Foxes guarding the henhouse. Don't expect too much from the Hillary Clinton "investigation" -- it's the same old Clinton cover-up cast of characters from the 90s.

Here we go again.

Clinton cover-up queen Beth Wilkinson with her husband, discredited NBC employee David Gregory.

The other day I received this email from a long-time DC observer:

Hey, Mike -- saw this mentioned yesterday, and today that a federal judge has countermanded the attorney's instructions to her client (MBV: Hillary aide Cheryl Mills) to not retain electronic copies of emails at issue -- ol' Beth Wilkinson continues to stalk the corridors backrooms of power in Versailles along the Potomac... she did so much good for the Republic in OKBOMB!!

And who, those of you with scant memory of the 90s might ask, is Beth Wilkinson?

Beth Ann Wilkinson is a Washington, D.C. lawyer, and partner in the New York City-based law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. She works in the firm's Washington, D.C. office focusing on white collar criminal defense. Wilkinson is known for successfully arguing for the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. She has also been a critic of unfair administration of the death penalty. In April 2012 she was hired as outside counsel by the Federal Trade Commission to lead an antitrust inquiry into Google. . . She is married to David Gregory, the former moderator of NBC News' Meet the Press.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole (on the left), instrumental in the cover-up of the true circumstances of the Fast and Furious scandal, and Robert S. Litt, Office of Director of National Intelligence and equally complicit in the cover-up of the true circumstances of the FBI's torture murder of Kenny Trentadue in 1995, compare notes during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, 17 July 2013.

Not long after, I received this heads up on Robert S. Litt:

Litt is key player now deciding how USG will deal with HRC email/server issue. (Please) note his "service" 1994-1999 at highest levels and most sensitive issues in Clinton DOJ. Documentation proves he was a key participant in Clinton DOJ obstructing justice re Aug. 1995 murder of Kenneth Trentadue by DOJ officials in Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Facility. Given his corrupt history in this torture/murder case, do you think he'll hesitate to see that this "relatively" minor issue does no damage to his former bosses?

From Litt's official Justice Department bio:

Robert S. Litt was confirmed by unanimous consent by the Senate to serve as the second General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on June 25, 2009.

Before joining the ODNI, Mr. Litt was a partner with the law firm of Arnold and Porter, LLP. He served as a member of the governing body of the American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section and a member of the Advisory Committee to the Standing Committee on Law and National Security.

From 1994 to 1999, Mr. Litt worked at the Department of Justice where he served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division and then as the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General. His duties at DOJ included FISA applications, covert action reviews, computer security and other national security matters.

Mr. Litt started his legal career as a clerk for Judge Edward Weinfeld of the Southern District of New York and Justice Potter Stewart of the U.S. Supreme Court. From 1978 to 1984, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He also spent one year as a special advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs.

Mr. Litt holds a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.A. and J.D. from Yale University.

So, Wilkinson and Litt, old co-conspirators from the Clinton DOJ scandals, are working -- supposedly -- on opposite sides now. Does anyone expect a different result than when they were working hand in glove? Especially on a Clinton scandal? Gimme a break.

FOIA trial offers rare look into how FBI searches records, responds to requests.

The latest testimony from the Trentadue case shows that reporters and members of the public who send FOIA requests to the FBI might not know that there are a myriad of different records "systems" that they need to specify in order for a comprehensive search to take place. They might not know that the FBI typically only searches for the location of the main file related to an investigation as reported to headquarters, so reporters should also request cross-references, which are mentions of the subject of their request in investigations outside of the main file. While field offices have FOIA-trained personnel to assist RIDS, reporters should also send FOIA requests directly to individual field offices they think are relevant to the investigation, because RIDS may only request documents from the field office associated with the main file.

An accounting of the trip to Oregon and back. Money is ammunition.

Driving past the Bonneville Salt Flats on the way back to Salt Lake City.

As always, I kept all receipts from the trip out west but I must confess that the total amount shocked me in the end. Although I count the trip a success (and you will too, I think, as articles that I gained background on are published in the near future), the accounting makes it plain that sustaining operations out west in Oregon and Washington are incredibly expensive when done by car. And I believe it only fair that for those who kicked in to the trip should have an accounting of how their money was spent.

The only bit of personal sight-seeing I did was to stop on the way out of Coos Bay on the way to the Sugar Pine Mine to see the Pacific Ocean. (I had never done it before. This was the farthest west I had ever been.)

There were unexpected expenses this trip, including those coincident with my co-driver, but you should know that I couldn't have done it without him so I'm not complaining in the least. He was a real help and took everything in stride. In addition, because we couldn't plan exactly when we would be at a certain spot we weren't able to stay at readers' homes and keep down on the hotel expenses. (We were only able to stay one night at a reader's and we had another pick up the tab at a hotel. The rest came out of the budget.) We did save money in that most of our meals were picked up by readers along the way. And we also had donations of gas money from individual readers at the various stops. We received no reimbursement from the Salem organizers, but the Coos Bay folks did a great job of rattling the tin cup for us.

Stopping by Salt Lake City to visit with Jesse Trentadue.

We used Rosey's car, so we didn't have the expense of a rental car, but the gas expense ate us alive. I cringed every time we paid well in excess of $3.00 a gallon at some stops in the west, especially Oregon. Total mileage was almost 6,000 miles. The breakdown of all expenses is as below.

With the Sugar Pine miners outside their cabin at the claim.

Gas: $763.35

Lodging: $884.86

Food: $170.27

Miscellaneous: $334.16

TOTAL: $2,152.64

So you can see that sustaining operations for me out west, absent more careful planning (for which I take full responsibility) is very problematic. In retrospect, I should have done better arranging for stops at readers' homes and I could have done better by choosing cheaper lodging, but because I didn't have a laptop I could count on (that problem is now taken care of for the next trip, I think) I had to stop at hotels that had business centers, not just WiFi. These were perforce more expensive.

I will be flying out to the Yakima Arms Expo later this month and the expense of that is being personally picked up by the organizers, but if you can see your way clear to help me reimburse them for that I would be grateful. They never did recover their expenses on the two failed flights for me that they were screwed out of by the airline last time. The Empire strikes back in various ways and money is ammunition, just like 5.56 ball. Leviathan is happy to cause us wastage.

