My Third (and I hope my last) Open Letter to Eric Holder on the Occasion of the Reawakening of His Frankenstein Monster, the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee.

"Janet Reno sent me."

5 June 2014

Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States

(Currently held in contempt of Congress)

U.S. Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20530-0001

Dear Eric,

It has been a little more than five years since I wrote my first open letter to you on the eve of a threatened ATF raid on an innocent man, warning you that there would be "No More Free Wacos" (1) A few months later, I wrote you a second open letter, "In re U.S. vs. Olofson" further explaining the dangers of regime misadventure against the armed citizenry. (2)

It is not necessary to repeat those warnings to you now, except to underline the central observation I made at the time: you only get one free Waco. You had it back in the Nineties. But this is not the Nineties, Eric, even though with your unholy resurrection this week of that Frankenstein monster, the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee, you seem to think it is. (3)

You know, sometime later this month, or perhaps next, we are going to pass a signal milestone. By my calculations that is when the FBI will announce the turning over of the citizen armament odometer to 100 million background checks since your collectivist master became president -- ONE HUNDRED MILLION in a little over five years. Of course that doesn't automatically translate into 100 million more firearms on top of the 300 million that were already in private hands when Barack Obama performed his first charade of an oath to the Constitution in January 2009, but it still makes him the greatest firearms salesman in history -- ever. He has put Bill Clinton in the shade by a long country mile. Consider that. Then consider Clausewitz' observation that "in military affairs, quantity has a quality all its own." And this arms race on the part of the citizenry IS a military reality to anyone arrogant enough, grasping enough, and stupid enough to try to force tyranny on the people of this country. Let that sink in a bit. Don't believe me? Ask your analysts, if they haven't already told you.

Then consider this. Your regime has spent the last five years burning up whatever entitlement to legitimacy that you have started with -- whatever you imagine in your daydreams that you still pretend to retain -- with scandal after scandal and usurpation after usurpation, beginning with "you can keep your health care plan, period" and rolling on through Fast and Furious (I'm proud to say I had a little to do with that) the IRS scandal, Benghazi, the VA and now Bergdahl. You have, in the Chinese parlance, worn out your "Mandate of Heaven." This is no longer the Nineties, when the Clinton regime still had a presumption of both competence and lawful behavior. You no longer have either with a significant portion of the population. And then there's that Internet that you still can't control -- a much more potent force than it was in the Nineties when you were personally involved in covering up the true circumstances of Waco and the Oklahoma City bombing. I will give you credit for stonewalling so far. With the assistance of John Boehner's FBI file you've done a bang-up job to date. Richard Nixon, not to mention John Mitchell, would be envious. But it will not be enough to save your regime from the next deadly Waco or Oklahoma City-like misadventure. (How is Andreas Carl Strassmeir doing these days, anyway?)

You ought to be smart enough to see that, but your resurrection of Janet Reno's dead COINTELPRO/PATCON-clone monster from the Nineties tells me that you're not -- that you've fallen in desperation back on what worked the last time but what cannot work now given the new realities.

Oh, I read your statement. You claim that this is about preventing more Jihadi incidents like the Boston Marathon bombing. But we both know that is a black herring, if I may select the color of the Jihadi flag. Jesse Walker, writing in Reason Magazine confirms it: "Contrary to at least one early report, the revived committee's purview will not include incidents like last year's Boston Marathon bombing, since the men accused of that crime appear to have been influenced by foreign groups. The focus will be on purely homegrown activities, according to a spokesman for the Justice Department." (3)

So we know who this outdated move is pointed at, don't we? And it has nothing to do with Jihadis, "homegrown" or otherwise. A cynic might say that given the Bergdahl swap and the unilateral disengagement from any pretense of fighting the Jihadis overseas that you are simply trying to assure full employment for armed federal bureaucrats, much as the repeal of Prohibition led to the transfer of Treasury agents to enforce the subsequent National Firearms Act. Dragon slayers need dragons to frighten the villagers into paying them for the privilege of full employment, no matter how obvious, ridiculous and hackneyed the lies are.

Indeed, as Judge Napolitano has pointed out, your vaunted FBI/NSA/DHS juggernaut can't seem to catch any real terrorists, preferring to entrap gullible fools into playing the part for the equally gullible and credulous villagers. (5)

And now you want to retrieve the fortunes of your self-discredited militarized bureaucracy by using such tactics against your regime's political opponents whose only crime is that they refuse to be seduced by your lies? I hate to be the one to tell you, Eric, but it won't work -- not in the way your desperation imagines it will. The Washington Times reported the other day that you were considering using the United States military to work your regime's will upon the Bundys out in Nevada.(6) Some adult in the Pentagon probably quashed that idea, but the very fact that you and your tyrannical ilk were considering it tells me that you are absolutely out of touch with the new reality.

This is the second decade of the 21st Century, not the last decade of the 20th. There will be no more free Wacos, nor believable Reichstag Fires, and if your regime ever does succumb to the temptation to use the military on your own people it will be swept away into the dustbin of history.

You may have high hopes for the retrieval of your bureaucratic fortunes with this reanimation of the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee, but the villagers will be watching this time for the operational reappearance of Janet Reno's Frankenstein, with pitchforks, torches, and (not accidentally thanks to your boss) plenty of firearms in their hands when it does. Please thank Barack for that the next time you see him.

Have a nice rest of your tenure as our first officially contemptible attorney general.

Mike Vanderboegh

PO Box 926

Pinson Al 35126

(1) No More Free Wacos: An Explication of the Obvious Addressed to Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States, 6 May 2009. http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/05/no-more-free-wacos-explication-of.html

(2) "In re U.S. vs. Olofson": A second Open Letter to Eric Holder, this time explicating the obvious about misadventure, "decapitation" and spasm, 15 October 2009. http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/10/second-open-letter-to-eric-holder-this.html

(3) Feds Reanimate the Janet Reno–Era "Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee," Jesse Walker, Reason.com, 4 June 2014. http://reason.com/blog/2014/06/04/feds-reanimate-the-janet-renoera-domesti

(4) The Black Standard, Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Standard

(5) The FBI Creates, Then "Foils" Terror Plots, FOX News, Freedom Watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QynchCojTzM

(6) Inside the Ring: Memo outlines Obama’s plan to use the military against citizens, Bill Gertz, The Washington Times, 28 May 2014. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/28/inside-the-ring-directive-outlines-obamas-policy-t/?page=all