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Is the FBI a law enforcement entity or a political entity?

Is the FBI a law enforcement entity or a political entity?


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radcen

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Is the FBI a law enforcement entity or a political entity?

Not on paper, how they act. Today's day-to-day reality.

If you say LE solely, you're saying they have no underlying political motivation whatsoever. Same in reverse.
 
Federal law enforcement agency that sadly is sometimes used for political gains.

Yes we saw that with the lenient sentence the CIA Director (Petraeus) received.
He should have received substantial Jail time.
 
Yes we saw that with the lenient sentence the CIA Director (Petraeus) received.
He should have received substantial Jail time.

Yeah....when you have classified material in your possession after denying such possession and you give unprecedented access your mistress to write your biography even though she's a journalist who claims to have good intentions, you've definitely have a bad mix for pillow talk. As a veteran, I have tons of respect for Gen. Petraeus. But he made a huge mistake on two counts here: 1) having a mistress and allowing her to have such liberal access to him; and, 2) lying about not having classified documents in his possession.
 
Yeah....when you have classified material in your possession after denying such possession and you give unprecedented access your mistress to write your biography even though she's a journalist who claims to have good intentions, you've definitely have a bad mix for pillow talk. As a veteran, I have tons of respect for Gen. Petraeus. But he made a huge mistake on two counts here: 1) having a mistress and allowing her to have such liberal access to him; and, 2) lying about not having classified documents in his possession.

He was given a sweet deal as he has dirt on many of them.
 
Is the FBI a law enforcement entity or a political entity?

Not on paper, how they act. Today's day-to-day reality.

If you say LE solely, you're saying they have no underlying political motivation whatsoever. Same in reverse.

I don't believe that the FBI has any political motivations, and that they are a law enforcement agency alone.

Now, individual people are a different story, and being humans, have all sorts of motivations, including political ones.

However, the FBI has a strict and stringent set of standards that they hold themselves to that preclude such motivations from entering into their professional lives. Which is primarily why so many people couldn't understand the outcome of the Hillary Clinton investigation, because it appeared to be so out of character.
 
Yes we saw that with the lenient sentence the CIA Director (Petraeus) received.
He should have received substantial Jail time.

Damn right he should have gone to jail, and for a long while at that. He let the small head think for the big head and he put this country at substantial risk by doing so.
 
He was given a sweet deal as he has dirt on many of them.

Yeah...a misdemeanor charge for mishandling classified materials.

When set next to Hillary's "gross negligence" charge, the only real difference here is Petraeus knew he had classified material in his possession and lied about it. Hillary...???...plausible deniability? No classified marking on documents (email attachments), no way to truly know if she knew with 100% certainty that the content of what she received did, in fact, contain classified information. Yes, someone in her position should have made that automatic presumption that everything she received had the potential of containing classified information, but without the markings she can rightly stand behind "I never received nor sent any material that was marked classified" despite the fact that the FBI did recover traces of classified information in the emails they recovered from her server.

I don't mean to rehash this situation because it's been debated to death already, but I still contend that she gets off the hook here on two points:

1) no classified markings on emails/documents she received or sent

- meaning she can always play stupid with this whether she truly knew what she was had or not;

and,

2) no confirmed server hacks

- which means that as long as no classified material purposely fell into the wrong hands, she remains in the clear. The fact that she (or her assistants/hired hands - attorneys) deleted what was assumed to be unclassified emails not meant for archiving may give the FBI reason to believe she somehow tried to do the right thing, it's still a breach of protocol.

Snake in the grass...?...maybe, but as long as there's no smoking gun which was the case with Petraeus, she'll remain in the clear behind "plausible deniability" and the FBI may have...may have...helped her get away with it.

Okay...:rantoff:...back to the poll at-hand.
 
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Federal law enforcement agency that sadly is sometimes used for political gains.

Anyone that serves at the pleasure of an elected official, like it or not, is political as are the instructions that they get and later send down stream. Most crimes can be viewed as one of a variety of offenses (or none at all?) that carry varying minimum/maximum penalties and "priorities" get set based on all manner of political pressure.
 
The Director, Associate Director, Assistant to the Director, Assistant Directors, inspectors, and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice may carry firearms, serve warrants and subpoenas issued under the authority of the United States and make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3052

That makes them a law enforcement agency of the Federal government.

The fact that the Director is a political appointee is not relevant as many police chiefs, police commissioners, and other State and Local law enforcement heads are elected or appointed to office.

Are they subject to possible influence? Every level of law enforcement is.

Does that make them political? Only insofar as they are all organs of the state.
 
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I don't believe that the FBI has any political motivations, and that they are a law enforcement agency alone.

Now, individual people are a different story, and being humans, have all sorts of motivations, including political ones.