Back on line after fight with Google. Now if I could just get my phone to work. Chaffetz hearings on FOIA a sick joke.

Sorry for the lack of content and comment releases these past couple of days but Google insisted they didn't recognize me and I would have to change my password. I resisted, but they finally beat me. Am currently in Hays KS, headed for Nashville and my co-driver's car. after that I'll be back home. Maybe late tonight? More likely tomorrow morning. Hays seems to be in a black hole as far as my phone is concerned but presumably I'll be back on the grid when I get to KC this morning (hope springs eternal).

The itinerary changed for some very good reasons, which I cannot explain right now, but this has been a hugely successful trip. One of the folks i stopped to visit with in SLC was Jesse Trentadue and he directed my attention to some documents that are part of the public record that are just stunning. In fact, I have to say that the FBI is now on record -- sworn under oath -- that their FOIA system is designed to be unresponsive. The Chafetz hearings on the 3rd were a dog-and-pony show, headlined by Melanie Ann Pustay, Director of the Office of Information Policy, who started out bragging out about Obama's 19 March 2009 directive during what they called at the time "Sunshine Week." The only "sunshine" apparent in the hearings to me was that being shined as a distraction in Chaffetz' eyes by Pustay.

The hearing focused on FOIA training but the documents and testimony developed by Jesse's lawsuit indicate that the FBI will give important assignments to absolutely untrained personnel as PART OF THE COVER-UP. Being unfamiliar with the multiple layers of security behind which the FBI hides documents, the designated newbies will check one database and find nothing, thereby answering the request with "no documents found." There was nothing in the hearing about an agency deliberately not finding documents, or how they accomplish that. The testimony was exclusively about delay in responding and the claim of exemptions. Certainly delays and unfounded claims of exemptions are irritating and costly if you have to sue to get them. But that is not insurmountable if the FBI states they have documents and a Court reviews and rules upon the Bureau’s claim of an exemption. In other words, a judge will decide whether or not you get the documents.

What is insurmountable is when the FBI says there are no "responsive documents." When that happens, the US Attorney asks for summary judgment, the judge bangs the gavel and the case is dismissed. The only way to pry that door open is if you already have documents in your hand from other sources -- hardly a usual occurrence. The documents and testimony I am reading now are convincing that the FBI has in place a system designed NOT to find sensitive/embarrassing documents. And Chaffetz didn't come close to getting at that. It is a story that I will be breaking upon my return to Birmingham. In its own way, it is every bit as damaging to the legitimacy and reputation of the FBI and DOJ as Fast and Furious.

Another story that we will be following up is the BLM's reign of terror over the past decades in Josephine County OR with their squads of serial arsonists -- which have killed innocent people living on mining claims in the past. The federal government owns 71% of Josephine County and they treat it like a feudal barony. Chaffetz' committee could profitably spend weeks in hearings getting to the bottom of that scandal. I intend to try to motivate them to do so. Stay tuned, dear readers, to some breaking stories headlined "Sipsey Street Exclusive" in the near future.

This has been the longest and more tiring road trip I've ever done. I will not be able to duplicate it again for a while, yet I must get out to Yakima for the background-check-free Arms Expo on 20-21 June. After that, it is my intention to do a raid into New York and CT in late summer, breaking laws and daring them to do anything about it. I will be frank. The budget is bare. This trip, because of unexpected contingencies, has been far more expensive than I thought and that's even after the generosity of folks along the way. It is obvious too that I need to see to my communications and come up with another reliable pad (already have that part worked out) and phone communications. These things cost. I hate jingling the tin cup, but I don't know what else to do. This trip was, even given the epic fail of the media plan in Salem, a success by any measure. It has wiped me out physically (I always burn the candle at both ends when I do these things) and I could not have done it without the manful exertions of my co-driver, but I intend to keep at this as long as God gives me breath and y'all give me the support. What I am asking for here is not more support for those who have already beggared themselves in the past, but new sources from those who like my work but haven't yet contributed. I hope you'll keep me in the field until God calls me home, whenever that is.

Another headache for Eric Holder. If there's no tapes, what is the FBI so afraid of in the Trentadue case that they're threatening witnesses?

Lawyer says FBI threatened witness in OKC bombing records trial

Attorney Jesse Trentadue said the Salt Lake City-based FBI agent had contacted John Matthews, who he described as a former undercover operative for the government, and suggested that it would be “best for everyone if [Matthews] didn’t show up to testify.”

The agent also suggested that Matthews take a vacation and said that if he did testify, “he should have a case of the ‘I-don’t-remembers,’ ” Trentadue told U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups.

See also: Waddoups ordered the federal attorneys to look into it. On Thursday, Department of Justice attorney Kathryn Wyer said the FBI in Utah told her that Matthews reached out to the agency to ask how he could get out of testifying. Wyer called Trentadue's version of events "another wild theory" that is inaccurate. But Waddoups said the allegation merits more attention, and he set a court date of Aug. 25 for the agent to testify. "We can't just leave this where it is," Waddoups said. "It's too serious of an allegation. We need to get to the bottom of this."

Forwarded by my friend Jesse Trentadue.

New OKC Bombing Trial Set to Begin July 28 in Salt Lake City

And lest we forget: "Utahn's Brother Tortured & Murdered by Federal Government."

Jesse Trentadue forwarded me this link with the comment: "Just came across this site and it is very good." I am working on another story based on FBI documents concerning the use of snitches that were turned over in discovery in Jesse's latest case. I hope to have it out later today or tomorrow.

Sipsey Street Exclusive: "Sensitive Investigative Matters." From the latest FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide

Jesse Trentadue continues to excavate under the foundations of the government's cover-up both of the death of his brother and the true circumstances of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

As part of the discovery in his case, a heavily redacted section regarding something the FBI calls "Sensitive Investigative Matters" from that agency's current Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide has come to light. Even given the redactions, it makes interesting reading.

(MBV Note: "U" stands for Unclassified. "FOUO" means "For Official Use Only."

