by L. Crane
Reuters announced on Monday that the FBI agents at a news conference warned that anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to law enforcement.
The particular emphasis seems a bit puzzling, considering that no “sovereign citizen” incidents have been highlighted in the news recently. In fact, a review of online FBI’s media outlets reveals nothing concerning the Sovereign Citizen Movement since September 2011:
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2010/april/sovereigncitizens_041310
In fact, coverage on this week’s news conference is completely absent from the http://www.fbi.gov/ page, making the non-sequitur all the more
obvious. When all the reports seem to lead back to one, single Reuters press release as the only coverage, one starts to wonder. Is that actually what the FBI emphasized, given the narrower (and dated) coverage emphasizing actual acts of violence and weapons stockpiling concerning the Sovereign Citizen Movement reflected on their news outlets? Or is this just more titillating media spin? And toward what end?The emphasis, whether FBI’s or Reuter’s, on extremist refusal to pay taxes, issues with government environmental regulations, and the bankruptcy of the U.S. Government by leaving the gold standard suggests a gentler updated version of the appalling February 2009 http://www.scribd.com/doc/13290698/The-Modern-Militia-MovementMissouri-MIAC-Strategic-Report-20Feb09- that define it for FBI and other law enforcement organizations. The surprising part is, why now, seemingly out of the blue?
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/02/08/domestic-threat-sovereign-citizens/ echoes the comparison in it’s comment that “It’s nice to see the FBI is keeping its eye on the real homegrown threat in America — Ron Paul fans” and its statistical commentary:
“How large has this epidemic of “sovereign citizens” grown? According to the FBI, 18 sovereign citizens were convicted of mainly white-collar crimes in 2010 and 2011, up from 10 in 2009. Two of these sovereign citizens were involved in two separate police shootings in 2010 and 2011.
So there’s certainly been some violence coming from these anti-government activists. But based on the data provided by the FBI, is this really a threat that warrants a major press conference?”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/fbi-increasing-its-monitoring-of-sovereign-citizens-but-why/ presents an interesting commentary on the question of why the FBI chooses to focus on this group versus others:
“In fact, a Reuters report sheds more light on what a majority of this group has been up to recently: “Legal convictions of such extremists, mostly for white-collar crimes such as fraud, have increased from 10 in 2009 to 18 each in 2010 and 2011, FBI agents said.” That’s an increase of eight crimes.
That’s in stark contrast to, say, the Occupy Wall Street group. Compared to the 18 arrests in 2010 and 2011 for the sovereign citizens, the number of Occupy arrests by just December stood, according to some, at 5,214. There have been many more since the start of the year. On top of that, the Occupiers have also displayed a violent hate of police.
Still, the FBI has its sights set on the movement…
But the question remains: why would the government go out of its way to note it’s monitoring these individuals — which admittedly seem to be preoccupied mostly with white collar crimes (18 of them most recently) — and yet so many government officials have gone out of their way to praise the Occupy movement.
Curious, no?”
The selective emphasis of sovereign citizens during a time of little activity, especially in light of the questionable and current activity of http://exposethemedia.com/2012/02/07/fbi-warns-of-threat-from-people-opposed-to-taxes-and-regulations/
, certainly bears scrutiny.
The February 20, 2009 publication of the MIAC report coincided with the new agenda of a new administration — Obama took office in January 2009, Holder was sworn in the beginning of February. Emphasis on non-Islamic “domestic terrorism” began in earnest around that time, coinciding with the 2009 rising of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement, with tax reform emphasis fueled by outrage over such excesses as the Goldman Sachs bank bailout. But what’s happening now?
Is it media spin to defame Ron Paul and his supporters, given Mitt Romney’s current run for the presidency? Perhaps initiated by http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/romney-goldman-sachs-donor/2012/01/27/id/425780 who are financing his campaign bid? Or is it something else?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-focused-on-sovereign-citizen-extremists-around-the-country-to-prevent-
violence/2012/02/06/gIQA8ypnuQ_story.html speculates that renewed FBI focus on sovereign citizens is “preventative”:
“The FBI has been paying closer attention to ‘sovereign citizen’ extremists around the country out of concerns that they will react violently when they interact with
government officials.”
What exactly are they expecting? Is there some incindiary legislation or Draconian tax increase looming over the horizon? Or are they planning for backlash to an even more obscene bank bailout at taxpayer expense to occur before 2013, and the likelihood of a new presidential administration? Or, even worse, some sudden, huge economic downturn severe enough to cause rioting in the streets?
Because the handful of sovereign citizen events that have occurred clearly doesn’t merit this kind of emphasis. At the very least, it seems they’re defaming the non-sovereign citizen variety, painting Tea Partiers or Ron Paul supporters with a negative “sovereign citizen” smear brush.