pigs invasion. 

Evidence also shows that Kennedy authorized the coup which led to the 1963 murder of Ngo Dinh Diem in Vietnam. One advisor admitted to the Iran (he said Iraq) and South American coups by saying during a discussion of the coup against Diem: “I mean, it’s different from a coup in the Iraq or South American country; we are so intimately involved in this…” As to the CIA involvement, “The CIA also provided $42,000 in immediate support money to the plotters the morning of the coup” well before the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.

It is hard to justify the CIA’s actions in Iran, South America, and Vietnam as coming under the self-defense rationale.  These were taken to advance what were believed to be American goals in the world.

The wars against drugs and Mafia very much involve the use of police forces.  There have been killings in these wars and strange things have been done such as in Fast and Furious where high powerful guns were given to drug cartels which were used in killings.

The justification for giving the president the right to allow these things outside Congressional approval is set out in our Constitution under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution“The President … shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”  The right to pardon for crimes is the right to put some people above the law and allow people to commit crimes.

Alexander Hamilton, writing in Federalist No. 74,  spoke to this power saying. “It is not to be doubted, that a single man of prudence and good sense is better fitted, in delicate conjunctures, to balance the motives which may plead for and against the remission of the punishment, than any numerous body [Congress] whatever, . . .”

Pardons forgive criminals of their offenses even if no charges have been brought as we saw in the case of Richard Nixon  or even if the person was of the most disreputable character as Marc Rich  or the pardons were purchased through in-laws of President Clinton such as those of Glen Braswell and Carlos Vignali. 

President Obama allowed those who came before him in the Bush administration to be above the law with his pronouncement “we need to look forward and not back”  effectively pardoning those prior actions.

The FBI in its COINTELPRO set the groundwork for many to be killed.  At that time it was battling against the Communist Party, the New Left and persons considered black extremists.  It ran from 1956 until it was discovered shortly before Hoover’s death.  Although officially terminated, some allege it still continues.  A federal jury found in 2002 the FBI violated the civil rights of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney and awarded 4.4 million dollars in damage in a COINTELPRO type operation that took place in May, 1990.  There was little national news coverage of this verdict. The Los Angeles Times spoke of it just this year 22 years later.

The FBI operates as part of the executive. The history of its actions and the lack of prosecution of FBI agents suggests that they operate under the president’s imprimatur which covers any untoward results such as murders that come about as part of the actions of the agents while doing the job they have been assigned to them. I’d have to believe they can be authorized to kill people.

 

 

10 Comments

  1. If you are interested in another illegal FBI covert operation, one in which a public defender instructed me to either plead guilty to a misdemeanor or face possible involuntary commitment to a mental hospital, search for “Historic coverup of FBI and police crimes currently taking place”. Bill Anderson [email protected] Masters degree Harding University 1993

    • Bill:
      Thanks for the reference. I believe you sent it before and I read through it then. It’s an interesting story you have to tell.

  2. not a fan of billy

    i have always wondered why a frustrated mass state trooper or dea agent did not shoot whitey dead as they were trying to arrest him. i have read countless times of other cities new york, la, chicago, miami where frustrated law enforment took out major criminals. do you think that the job that billy bulger had as president of the mass state senate may have played a factor in whitey never being shot to death? as always very interesting info that you put out. i think your average american would hope , the fbi would not murder people but this is a new age and in the war on terror anything goes.

    • I don’t think anyone was that frustrated but from what I’ve seen of the DEA and Massachusetts State Police they play it straight. They want to catch him the right way, it makes it more of an accomplishment and they sleep well at night. I’ve said it before that Billy had no influence over DEA, state police, or local police in their pursuit of Whitey. You can tell this because they were continually after him. The reason they were frustrated was the FBI and that’s why they wouldn’t cooperate with the FBI after a while, although some still did.
      You have to keep in mind also that no one can investigate the FBI. If you could do whatever you wanted to do and no one could tell you otherwise them you might think differently than you do. Also remember that no one in the public knew anything about the murders that we now know about until the late ’90s when the rats started to open their mouths.