Section 10.1 (U) Sensitive Investigative Matters (SIM)

10.1.1(U) Overview

(U) Certain investigative matters should be brought to the attention of FBI management and Department of Justice (DPJ) officials because of the possibility of public notoriety and sensitivity. Accordingly, Assessments and Predicated Investigations involving "sensitive investigative matters" have special approval and reporting requirements.

10.1.2 (U) Purpose, Scope, and Definitions

10.1.2.1 (U) Definition of Sensitive Investigative Matters (SIM)

(U/FOUO) A sensitive investigative matter (SIM) is defined as an investigative matter involving the activities of a domestic public official or domestic political candidate (involving corruption or a threat to national security), a religious or domestic political organization or individual prominent in such an organization, or the news media; an investigative matter having an academic nexus, or any other matter which, in the judgment of the official authorizing the investigation, should be brought to the attention of FBI Headquarters (FBIHQ) and other DOJ officials. (Attorney General's Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations (ACG-Dom), Part VII.N.) As a matter of FBI policy, "judgment" means that the decision of the authorizing official is discretionary.

(U/FOUO) The phrase "investigative matter involving the activities of" is intended to focus on the behaviors and /or activities of the subject, target, or subject matter of the Assessment or Predicated Investigation. The phrase is generally not intended to include a witness or victim in the Assessment or Predicated Investigation. This definition does not, however, prohibit a determination that the status, involvement, or impact on a particular witness or victim would make the Assessment or Predicated Investigation a SIM under subsection 10.1.2.2.7 below.

10.1.2.2 (U) Definitions/Descriptions of SIM Officials and Entities

(U) Description for each of the officials and entities contained in the SIM definition are as follows:

10.1.2.2.1 (U) Domestic Public Official.

(U/FOUO) A domestic public official is an elected official or an appointed official serving in a judicial, legislative, management, or executive-level position in a Federal, state, local, or tribal government entity or political subdivision thereof. A matter involving a domestic public official is a SIM if the Assessment or Predicated Investigation involves corruption or a threat to national security.

(U/FOUO) This definition is intended to exclude lower level positions and most line positions, such as a patrol officer or office secretary from the SIM category, but it does include supervisory personnel (e.g. police Sergeant or Lieutenant). The SIM definition also eliminates the "position of trust" language.

10.1.2.2.2 (U) Domestic Political Candidate

(U/FOUO) A domestic political candidate is an individual who is seeking election to, or nomination for election to, or who has authorized others to explore on his or her behalf the possibility of election to an office in a Federal, state, local, or tribal government entity or political subdivision thereof. As with domestic public officials, a matter involving a political candidate is a SIM if the Assessment or Predicated Investigation involves corruption or a threat to national security.

10.1.2.2.3. (Domestic Political Organization or Individual Prominent in Such an Organization.

(MBV NOTE: ENTIRE SECTION REDACTED.)

10.1.2.2.4 (U) Religious Organization or Individual Prominent in Such an Organization.

(MBV NOTE: ENTIRE SECTION REDACTED.)

10.1.2.2.5 (U) Member of the News Media or a News Organization.

(MBV NOTE: FIRST TWO SECTIONS REDACTED.)

(U/FOUO) Examples of news media entities include television or radio stations broadcasting to the public at large and publishers of newspapers or periodicals that mke their products available to the public at large in print form or through Internet distribution. A freelance journalist may be considered to be a member of the media if the journalist has a contract with the news entity or has a history of publishing content. Publishing a newsletter or operating a website does not by itself qualify an individual as a member of the media. Businesses, law firms, and trade associations offer newsletters or have websites; these are not considered news media. As the term is used in the DIOG, "news media" is not intended to include persons and entities that simply make information available. Instead, It is intended to apply to a person or entity that gathers information of potential interest to a segment of the general public, uses editorial skills to turn raw materials into a distinct work, and distributes that work to an audience, as a journalism professional.

(U/FOUO) If there is a doubt about wjether a particular person or entity should be considered part of the "news media," the doubt should be resolved in favor of considering the person or entity to be the "news media."

(U/FOUO) See the classified provision in DIOG Appendix G for additional guidance on SIMs.

10.1.2.2.6 (U) Academic Nexus

(MBV NOTE: FIRST TWO SECTIONS ARE REDACTED.)

(U/FOUO) The sensitivity related to an academic institution arises from the American tradition of "academic freedom" (i.e., an atmosphere in which students and faculty are free to express unorthodox ideas and views and to challenge conventional thought without fear of repercussion. Academic freedom does not mean, however, that academic institutions are off limits to FBI investigators in pursuit of information or individuals of legitimate investigative interest.

(MBV NOTE: LAST SECTION REDACTED.)

10.1.2.2.7 (U) Other Matters

(U/FOUO) Any matter that in the judgment of the official authorizing an investigation should be brought to the attention of FBIHQ and other DOJ officials is also a SIM. As a matter of FBI policy, "judgment" means that the decision of the authorizing official is discretionary.

A long-time Washington observer source of mine said this is the "key issue: is there even the slightest review and oversight by Congress or the Judiciary? First, having the DOJ, and the DOJ alone, responsible for reviewing FBI domestic operations is a huge evasion of constitutional responsibility."

Section 10.1.3. is entitled: (U) Factors to Consider When Opening or Approving an Investigative Activity Involving a SIM:

(U/FOUO) In addition to the standards for approving investigative activity in Sections 5,6,7, 8 and 9, the following factors should be considered by (i) the FBI employee who seeks to open an Assessment or Predicated Investigation involving a SIM, as well as by the (ii) Chief Division Counsel (CDC) or Office of the General Counsel (OGC) when reviewing such matters, and (iii) the approving official when determining whether the Assessment or Predicated Investigation involving a SIM should be authorized:

A) (U/FOUO) Seriousness/severity of the violation/threat;

B) (U/FOUO) Significance of the information sought to the violation/threat;

C) (U/FOUO)Probability that the proposed course of action will be successful;

D) (U/FOUO) Risk of public exposure, and if there is such a risk, the adverse impact or the perception of the advrese impact on civil liberties and public confidence; and

E) (U/FOUO) Risk to the national security or the public welfare if the proposed course of action is not approved (i.e., risk of doing nothing).

