from 21st Century Wire:
Miranda Devine from the New York Post reports…
Thirty former FBI agents, including a retired deputy assistant director, head of counterterrorism and five SWAT team members, have spoken out publicly in support of suspended FBI whistleblower Stephen Friend.
Their heartfelt messages, obtained exclusively by The Post, show a deep and widespread anguish about the politicization of the FBI.
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“It’s time to stop the FBI from being the enforcer of a political party’s ideology,” says Ernie Tibaldi, a retired agent from San Francisco. “We need to re-establish the FBI as the apolitical and independent law enforcement entity that it always was.”
He expressed gratitude to Friend “for having the courage to stand up to the corruption that has taken over the leadership of the FBI.”
Many former agents hailed Friend, a SWAT team member in Florida, as a “hero” after he was punished for refusing to participate in what he regarded as unnecessarily heavy-handed SWAT raids over Jan. 6 misdemeanors.
In his whistleblower complaint to the Department of Justice inspector general, Friend alleged that the FBI has been manipulating case-file management in order to falsely inflate the threat of domestic terrorism, and using unconstitutional excessive force against political dissenters.
‘Moral courage’
Terry Turchie, former deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, describes Friend as “a model example of what FBI agents nationwide should be.”
“Moral courage, leadership in the face of pressure, and true to the Oath of Office FBI agents take to defend the United States Constitution and protect America and its citizens.
“I am beyond proud to offer him my support in the decisions he had to make.”
Turchie, who led the Unabomber task force, says he didn’t even use a SWAT team in 1996 to arrest Theodore Kaczynski, a violent domestic terrorist who had killed three people and injured 23 others.
“No real FBI agent would defend the position of using SWAT teams to arrest non-violent senior citizens and others with political opinions not currently tolerated by this administration, compounded by the idea that many of these cases involve misdemeanor criminal charges.
“This activity actually generates tension in communities and increases the potential for tragic results and injuries to FBI agents and citizens.”
Five former SWAT team members in Friend’s support group agree that raiding a nonviolent person on a misdemeanor offense was wrong and potentially dangerous.
“I was involved in numerous arrests where we never used any SWAT teams,” says retired Special Agent David Baldovin, who served from 1969 to 2000, including 25 years in SWAT.
“The current use — or should I say abuse — of bureau SWAT teams has been outrageous.”
Baldovin expressed thanks to Friend “for having the courage to say ‘hell, no’ to the current bunch of FBI bureaucrats and tyrants.”
“They do not exemplify Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity, but you, sir, certainly do …
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