  3. Keep posting. The information is excellent. In 1953 Iran had elected a president ( Mossadeq). He proposed that the oil resources of the country be nationalized. The Brits who controlled said concession through BP couldn’t stand for that so they persuaded the CIA to oust him and put in the Shah. It is to be expected that the Iranians would look unfavorably on the USA. While IKE blundered there he was very erudite in other areas. When the French asked him to bomb the Vietminh he declined. Two later presidents stumbled into the Vietnam war( JFK and LBJ)). Fools rush in. IKE also ended the Korean war and stopped the Brits, French and Israelies in their attempt in 1956 to seize Suez. IKE said we should never dissipate American military strength on small wars. Yet we have had a series of Presidents who did just that. Bush 41 in Panama and the Gulf. Clinton in Serbia and Somalia, Bush 43 in Iraq and Obama in Afghanistan and Libyia. 2. You note that the FBI had a practice of lying.even when they didn’t have to. The historian Robert Caro pointed out a similar characteristic about LBJ.He said he was an inveterate liar who lied even when it was unnecessary. Is that the nature of Government and Power? Or is it just abuse? 3.What happened to Connolly in Fla. was a disgrace. The FBI betrayed and abandoned him just as Foley, O’Donovan and the State Police did to Naimovich.. Both of those framed cops were similar to the characters in the movie ” Breaker Morant”. The film was based on the book “Scapegoats of the Empire” That is exactly what those two honest cops were.3. If the FBI was involved in the beating death of that guy in Oklahoma should they be held accountable? What if they had a torture warrant from Professor Torture? 4. You claim that the Mafia is a shell of itself today. Is that because the FBI put the top 150 LCN dons in prison in the 80s or is there some other factor? If they are a shell why has Heroin trafficking which LCN controls doubled over the last 18 years?

    • 1. You know your history well. Ike did authorized the overthrow of the ruling powers in Iran and Guatemala as you point out but as he sat in the seat of power he became wise eventually warning us of the industrial/military (education) complex which warning was ignored. Kennedy got off track and LBJ was the most crooked president we ever had. There’s this idea that unless you have a war you will never be considered a great president. History teaches us otherwise but the lack of education in history in our leaders and our country make us live as if nothing happened yesterday.
      2. LBJ as I wrote disgraced the Silver Star by claiming he won it when he was never in danger. He and McArthur put the fix in. As I said he was far and away the worst president we ever had. Only Spiro Agnew had a chance to be worse. It’s not the nature of the job, it’s the person in the job. I don’t think the last Bush was corrupt but really was unaware of what was going on around him.
      3. I agree about what happened to Connolly was outrageous (and as you know I’m no fan of Connolly) because he was tried by a state for his conduct as an FBI agent. Unheard of! But you know what, no one ever raised the issue and to this very moment Connolly’s lawyers are unaware of it.
      3. If Professor Torture’s warrant was given and the FBI had the authority to torture that Vietnam vet then they could argue the vet was collateral damage. Professor Torture also said of Demanjuk that it didn’t matter if he was not Ivan the Terrible he should be executed anyway. He’s opinions are collateral damage to the truth.
      4. The FBI did destroy the Mafia. In doing it – well let me tell you what a Boston cop said to me when I was having lunch with him in Boston a few years back. He said the biggest organized crime group in America was located at Central Plaza in Boston. The FBI did a good job but became like the Mafia itself violating the law and empowering others to act like the Mafia. The remnants of the Mafia are still involved in heroin trafficking thanks to the FBI. Rossetti a FBI protected informant was a big heroin dealer. Probably the reason the increase is because all the heroin dealers are FBI informants and the FBi if keeping them safe.

  4. The question that I have asked re John Iuele as an alias used by James Bulger has not been resolved. However, there is substantial credible evidence to lead me to believe the alias does attach. If this is found to be the case, then I would request that an immediate investigation be opened into my complaint. Jean Allan Sovik

    • I think the prosecutor or defense counsel would know of all the aliases that Bulger used. It may come out at his trial. If I find out I’ll keep you posted.