"Risk of public exposure." Ah, yes, cockroaches -- especially secret poltical police cockroaches -- hate the light.

Much of the manual has been redacted and/or withheld. As one source observed:

Chapters 1 - 9 and 11 - 17 withheld totally.Chapter 18, pages 1 to 18, 20 - 23, and 26 -29 withheld totally. We don't know how many Chapters there are in this guide, so there may be even much more withheld.

Section 18.5.6.4.8.2, entitled "Use of Subterfuge" reads "To the extent operational needs allow, investigators must operate openly and consensually with members of the news media." (Note: The bulk of the paragraph after that is redacted.) One source commented:

(Regarding the) "Use of Subterfuge," there is this "loophole": "To the extent operational needs allow..." I think you could drive a Mack truck or two through that one. . . Who gets to determine what the "operational needs" are?? Oh, the guy on the scene...'

The same source commented on this language in Section 18.5.6.4.9:

"During an Assessment - Requesting Information Without Revealing FBI Affiliation or the True Purpose of a Request": "... should divulge the employee's affiliation with the FBI and the true purpose of the interview..."

The source asked: "What happened to the word 'must'? -- Any child learns at a very early age that there is a huge difference between what parents say "should" be done, and what "must" be done. I guess DOJ/FBI lawyers have just forgotten, or overlooked the distinction."

I do not think, gentle readers, that the FBI and DOJ "forgot" or "overlooked" anything in this manual except perhaps how even the tamer, unredacted language would read to someone who wasn't sworn to protect the reputation of their agency as it goes about its daily business of imitating an American Stasi.

We owe a great debt to Jesse Trentadue for getting even this bare glimpse into that world of tax-paid political police spies.

The document, such as it is, can be read here.

Is CNN ‘Expert’ Complicit in the Trentadue Murder Cover-up?

Yup.

"The dangers in becoming untethered to oversight and accountability." New FBI director says he wants to avoid another COINTELPRO scandal. But is he serious? My open letter. "This is the FBI. They'll kill your ass."

"Understand that COINTELPRO was not just surveillance, it was active disruption. It was putting agents into the movement to incite rivalries, a jealousy, to try to get people fighting against each other and not trusting each other." -- Danny Schecter, Journalist, quoted COINTELPRO and the History of Domestic Spying

New FBI Director Comey is making noises like wants to avoid another COINTELPRO scandal: "FBI orders new agents to see Martin Luther King memorial."

The new FBI chief on Monday ordered all new agents and analysts to visit the national memorial to late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as a reminder not to repeat the abuses of the U.S. investigative bureau's past. . .

FBI Director James Comey said in a speech to FBI employees that he wanted to add a similar reminder from the bureau's own history.

"It will serve as a different kind of lesson - one more personal to the bureau - of the dangers of becoming untethered to oversight and accountability," Comey said.

The FBI kept files on King as a potential security threat in the 1950s and 1960s - even wiretapping his phones - because of what the bureau said were suspected ties to communism. Comey called the King investigation an example of "abuse and overreach" in the FBI's history.

Here's the transcript of the speech. The full money quote:

There is a tension reflected in those two aspects of fidelity, those two values that I see in that word, and I think that tension is reflected in the 10-year term that I’ve just begun. The term is 10 years to ensure independence. But it is a fixed term of years to ensure that power does not become concentrated in one person and unconstrained. The need for reflection and restraint of power is what led Louis Freeh to order that all new agent classes visit the Holocaust Museum here in Washington so they could see and feel and hear in a palpable way the consequences of abuse of power on a massive almost unimaginable scale. Bob Mueller continued that practice. And I will again, when we have agents graduating from Quantico.

The balance reflected in my term is also a product of lessons hard learned from the history of this great institution. Our first half-century or so was a time of great progress and achievement for this country, and for the Bureau. But it also saw abuse and overreach—most famously with respect to Martin Luther King and others, who were viewed as internal security threats.

As I think about the unique balance represented by fidelity to independence on the one hand, and the rule of law on the other, I think it also makes sense for me to offer those in training a reminder closer to our own history. I’m going to direct that all new agents and analysts also visit the Martin Luther King Memorial here in Washington. I think it will serve as a different kind of lesson — one more personal to the Bureau — of the dangers in becoming untethered to oversight and accountability.

Here's the Wikipedia citation for Director Comey and here's the Pravda-on-the-Potomac write-up: "Obama says he interviewed many candidates to lead FBI, but picked Comey based on his character." Which, coming from the greatest domestic enemy of the constitutional republic to sit in the Oval Office in its history, is no comfort whatsoever.

On the other hand, Comey does have a history of doing the right thing as he sees it, unlike the Nuremberg Man, the new director of the ATF, B. Toad Jones. So, on the fragile theory that Obama may just have screwed up and given us an honest man in the job, I took keyboard in hand and wrote him the following:

An Open Letter to FBI Director James Comey.

 

"Cherish your enemies for they teach you the best lessons." -- Ho Chi Minh, 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969.

Director James Comey

FBI Headquarters

935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20535-0001

Director Comey,

Your speech upon the occasion of your official installation as Director was quite impressive, particularly your warning of "dangers in becoming untethered to oversight and accountability." Your orders that every new FBI agent and analyst visit the Martin Luther King monument as a caution against getting involved in any new COINTELPRO operations is an excellent one. Even so, it strikes me that you ought to similarly parade EVERY FBI employee no matter their experience or seniority because there are many in your bureau who were silently laughing behind your back when you made that well-intentioned statement.

You see, according to my sources the FBI continues to run COINTELPRO-type operations to this day and now, on your watch, you will be held accountable when they go south if you do not identify them as soon as possible and shut them down.

I suppose some introductions are in order. In confirmation of what I'm about to say, the best I can suggest is to have your analysts pull my files for the period 1994 to date. It may take a couple of carts because I am proud to say that I have been on the "Enemies List" of the last three White Houses, including the one you risked your career to confront over domestic spying. I am no friend of the hyper-political, militarized bureaucracy that is the current FBI and I never have been. I have spent the better part of my time these past two decades exposing their anti-constitutional high crimes and misdemeanors, from Waco to the Oklahoma City bombing to the PATCON operation to Fast and Furious. But if I may I'd like to quote the late President of North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, who once said "Cherish your enemies for they teach you the best lessons." Old Uncle Ho may be burning in Hell right now, but he was right about that.

