Political Cynic on Zionist Shill Schiff & Patel as FBI Stooge: The exchange of insults is revelatory and entertaining: The Gentlemans Club of the Senate is now dead?
Sep 18, 2025
On Schiff :
On Patel :
Dear Chair Grassley and Ranking Member Durbin:
On behalf of the undersigned organizations representing millions of Americans, we strongly urge you to oppose Kash Patel’s confirmation to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the nation’s principal criminal investigation agency.
Mr. Patel lacks both the professional experience and temperament to lead a federal agency charged with investigating a range of civil and human rights violations, including hate crimes, voter intimidation and election-related crimes, human trafficking, and police misconduct. Unlike previous FBI directors, Mr. Patel has no senior-level law enforcement experience, nor has he ever held a Senate-confirmed position.[1] His incendiary comments, including those directed at perceived political rivals and civil servants, could endanger American lives if acted upon.
The threat posed by Mr. Patel is not merely hypothetical — it is grounded in historical reality. The FBI possesses tremendous law enforcement authority, and as the nation’s primary criminal investigative agency, the FBI is deeply consequential to civil rights, public safety, and the integrity of our democracy. From 1956 to 1971, the FBI conducted a covert and illegal operation known as COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program)[2] targeting civil rights groups and leaders, including the anti-Vietnam War movement and the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.[3] This program, intended to surveil, infiltrate, and sabotage civil rights movements, is now widely regarded as one of the agency’s most significant overreaches. It led to widespread abuse of power and prompted a series of reforms, including the creation of permanent U.S. House and Senate Intelligence Committees[4] and the establishment of term limits for FBI directors.[5] Despite these changes, the FBI continues to monitor religious communities and civil rights movements. The FBI developed a system of “ethnic mapping,”[6] infiltrated mosques following the 9/11 attacks,[7] and surveilled Black Lives Matter protesters and tracked protest activity after the murder of George Floyd.[8]
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The FBI on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
In the federal government’s law enforcement structure, the FBI is the chief investigatory agency with the broadest authority. This tremendous authority has, at times, led to serious abuses of civil rights and civil liberties. For example, in 1975, the Senate formed the Church Committee in part to investigate wide-ranging FBI abuses, including planting informants in civil rights organizations, surveilling and threatening Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and keeping files on 1 million Americans.
The Church Committee’s shocking findings led to reforms at the FBI, but today it now wields significant investigative and surveillance powers, including under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This law allows the FBI and other agencies to engage in mass warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international communications. Although Section 702 requires the government to direct this surveillance at people outside the U.S., in practice, it ensnares Americans who are communicating with those targets. Notably, targets need not have any connection to criminal activity or terrorism; they can be journalists, human-rights workers, or businesspeople discussing U.S. foreign affairs. After acquiring these communications, FBI agents across the country routinely search for Americans’ communications in their Section 702 databases — again, without a warrant.
Our democracy hangs in the balance because of initiatives like Project 2025. Read our memos outlining what each presidential candidate means for…
Senate: Hold President Trump’s Cabinet Picks To Account | American Civil Liberties Union
Over time, Section 702 has morphed into a domestic surveillance tool. FBI agents use Section 702 databases to conduct millions of invasive searches for Americans’ communications, including those of protesters, racial justice activists, 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign, journalists, and even members of Congress. While the number of these warrantless queries has declined in recent years, they’re still happening far too frequently and without the judicial approval the Constitution requires.
Powers like this are even more concerning given President-elect Trump’s expressed desire to investigate and prosecute his perceived “enemies” — journalists, civil servants, and government officials — based on their political views or activities. For example, President-elect Trump has vowed, “I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family.” He expanded this sentiment to include “all others involved with the destruction of our elections, borders, & [sic] country itself!”
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Political Cynic.
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