However, the FBI has a strict and stringent set of standards that they hold themselves to that preclude such motivations from entering into their professional lives. Which is primarily why so many people couldn't understand the outcome of the Hillary Clinton investigation, because it appeared to be so out of character.
I can't accept the distinction. The agency IS the people within it. Whatever the answer is for the people is the answer for the agency.
 
Anyone that serves at the pleasure of an elected official, like it or not, is political as are the instructions that they get and later send down stream. Most crimes can be viewed as one of a variety of offenses (or none at all?) that carry varying minimum/maximum penalties and "priorities" get set based on all manner of political pressure.
It's not supposed to be this way, but it is.
 
I can't accept the distinction. The agency IS the people within it. Whatever the answer is for the people is the answer for the agency.

The distinction, in my experience, is that FBI agents can have political opinions and motivations in their private lives, but (again, in my experience) that the FBI agents have a unique ability to separate their private lives from their professional responsibilities and their jobs. That's what I'm referring to. They are trained that way. They are almost automaton like in their professional demeanor.
 
It's not supposed to be this way, but it is.

Everybody that gets a paycheck (except the POTUS?) has a boss even if they are largely protected under a contract. It would be unrealistic to expect a career politician not to make political appointments.
 
The distinction, in my experience, is that FBI agents can have political opinions and motivations in their private lives, but (again, in my experience) that the FBI agents have a unique ability to separate their private lives from their professional responsibilities and their jobs. That's what I'm referring to. They are trained that way. They are almost automaton like in their professional demeanor.
Ok, I can see the distinction for lower-level officers and how they carry out their day-to-day duties. I am thinking more at the higher levels and the motivations of where and how and why they do what they do. It could come down to even what the higher-up place as priorities and assign to the lower-level agents. What they choose to not place as a priority can be just as important as what they choose to place as a priority.
 
Rather than follow an outdated precedent, FBI director Comey had a Golden opportunity to set a "new precedent".
Though touted as a man of high integrity, Director Comey has proved to be a sellout to righteousness, a man sadly lacking in courage.

If Loretta Lynch had a shred of integrity, she'd have promptly stepped-down from office after being caught with her dirty hand in the cookie jar.
Lynch, Comey and the Clinton comprise the reprehensible Wall Street Machine that the liberals PRETEND to despise.
Anyone who can accept the immoral conduct of this Gruesome Threesome is living proof that a fool is born every 60 seconds.
PRAY TO GOD that Pinocchio-in-the-flesh, never gets anywhere near the oval office. If she does, you can kiss you azz goodbye!
 
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Ok, I can see the distinction for lower-level officers and how they carry out their day-to-day duties. I am thinking more at the higher levels and the motivations of where and how and why they do what they do. It could come down to even what the higher-up place as priorities and assign to the lower-level agents. What they choose to not place as a priority can be just as important as what they choose to place as a priority.

Political appointees are always beholding to their masters.
 
Is the FBI a law enforcement entity or a political entity?

Not on paper, how they act. Today's day-to-day reality.

If you say LE solely, you're saying they have no underlying political motivation whatsoever. Same in reverse.

Not sure how to respond to this poll, at least not yet.

My initial thought is that as long as the head of the FBI is a political appointment, I don't see how the FBI can avoid to be a political entity, sad to say.

It's really should be a LE entity.

Political appointees are always beholding to their masters.

Ahh, yeah, beat me to it.
 
I'm fairly sure it's solely law enforcement.
 
Is the FBI a law enforcement entity or a political entity?

Not on paper, how they act. Today's day-to-day reality.

If you say LE solely, you're saying they have no underlying political motivation whatsoever. Same in reverse.

Any origination that is controlled by someone appointed by one politician and confirmed by other politicians is political nature.
 
Is the FBI a law enforcement entity or a political entity?

Not on paper, how they act. Today's day-to-day reality.

If you say LE solely, you're saying they have no underlying political motivation whatsoever. Same in reverse.

I'd say they're an LEO with political undertones.
Depends on who's in charge.(e.g the President, FBI head, AG, etc.)
 
Is the FBI a law enforcement entity or a political entity?

Not on paper, how they act. Today's day-to-day reality.

If you say LE solely, you're saying they have no underlying political motivation whatsoever. Same in reverse.

All law enforcement agencies have gotten political.
 
Is the FBI a law enforcement entity or a political entity?

Not on paper, how they act. Today's day-to-day reality.

If you say LE solely, you're saying they have no underlying political motivation whatsoever. Same in reverse.

Like ALL law enforcement it is "Law enforcement primarily, but with some politics."
 
Yes we saw that with the lenient sentence the CIA Director (Petraeus) received.
He should have received substantial Jail time.

As should Hillary Clinton for her actions.
 
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