As the signature indicates, my name is Mike Vanderboegh and I have been in active opposition to your agency since the immolation of the Branch Davidians on 19 April 1993. Later, I was drawn into the private investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing when a law enforcement source gave me the Social Security number and Virginia driver's license number of Andreas Carl Strassmeier, one of the FBI informants/provocateurs inside the Aryan Republic Army at Elohim City, Oklahoma. My source also gave me a post-bomb itinerary for Strassmeier and his protector, another FBI snitch Kirk Lyons. It was Lyons who smuggled Strassmeier out of the country through Mexico when he was mentioned in Time magazine as an acquaintance of McVeigh and my friend Oklahoma attorney and journalist J.D. Cash began asking questions about him.

After it became obvious that the FBI was giving Strassmeier's former roommate at Elohim City, the ARA gang member Michael Brescia, a pass and allowing him to walk the streets of Philadelphia armed and dangerous without interference, I made up a poster "Unwanted by the FBI" and asked my militia buddies to post it around Philly in Brescia's neighborhood and at the college he attended. This was covered by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Telegraph. Shortly thereafter, the FBI was finally embarrassed into arresting Brescia and the rest of his ARA buddies. Although he was proven to have carried bombs into three banks (each a mandatory life sentence), the DOJ gave him a sweetheart deal of five years and he was out in four. While he was in jail I was told that a snitch reported that Brescia promised to slit the throats of my wife and children while I was forced to watch, then he would kill me. Nice guy to give a deal to, don't you think?

Brescia wasn't the only one who got a sweetheart deal from the FBI. The neo-Nazis acted as if they had free passes from your agency and were, we were told, supremely unafraid of it. So, after the Brescia arrest, the constitutional militias began Operation White Rose, designed to get across the message that any more terror incidents would be held against the personal accounts of the participants by us. We got this message across in a variety of ways. Your agency wasn't doing its job to protect the innocent so we did it for you. Did we break the law? Since the statute of limitations is up I can assure that we did. Did anybody get killed? No, but then nothing else was blown up by the evil malefactors we warned, either.

Later we learned that the OKC bombing was part of a much larger FBI operation known as PATCON, short for "Patriot Conspiracy." I wrote about this on my blog, Sipsey Street Irregulars in 2011 in an article entitled "Hiding mass murder behind 'national security.' What Newsweak & the FBI didn't want you to know about PATCON and the OKC Bombing."

Unfortunately the FBI has used its considerable resources to make sure that the story went nowhere, just as it continues to fight Jesse Trentadue's lawsuits to get the bottom of the murder of his brother Kenny in federal lockup after the OKC bombing.

More successful was our expose of the Fast and Furious scandal, which my friend David Codrea and I broke news of on the Internet in late December 2010, after the murder of BORTAC team member Brian Terry. We not only broke the story, we used our sources to vector the staffers of Senators Jeff Sessions and, later, Charles Grassley to the whistleblowers, including John Dodson. CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson also was put in touch with them through our efforts.

We were making quite a bit of headway on that investigation in the Congress when in March of last year I announced "William LaJeunesse makes the connection -- the Miramontes brothers -- on the payroll of the FBI -- are finally outed." You might want to check out the Miramontes brothers' files as well. They were the middlemen whom the ATF wasn't allowed to follow. It was your agency, apparently, that was entrusted with getting the firearms across the border. Shortly after this news broke, we were told, John Boehner increased the pressure on Congressman Issa to prevent the investigation "from getting out of hand." Rumor had it that Boehner's FBI file came into play, delivered no doubt by the ghost of J. Edgar Hoover.

All of these things can be corroborated by your files on me and the operations I mention. As Director, there is nothing you cannot look into. As I have said often in the past, "You may doubt my ancestry, you may doubt my sanity, but don't doubt my footnotes." So kindly believe me when I tell you that it has come to our attention that the DHS and your agency are currently running an operation that might be called "Son of PATCON, Grandson of COINTELPRO."

One of my friends, when he asked a source about one particular aspect of this, was told:

"maybe you do not want to kick this hornet nest

all questions met with dumb looks. . .this is someone's operation stay away"

One of my sources likewise told me: "Stay away from this one. It will get you killed." He added, "You're not f-cking around with the ATF here. This is the FBI. They'll kill your ass."

So here we are, at the juncture of your announced principles and the ugly reality of the agency you have had the ill-luck to be made the Director of. How then will you react when you dig into this? IF you dig into it, that is. The choice is yours.

Mike Vanderboegh

P.O. Box 926

Pinson, AL 35126

You know what's scary is that I find myself more and more agreeing with the ACLU.

A tip of the boonie hat to Jesse Trentadue, who forwarded this link to me: FBI a ‘secret domestic intelligence agency,’ ACLU says.

Another way of saying it is "secret political police in service to the regime." You're damn straight they are.

Here's the ACLU report.

Oklahoma City bombing: Missing videos?

Jesse Trentadue on FOX.

Judge orders trial in allegedly missing Oklahoma City bombing video case

Pantheon (pan·the·on) -- A public building commemorating and dedicated to the heroes and heroines of a nation.

Jesse Trentadue is one of my personal pantheon of genuine American heroes and you can see why by going here. His dogged determination to get to the truth of why his brother was killed by the feds is all the more impressive because the FBI is far more dangerous than the ATF when it comes to dealing with threats to their bureaucratic reputation. They will certainly blackmail to protect it (just ask John Boehner) and they have been reliably rumored to kill in defense of it as well.

A Salt Lake attorney who contends the FBI is hiding surveillance video associated with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing might see his case go trial.

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups denied the government's motion to dismiss the case Monday and ordered both sides to prepare for a bench trial. He scheduled a status hearing for Nov. 21, at which a trial date will be set.

"This is a significant ruling," said Jesse Trentadue, who has spent years trying to get the tapes. "There's no doubt that evidence exists. The question then becomes why can't you find it. The obvious answer is you don't want to find it."

