Gawd this makes me mad. Ever since we started talking about special powers for the government and special tribunals I have opposed the idea on account that any government will abuse its power if allowed to do so. I am sure in the coming years we are going to be hearing plenty of stories of abuse of private people by fanatical government officials. Here is one.
The FBI arrests a man, holds him in jail for 31 days, terrorise him and get a false confession out of him. Then they realise it was all a mistake and just tell him he can go home. How many more people have gone or are going through the same thing or worse? This is totally unacceptable in a civilised society.
When the FBI realised they guy had nothing to do with anything “Higazy was released in prison scrubs with $3 in subway fare”. And these are the people who are supposed to make you feel safe?
Hey, at least they’re getting better, with the time frame for detention going down. Used to be that the FBI would [url=http://www.house.gov/reform/background.02.05.06.htm]send you to prison for 30 years[/ur] based on false testimony.
A few months ago there were a few people here defending all sorts of extraordinary powers for the executive. I am kind of glad the hysteria has quieted down quite a bit but I am sure a lot of innocent people have already been harmed and are still being harmed. I remember the UK denied some extraditions requested by the US because they found the evidence lacking. and now the UK has rejected yet one more extradition request of an Egyptian. It seems what the FBI considers evidence is not so clear for less paranoid judges.
I don’t see the problems with the FBI as being any sort of ‘institutionalized oppression’. Rather, good old-faishioned incompetence seems to be their guiding light. And said incompetence seems to infest the upper-management (“Agents in Charge”, the Director, and top FBI leadership).
The FBI (again, focusing on management) seems to be a bizarre mix of too-much PC, bueracracy, and politicing, rather then a clear focus on the investigation and prevention of crimes.
Terrorising people into confessing things they did not do, holding them in jail, lying to judges . . . seems to me like criminal behavior rather than incompetence.
At least I am glad the mood is changing and people are not so quick to defend the need to give the government more powers than they already have and abuse.
I sort of agree/disagree. I think the root of ‘brutality’ behavior is incompetent leadership, which fosters a attitude that such behavior is acceptable (within ‘limits’).
A tightly-run LE department has zero tolerance for any sort of behavior that will ultimately jepordize a investigation/trial. A confession extracted by rubber-hose is meaningless if the perp, who may actually be guilty, is let off.
The FBI leadership seems to have forgotten that their purpose is to put the bad guys behind bars (by providing the needed evidence to prosecutors), not to engage in stupid and often counter-productive PR exercises. (The anthrax investigation leaks jump to mind.)
Now, to be fair, the WashPost article says that the Egyptian claims he was ‘badgered’, not beaten, into confessing. That is good one hand (beating suspects is not very productive), bad on the other (the agents wasted resources to extract a meaningless confession)
And not to be cold-hearted about the whole affair, but I am not so much concerned with the alleged victims of the FBI as I am with the fact that the FBI is wasting precious resources and time with some of these shinanigans. Every agent wasting his time badgering a confession out of someone who is not actually involved in a crime could be better spent hunting the real terrorists, drug dealers, criminals, etc.
I am very concerned about victims of Government abuse because the last one to be abusing people should be the government.
>> ‘badgered’, not beaten, into confessing
In fact he was terrorised and terrified. They threatened him and his family and he believed their lives were in danger. He was shaking and sobbing uncontrollably and confessed to what they wanted even though it was not true. This is not the way a civilised nation does business.
I agree the FBI should be hunting the real bad guys and not making innocent people look like bad guys but the main point I was trying to make is that they do not need and do not deserve any more special powers to hold and interrogate and investigate people. I want the judges exercising some control and I want the people arrested to be treated humanely and not abused and to have access to defense and due process.