Corruption and MAGA in the country's security agencies

I've been stewing on this for a couple of days not knowing how to present it. Every once in a while, we get a taste of a right-wing politically oriented faction in the FBI. This shouldn't be surprising if you think of the FBI as another law enforcement agency and realize how many right-wingers are attracted to those professions. But it's unnerving when you hear how deep it goes and what it could portend.

Here's one story today from the Secret Service:

The saga of Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali broke into public view with their rushed arrest last week on a single charge of impersonating law enforcement. Prosecutors suggested the men posed a national security threat and may have compromised at least four Secret Service agents and officers, including ones who protected First Lady Jill Biden and the White House complex.

[...]

Authorities say they continue to investigate possible bribery and extortion and the four Secret Service personnel have been placed on leave pending an internal investigation.

[...]

Lawyer Greg Smith, who represents Ali, said the facts didn't match the rhetoric in the case and pointed out that his client had been deemed "indigent" and unable to pay for private legal counsel, hardly the sign of a foreign intelligence operative.

Public defender Michelle Peterson, who represents Taherzadeh, said he had submitted to an interview that lasted more than five hours after he was arrested, and provided the government with plenty of information during that time.

"When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail," Peterson said, adding that authorities "jumped to the wildest conspiracy theories" based on scant evidence.

  NPR

So it's not unheard of that "authorities" would do that. I just don't think "authorities" have a handle on this kind of thing, and they always manage to hush up problematic situations, in large part because they police their own.

"At this point, there's been no showing that national security information was in fact compromised," the judge said. He added that both men are now "infamous" because of international publicity, making it unlikely they could attempt or pull off an effort to dupe other federal officers.

Among the items the defendants allegedly provided to the Secret Service personnel were luxury-style apartments. The tab came to more than $220,000, but only a tiny fraction of that rent has been paid, raising questions about whether the men were motivated more by "bravado" than a sinister national security purpose.

The judge said earlier this week that prosecutors likely had enough evidence to convict both men on the single felony charge. But, he added, neither posed a serious risk of flight or a broader danger to the community.

Seriously?

Okay, MAYBE it's nothing, but it's obvious we're going to downplay this. No surprise. If you don't already have a skeptical (and/or worrying) view of our national security agencies, you might take a listen to this Talking Feds podcast from a couple days ago. And then see how you sleep at night.

If you don't care to hear the latest political scandals about Ivanka and Jared, you can skip the first 15 minutes of that podcast.  

You can also read the essence of the conversation in Frank Figliuzii's April 2 column.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.