At issue is whether the FBI adequately responded to Trentadue's Freedom of Information Act request for footage of Timothy McVeigh parking a truckload of explosives at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.

Specifically, he is after surveillance tape of the federal building and neighboring buildings as well as dashcam video from the Oklahoma state trooper who stopped McVeigh 90 minutes after the explosion that killed 168 people.

The FBI has released 30 videotapes and 200 documents in response to Trentadue's FOIA request.

Trentadue began looking into the bombing after his brother died in a federal detention center in Oklahoma. He believes federal agents mistook Kenneth Trentadue, a convicted bank robber, for a bombing suspect and beat him to death during an August 1995 interrogation. His official cause of death was listed as suicide.

Trenatdue claims the video will reveal a second bombing suspect who resembles but is not his brother.

Waddoups has chastised U.S. Department of Justice several times for not producing the tapes since Trentadue sued in 2008.

The FBI has submitted several declarations from its top records manager to show the agency has searched electronic databases and evidence warehouses without success. But Waddoups said the declarations lack credibility because they do not include firsthand knowledge or details about who, when, where or how the searches were done.

In his ruling, Waddoups wrote that he finds "genuine" dispute as to whether the FBI has adequately looked for the tapes, even according to its own ethical standards.

"This is even more pronounced given the public importance of the videotapes and related documentation," he wrote.

Jesse Trentadue gets closer to ripping off the masks of the FBI's highly-placed “Sensitive Informant Program.”

In his motion, Trentadue described the program as one used by the bureau “to recruit and/or place informants on the staffs of members of the United States Congress and perhaps even federal judges, in the national media, within other federal agencies as well as the White House, on defense teams in high-profile federal and/or state criminal prosecutions, inside state and local law enforcement agencies, and even among the clergy of organized religions.”

Jesse Trentadue on TalkingStickTV: Death, Lies, and Revenge in Federal Custody

Long but well worth the time.

More fraying FBI cover-ups. "FBI explanation of missing Oklahoma City bombing tapes not credible, judge says."

"This is a matter of significant public interest," the judge said, adding it's time for it to be resolved.

A federal judge on Wednesday continued to question the FBI's explanation for not producing videotapes associated with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that a Salt Lake lawyer has sought for nearly six years.

"It's quite astounding that documents as important as these went missing and the FBI says, 'Well, they're gone,'" U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups said during a motion hearing.

At issue is whether the FBI adequately responded to Jesse Trentadue's Freedom of Information Act request for footage of Timothy McVeigh parking a truckload of explosives at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. Specifically, the Salt Lake attorney is after a building surveillance tape and dashcam video from the Oklahoma state trooper who stopped McVeigh 90 minutes after the explosion that killed 168 people.

A Noble Lie: A Documentary on the OKC Bombing and the Federal Cover-up that followed.

Noble Lie: a myth or untruth knowingly told by the elite to maintain social harmony, or the social position of that elite.

Just after I returned from DC, I sat down to watch a new documentary on the Oklahoma City Bombing entitled A Noble Lie.

Here is a trailer.

Overall the film is very useful, although they spend some time mentioning and/or following theories that my friend, the late J.D. Cash, called "Alice in Wonderland rabbit holes" -- the Arab involvement crusade of Jayna Davis (which made the Fibbies very happy) and bombs pre-planted inside the building, to name two. (Seeing J.D. in the film reminded me of how much I miss that fearless, brilliant, doggedly determined man.)

I was amused to note that the film makers used my poster of Aryan Republican Army bank robber Michael Brescia that the constitutional militias used to embarrass the FBI into finally arresting that Elohim City roommate of federal deep-cover agent Andreas Carl Strassmeier. Amused, for they did it without attribution or mentioning our little psy-ops campaign. Well, there's only so much you can fit into two hours.

Still, the bulk of the film is very useful when it exposes many of the "noble lies" that made up the federal cover-up, especially the murder of Kenny Trentadue. With the above reservations not withstanding, A Noble Lie is a very important work and well worth the price.

Jesse Trentadue talks to Lew Rockwell about the torture-murder of his brother, Kenneth, the Oklahoma City Bombing, and a highly suspicious sting operation.

Secret Police Murder and Cover-Up

Autopsy of Injustice. Let the dead teach the living in the Gunwalker Scandal.

"So that is where we are, as far as I know. The committee may have a rabbit in their hat. In fact, if they've been doing what they claim to have been doing they should have a whole warren of embarrassing rabbits for Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano and the sitting president of the United States. If. . . Maybe. . . Or, the fix is in, which means they have decided to try to save their rotten system and not the country."

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt van Rijn

It is early on the morning I fly out to Mordor-on-the-Potomac. I awoke too soon from my sleep with this essay almost fully formed in my head, and so I present it you, gentle readers, as a follow-on to the previous post, including the words above, which I am told has excited some consternation and displeasure at the Issa committee.

The term "autopsy" in its modern sense dates from the the 1650s or thereabouts. It derives from the Greek "autopsia" which means "a seeing with one's own eyes," and its spirit is embodied in the Latin phrase "Mortui vivos docent," or, "Let the dead teach the living."

There are those, and they are not only folks working for Darrell Issa, who believe that I am being too harsh, too suspicious, of the year-long investigation. Various people called me yesterday to chide me for a lack of faith and respect. "Why did you have to embarrass the Congressman about Davos?" one asked.

Truth be told, I don't care whether the independently wealthy Darrell Issa goes to Davos. Good on him, both for making the money and having the ability to jet around the world. I mentioned it only because I knew it would get their attention, these people who almost consistently refuse to answer my questions directly. Heck, I even understand that, knowing what Rachel Madcow or "Bloody Hands" Cummings would do with the knowledge to try to discredit the investigation with guilt by association.

I poked them about Davos, not because I think Issa is hobnobbing with George Soros in some grand, Alex Jones conspiracy or simply out of pique that the committee has mystified me and other more mainstream journalists with their actions (or, in most cases, inactions), but rather because I have had almost two decades of "autopsia" when it comes to federal law enforcement scandals and, perhaps more than any other observer of this, the worst of such scandals, I believe that the dead should teach the living.

