The release of the Twitter files has confirmed that the FBI and the intelligence community were collaborating with the social media titan on “content moderation” – or more precisely, censorship. Journalist Matt Taibbi sums it up: “Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary.” Further, “Federal intelligence and law enforcement reach into Twitter included the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which partnered with security contractors and think tanks to pressure Twitter to moderate content.”
The FBI has established prudent and pragmatic relationships with private sector industries through the Bureau’s InfraGard program, “a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and members of the private sector for the protection of U.S. Critical Infrastructure.”
Along with the DHS, the FBI informs key sector organizations of emerging cyber, terror, espionage, physical, and other threats identified through the government’s intelligence collection activities. Likewise, private sector entities provide the FBI with tips, trends and anomalies within their operational space.
Government warnings are shared with critical infrastructure owners, operators, and stakeholders usually through unclassified reports and assessments broadly disseminated within the industry. This kind of prudent public/private engagement safeguards the nation’s essential functions.
However, the FBI would never clandestinely assume the role as a “Director of Operations” for private corporations to determine what products, services, or information are suitable for public consumption, until now. The Twitter files not only exposed the FBI’s role in killing the New York Post’s Hunter Biden story before an election, but also its contempt of Constitutional prohibitions on government suppression of First Amendment-protected speech.
Despite possessing Hunter Biden’s laptop since December 2019, the FBI convinced Twitter through meetings with Twitter Head of Site Integrity Yoel Roth that the New York Post bombshell on Oct. 14, 2020, was Russian disinfo. However, according to Congressional whistleblowers, the FBI never even examined the Biden laptop until after the 2020 election.
Twitter’s strategic hire, former FBI General Counsel Jim Baker, added his support for Twitter’s suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop. As the FBI/Twitter mind meld neared completion, other content viewed as counter to the political objectives of the company, FBI and the Biden campaign, was also moderated away. Finally, a collective blackout by major media outlets refusing to cover or report on the Twitter file revelations. Is there a pattern here?
Retired agents, like myself, have decades of experience and intimate knowledge of the FBI’s mission and traditions. In our day, agents never voiced political views in the office or on public forums because personal politics or ideology didn’t matter – only evidence. Being an FBI agent wasn’t just a career choice, but a lifestyle commitment. An agent’s integrity is everything.
Certain basic ground rules were universally observed. FBI agents didn’t “leak” to the media. They didn’t lie. The Justice Department issued statements. Before applying the FBI’s immense power and authority, agents had to certify that their investigative activity was pursuant to a violation of federal law — no fishing expeditions for potential violations. In short, we played by the rules. But that’s changed. Here are a few highlights:
An egocentric Deputy Director of the FBI leaks to the media, blames others, and lies to his own agents investigating it.
Bureau executives approve multiple FISA warrants, to investigate a presidential campaign, relying on the debunked Steele dossier and an FBI attorney’s false statement.
FBIHQ officials interview Trump’s National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, about lawful conversations with a Russian official captured by the FBI. Flynn is charged with false statements.
A senior FBI official at the Washington DC field office posts hyper-partisan rants on social media which bear directly on “matters under the FBI’s purview.”
FBIHQ reportedly “suggested” to the agents who uncovered the damaging Hunter Biden material that their reporting “was at risk of disinformation.”
The FBI raided the homes of journalists to recover Ashley Biden’s diary. When did personal diaries become an FBI priority?
There’s more, but you get the idea.
As former agents, we recall how we applied for, and executed, search warrants, interviewed witnesses, surveilled targets, drafted FISA applications, conducted arrests, drafted 302’s, testified in Grand Jury and Court, and worked with our federal prosecutors. Investigations were run from local field offices, not FBI headquarters.
After 9/11, the FBI realigned its operations. Terrorism investigations were then micromanaged from FBIHQ, undercutting local field offices’ independence and agility. Feeding the (HQ) beast came at the cost of investigative focus.When briefing the chain of command, accuracy and nuance were lost. The command-and-control emanating from FBIHQ continues today with even more disastrous consequences.
In our efforts to understand the Bureau’s constant failures, we are confounded and troubled by the organization we believed in and dedicated much of our lives to. Even the current Director seems more like a passive spectator than a dynamic leader instituting corrective measures.
How can an organization with an international reputation for discipline and integrity become so inept and unbalanced? The FBI has cultivated a new generation of leaders – executive decision makers with a fundamentally skewed notion of the FBI’s role and mission. It has abandoned adherence to the rule of law and Bureau traditions, allowing itself and the organization to become an enforcement arm of the current administration. Their calling is far different from ours.
As divided as many are on the FBI’s conduct, threats of violence towards agents and other law enforcement officials are reckless and only encourage the unstable to act out. A healthy democracy allows for the legitimate questioning of our institutions and holds them accountable, not burn them down.
America needs a competent and trustworthy FBI that rigorously adheres to the core values it espouses, and backed by a Justice Department that applies the rule of law impartially, “without fear or favor.”
Fortunately, the foundational underpinnings of the FBI remain solid and intact. Each day, despite threats of violence and the profound disillusionment of the American people, FBI field agents quietly execute the Bureau’s mission with fidelity, bravery and integrity. Some agents have taken the courageous step of becoming Congressional whistleblowers, calling out those who have betrayed their oath and the American people. The leadership may be the problem, but don’t blame those who are trying to fix it.
Mark D. Ferbrache served as an FBI special agent for 27 years specializing in white-collar criminal investigations. He later worked in the bureau’s National Security Division and CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, and held diplomatic assignments in Prague, London and Bucharest, as well as field office assignments in Seattle, New York and the FBI Headquarters in Washington. He is currently employed as a contractor in the U.S. intelligence community.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.