90 Miles From Tyranny

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

When the FBI Attacks Critics as “Conspiracy Theorists,” It’s Time to Reform the Bureau

BY JONATHAN TURLEY

Below is my column in the Hill on the need for a new “Church Committee” to investigate and reform the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after years of scandals involving alleged political bias. In response to criticism over its role in Twitter’s censorship system, the FBI lashed out against critics as “conspiracy theorists” spreading disinformation. However, it still refuses to supply new information on other companies, beyond Twitter, that it has paid to engage in censorship.

Here is the column:

“Conspiracy theorists … feeding the American public misinformation” is a familiar attack line for anyone raising free-speech concerns over the FBI’s role in social media censorship. What is different is that this attack came from the country’s largest law enforcement agency, the FBI — and, since the FBI has made combatting “disinformation” a major focus of its work, the labeling of its critics is particularly menacing.

Fifty years ago, the Watergate scandal provoked a series of events that transformed not only the presidency but federal agencies like the FBI. Americans demanded answers about the involvement of the FBI and other federal agencies in domestic politics. Ultimately, Congress not only investigated the FBI but later impanelled the Church Committee to investigate a host of other abuses by intelligence agencies.

A quick review of recent disclosures and controversies shows ample need for a new Church Committee:

The Russian investigations

The FBI previously was at the center of controversies over documented political bias. Without repeating the long history from the Russian influence scandal, FBI officials like Peter Strzok were fired after emails showed open bias against presidential candidate Donald Trump. The FBI ignored warnings that the so-called Steele dossier, largely funded by the Clinton campaign, was likely used by Russian intelligence to spread disinformation. It continued its investigation despite early refutations of key allegations or discrediting of sources.

Biden family business

The FBI has taken on the character of a Praetorian Guard when the Biden family has found itself in scandals.

For example, there was Hunter Biden’s handgun, acquired by apparently lying on federal forms. In 2018, the gun allegedly was tossed into a trash bin in Wilmington, Del., by Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter’s deceased brother and with whom Hunter had a relationship at the time. Secret Service agents reportedly appeared at the gun shop with no apparent reason, and Hunter later said the matter would be...

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China denies report it is developing reefs and cays in the South China Sea

It slammed claims it was building up features in the Spratlys as ‘fake news.’

China has dismissed a report that Beijing has been developing at least four unoccupied features in the South China Sea. Some U.S. experts have also casted doubt on the claims.

A Bloomberg News report on Tuesday quoted unnamed Western officials as saying China is building up several unoccupied land features including Eldad Reef, Lankiam Cay, Whitsun Reef and Sandy Cay, all in the Spratly archipelago, also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.

China rejected the news, with the South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI) think tank calling it “100% fake news.”

During a press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected Bloomberg’s report as “completely untrue.”

“Refraining from action on the presently uninhabited islands and reefs of the Nansha Islands is a serious common understanding reached by China and ASEAN countries in the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), and China always strictly abides by it,” Mao Ning said in response to a reporter’s question. China refers to the Spratlys as the Nansha islands.

However, the Philippines said Tuesday it had asked government agencies to investigate the report.

"We are seriously concerned as such activities contravene the Declaration of Conduct on the South China Sea's undertaking on self-restraint and the 2016 Arbitral Award," the Department of Foreign Affairs said, according to local media.

Beijing has already developed several artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea and fully militarized at least three of them with airfields, radars and hangars, but this new revelation may be “the first known instances of a nation doing so on territory it doesn’t already occupy,” reported Bloomberg.

The officials, who asked not to be identified so they could discuss sensitive information, told the news agency that “some sandbars and other formations in the area expanded more than ten times in size in recent years.”

The previously submerged features have now been exposed and reinforced to “sit permanently above the high-tide line,” according to the officials.

If true, this would be a major step towards changing the status quo in the South China Sea by Beijing, which claims “historical rights” to almost 90% of the sea as well as the islands and other land features inside it.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also claim parts of the resource-rich sea.

Land formations

A UN tribunal in 2016 ruled that China’s claims in the South China Sea have no legal basis but Beijing has so far rejected the ruling.

China has developed at least seven artificial islands in the South China Sea, creating 3,200 acres (1,295 hectares) of new land since 2013, according to...

Despite objections from House Republicans and their Senate colleagues, 18 GOP senators joined Democrats in passing the 4,155-page bill.

After selling out their base on marriage and gun control, Senate Republicans decided to finish out 2022 by helping Democrats pass a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package on Thursday that will keep the federal government funded through the end of 2023.

Released on Tuesday, the mammoth 4,155-page bill cleared a procedural vote held by the upper chamber later that same day, with 70 senators supporting and only 25 opposing. Despite objections from House Republicans and several of their GOP Senate colleagues, 18 Republican senators joined Senate Democrats in passing the wasteful bill, at a final vote of 68-29.

Among the Republicans who voted in favor are Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri, John Boozman and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Mike Rounds and John Thune of South Dakota, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Richard Shelby of Alabama, and Todd Young of Indiana.

Three GOP senators — Richard Burr of North Carolina, John Barrasso of Wyoming, and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota — didn’t even bother to vote on the bill.

By helping Democrats pass an omnibus instead of a short-term funding package, Senate Minority Leader McConnell and Senate GOP leadership have erased any and all leverage the House’s incoming Republican majority would have over spending issues for most of 2023. This means conservative priorities, such as fixing President Joe Biden’s manufactured border crisis, will go unaddressed for another year.

“This is an act of extortion being leveraged on the United States Senate right before Christmas,” said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, during a speech on the Senate floor. “This bill, in all 4,155 pages of its glory — or infamy — was negotiated in secret by four or five members of Congress. … They wrote it utterly in secret with the design of creating an artificial emergency, threatening a shutdown right before Christmas.”

Prior to the bill’s passage, Lee proposed an amendment to keep Title 42 — the Trump-era policy making it easier to deport illegal immigrants at the border — in place. The amendment ultimately failed on a 47-50 vote.

The Bill Is a Pork-Filled Disaster

But the $1.7 trillion omnibus doesn’t just add to America’s already-ballooning $31.4 trillion national debt. It also directs funding toward a slew of wasteful agenda items that everyday Americans never asked for.

Included in the bill is an allotment of “not less than” $575 million that is “made available for family planning/reproductive health, including in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species.” The measure also provides grants to numerous LGBT-related entities, such as $750,000 to the TransLatin@ Coalition and $3 million to the New York Historical Society’s “American LGBTQ+ Museum Partnership Project.”

Meanwhile, funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are small facets of the omnibus, with the two agencies receiving $1.56 billion and $339.6 million, respectively, for “non-detention border management requirements.”

The funding, however, comes with strings attached that hinder immigration officials’ ability to effectively deal with the ongoing border crisis. As noted in the bill, the grants are prohibited from being utilized to “acquire, maintain, or extend border security technology and capabilities,” unless they are employed to “improve Border Patrol processing.”

Meanwhile, the bill gives Ukraine an additional $45 billion in aid.

Senate Republicans’ History of Betrayal

The passage of the omnibus by Senate Republicans is one of several times the party in the upper chamber has stabbed its voters in the back this year. Several weeks ago, 12 GOP senators joined Democrats in passing the wrongly named, “Respect for Marriage Act,” which will allow LBGT activists to use...