(Sidenote: It is no small thing that the committee has for many weeks cut off the flow of information to "mainstream" journalists who, unlike me, actually have a pay grade. Have you noticed how many Gunwalker stories Sharyl Attkisson of CBS has done lately? Zero. Zip. Nada. Bupkus. You know why? I have no specific knowledge, but I can tell you that editors -- especially editors who are made nervous by the threat that this scandal poses to their Dear Leader's regime -- do not keep reporters on stories where the sources dry up. And the committee has in great measure dried up the flow of information on what it is that they are doing. If they are now upset that people wonder why that is and what it portends, even to the point of making unfair guesses, well . . . they have only themselves to blame.)

"Mortui vivos docent."

The Randy Weaver family. The ATF wanted to make him an informant against the Aryan Nations. He refused. In the end, the U.S. Marshals killed his 14 year old son Sammy with a shot in the back and the FBI "accidentally" shot his wife Vicki in the head as she held their 10-month-old daughter Elishiba. With optics that FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi used, he could have seen Vicki Weaver's back teeth, even firing through the door glass as he did. As Wikipedia notes, "A Justice Department review later found this second shot was unconstitutional and the lack of a request to surrender was 'inexcusable', since Harris and the two Weavers were running for cover and could not pose an imminent threat." The FBI dubbed their temporary camp "Camp Vicki" and during the ensuing ten-day standoff negotiators taunted the survivors with "Vicki, come on out, we have blueberry pancakes." The negotiators later claimed they didn't know Vicki was dead, but Lon Horiuchi certainly did.

Politicians of both parties saw to that Lon Horiuchi was protected from legal consequences. FBI Assistant Director Larry Potts (a "FOL" -- "Friend of Louie," FBI Director Louis Freeh -- was censured for his role and in the subsequent cover-up. He was allowed to retire in 1997, after also participating in the command decision at Waco.

"Mortui vivos docent."

Some of the kids at Waco before their encounter with the FBI Hostage Roasting Team.

Here's some views of the end result of your tax dollars at work:

No one -- NO ONE -- was ever punished or even inconvenienced by what they did to these children at Waco. Eric Holder was instrumental in covering up the circumstances of the Waco inferno, including the prosecution of U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston, the only federal employee who seemed remotely interested in getting to the bottom of what actually happened. In this, Holder had bi-partisan help from the GOP. (See This Is Not An Assault: Penetrating the Web of Official Lies Regarding the Waco Incident by David T. Hardy & Rex Kimball.)

This bi-partisan cover-up cooperation continued to pay Eric Holder dividends into the 21st Century. From an article by Tommy Witherspoon in the Waco Tribune, 16 January 2009:

U.S. attorney general nominee Eric Holder not questioned about Waco Branch Davidian siege.

U.S. Attorney General-designate Eric Holder was prepared to be bombarded during his Senate confirmation hearings Thursday with a host of questions about a variety of topics, including his role as acting attorney general during a special investigation into the 1993 Branch Davidian debacle.

While he fielded questions about waterboarding terrorist suspects and the 2001 pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, Senate Judiciary Committee members didn’t get around to asking about the Branch Davidian investigation.

Former Attorney General Janet Reno recused herself from a special investigation that was conducted by former U.S. Sen. John Danforth into how the fire started in April 1993 in which Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and 75 of his followers perished.

Reno’s recusal left Holder, then No. 2 at the Justice Department, as acting attorney general for the purposes of Danforth’s 14-month, $17 million investigation.

Sen. Arlen Specter — ranking Republican on Senate Judiciary — indicated earlier this week that the Branch Davidian siege and Holder’s involvement in Danforth’s investigation might be a topic discussed during Holder’s confirmation hearings. Internet blogs have been rife with speculation about possible Holder testimony on the siege.

Danforth said this week that he supports Holder’s nomination and thinks he will be an excellent attorney general. He said as acting attorney general, Holder was the person to whom Danforth and his investigators submitted requests for information.

“He was very good and played it straight,” Danforth said. “I think that, oftentimes, the reaction to people in agencies or departments where there is an investigation going on is to circle the wagons. But that was not him at all. He was very forthcoming and very cooperative with us and provided the information we needed.”

Waco attorney Bill Johnston, a former assistant U.S. attorney who helped prosecute 11 Branch Davidians on murder charges, was the only person prosecuted as a result of Danforth’s investigation.

Johnston admitted that he failed to turn over his personal notes to investigators that they said revealed Johnston knew at least by 1994 that the FBI used tear-gas devices capable of sparking a fire on the final day of the 51-day standoff with Koresh.

They said Johnston also lied to a special grand jury in St. Louis about his level of cooperation.

"Mortui vivos docent."

Baylee Almon, barely alive, pulled from the rubble of the Murrah Building, Oklahoma City, 19 April 1995. She died shortly afterward.

"Mortui vivos docent."

Kenny Trentadue.

The official explanation of the bombing -- what Oklahoma investigative journalist J.D. Cash derisively called "The Lone Bomber Theory" -- was seriously complicated by credible reports of "others unknown." As I wrote recently:

A U.S. Attorney in Arizona made the proffer to McVeigh associate Michael Fortier in order to flesh out the "lone bomber theory" and divert attention away from Elohim City, the Aryan Republican Army and federal undercover informant Andreas Carl Strassmeier.

The name of that United States Attorney was Janet Napolitano.

The Oklahoma City Bombing, we now know, was at least influenced by and at worst executed by participants in a larger FBI operation called PATCON (See here and here. PATCON, and the cover-up of its deadly offshoots, was carried out under administrations of both parties. Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano are both long-time players in this cover-up, but then it has its GOP participants as well.

"Mortui vivos docent."

Brian Terry, Killed in Action, 15 December 2010, Peck Canyon, Arizona.

Let the dead teach the living. And what do these hundreds of dead -- thousands if you count the Mexican victims of Gunwalker, and I do -- as a result of federal law enforcement actions over the past two decades teach us? What do the bi-partisan cover-ups in all these cases teach us? They teach us that trusting anyone in the federal government when they utter the phrase "we will get to the bottom of it" is folly. They teach us that the Eric Holders of the world -- these evil men who commit crimes under color of law, violating the Constitution that they swore an oath to uphold -- could not succeed in their crimes without the urbane and sophisticated John Danforths of the world who cover for them.

My problem is that I have seen with my own eyes too much. I no longer trust. I can no longer be patient. For we who have trusted and been patient in our previous searches for federal justice have always been betrayed by the same people who claimed to be determined to "get to the bottom of it."

If my long education in bi-partisan perfidy in the cover-up of federal murder and mass murder has made me impatient, abrasive, untrusting and cynical, I make no apology. If we do see a complete and honest investigation of the Gunwalker Conspiracy, it would be a triumph of faint hope over jaded experience.

But that's not the way to bet.

"Mortui vivos docent."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Holder in Salt Lake City. As a Threeper does some guerrilla picketing, Eric thanks his lickspittle Shurtleff.

Eric Holder on Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff: "He is more of what we need in this country. . . He has become a good friend." No doubt.

The Deseret News reports on Eric Holder's speech: "Nation has not yet reached 'promised land,' U.S. attorney general tells Utah audience." Well, sure. The promised land of the Founders will happen when such criminal men as Holder who prey on the liberty and property of the people under color of law are routinely tried and punished as traitors.

Holder also spent time with recently appointed U.S. Attorney for Utah David Barlow and his staff.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff called Holder's first visit to Utah a historic moment. Of the four or five U.S. attorneys general he has worked with over the years, Shurtleff said Holder has been the most accessible.

Holder also expressed admiration for Shurtleff.

"He is more of what we need in this country," he said of the Utah Republican. "He has become a good friend."

Since Holder took office in February 2009, Shurtleff has had several meetings with him and his chief deputies on issues such as the college football Bowl Championship Series, illegal immigration, mortgage fraud and Internet safety. The Department of Justice sued the state in November over its illegal immigration enforcement law.

Shurtleff is being sued by Holder, but he's the best thing since sliced bread? These two guys should get a room. I wonder if Dolly is jealous?

"Sniff. . . Never have an affair with a politician."

Meanwhile, we have this report on Threeper Agent J on an excellent little agitprop he performed at the event.

Interesting morning, even though I bugged out early due to agitprop. I showed up to the Sheraton around 10:30, asked the manager if I could give hand-outs (attached) to the attendees. Sidenote: I knew to call them hand-outs, not flyers or other commercial names since city ordinance prohibits handbills, flyers etc. He came back a few minutes later and told me the contract they had signed prohibited anyone else giving out handouts or media to attendees except the room renter and I would have to protest from the street sidewalk. I asked if I could not hand them out at the main lobby entrance door and he gave the private property speech. I did remind him it was an event the public had been invited to but decided not to push it. Onward and forward!

Set up the 3 fold presentation board sign I had made saying: HOLDER LIED . . . AGT. BRIAN TERRY MURDER COVER-UP . . . OPERATION FAST & FURIOUS . . . KENNETH TRENTADUE MURDER COVER-UP . . . FBI PATCON OKBOMB. At the entrance driveway to the parking lot I smiled, greeting incoming guests and offered hand-outs. Then I got lucky and scored a minor coup: a school bus full of High School kids pulled up and started to unload on the street curb. I quickly positioned myself by the bus door and greeted each student with "Welcome to the Drum Major Awards" as I gave them a hand-out. Some helpful students even passed them around.

Just before 11 am, a small group arrived bearing printed yellow signs 'UNFAIR SHERATON' and a small Hispanic man dressed as a mariachi who was rather 'light in the shorts' as my buddy with the camera observed began placing about 10 lawn signs and organizing where the protesters would stand. Mexican flags and US flags came out, El Zorro put on his zorro mask and more and more homeless people with yellow signs showed up over the next few minutes. A La Raza flag came out but they wouldn't answer who they were or what they were protesting. Capitan El Zorro wouldn't look at me as I asked who he was or what group this was and the homeless people with the yellow signs said they were protesting a lay off of an old lady housekeeper but didn't know anything about her or couldn't say anything 'for legal reasons'. In ten minutes there were thirty of them parading up and down and I was feeling pretty isolated, me with my sign and my buddy with the camera to document if law enforcement got aggressive.

One of SLC's finest came out and sized up the group and I made sure to point out to him that I was not with the 'yellow signs' and he asked me where my permit was - I told him I was on the sidewalk (permits are for street use). I had my buddy with the camera keep a weather eye out since I felt like things were going south and I was being set up. Another school bus pulled up to the curb and I again quickly positioned myself to greet and hand-out but this time the teachers got off first because of all the protesters and made a corridor for the students. It looked like a private school for minorities since the age group ranged from elementary to high school. I greeted the teachers, offered a hand-out and was rebuffed. I pleaded quietly with them, told them I respected the Drum Major Awards, that I was being respectful, and asked to be able to give it to the older kids as they got off the bus. One teacher was adamant NO, but I kept asking 'please' and another teacher gave a tiny nod when the first had walked a few paces away. I managed to give about 7 hand-outs until the NO teacher came back and got mad, so I told him that I hoped they did enjoy the awards and have a nice day.

Just a couple minutes later my buddy warned me that the manager and several officers kept coming to the front door and talking. El Zorro was jumping around waving the Mexican flag and the 'yellow sign' younger toughs (not the homeless guys, more like young union types) were getting pretty animated. Then the FBI guys did a 'first bump'. The cheap suits, sunglasses, lapel pins and earpieces were classic 'look at me I'm a federal agent'. They cruised down the sidewalk ignoring the yellow signs very much zoned in on me. I greeted them cheerfully to the Drum Major Awards handed them my hand out and my buddy on my signal went to get the car. He's 50% disabled from back injury but can walk usually without a cane and they came within inches of running him down, but he just stopped and stared at the guy and made him jump aside rather than run over him.

We bugged out before I could get blamed for the 'yellow sign' agitation and had a cheap burger at Sonic. All in all a successful day, and a decent guerilla operation, but next time I definitely won't go it alone. I'll send pics when I can.

It is unfortunate that, aside from the cameraman, he was the only one there, but J gets points for proceeding with the task at hand. Well done, J.

Yours in liberty,