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Posts tagged ‘FBI Director Christopher Wray’

FBI Director Accused of Hypocrisy for Monitoring Conservatives but Not Pro-Hamas Protests


By: S.A. McCarthy / @pipesmoknpapist / April 26, 2024

Read more at https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/04/26/hypocrisy-fbi-monitors-conservatives-but-not-pro-hamas-protests/

FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee Dec. 5, 2023 in Washington, D.C
FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee Dec. 5, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

The director of the FBI is being accused of hypocrisy for allowing the targeting of concerned parents, Trump supporters, and American Catholics but not “monitoring” pro-Hamas rallies and protests on college campuses.

Director Christopher Wray was asked in an interview on Tuesday about “actively monitoring” the rallies erupting across college and university campuses, which have become the subject of controversy and condemnation from even senior government officials. Wray replied, “We don’t monitor protests.” He added, “But we do share intelligence about specific threats of violence.”

Social media users reacted, accusing Wray of hypocrisy. Conservative podcast host Graham Allen quoted Wray saying, “We don’t monitor protests,” and wrote:

Author and conservative media commentator Jesse Kelly pointed out the FBI’s failure to investigate the vandalizing and firebombing of pregnancy resource centers, commenting:

Numerous social media users posted photos of known or suspected FBI agents undercover at pro-Trump rallies, alleged that the FBI embedded undercover agents at the Jan. 6, 2021 rally at the U.S. Capitol building, or noted the FBI’s designation of parents protesting school board meetings or “radical traditionalist Catholics” as potential domestic terror threats. Referring to the infamous memo from the FBI’s Richmond field office, detailing plans to infiltrate and spy on Catholic parishes, one user commented, “I guess they are too busy monitoring Catholic churches.”

The U.S. House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government previously castigated the FBI’s memo for its reliance on biased sources, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, which lists “radical traditionalist Catholics” as a hate group, alongside neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. The controversial memo, leaked early in 2023, labeled American Catholics who attend the Tridentine Mass (the form of the Mass common prior to 1969) as “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” (RMVEs). The memo’s creation included communication with other FBI field offices, interviews with at least one priest and a choir director, and the approval of senior FBI lawyers. The House Committee warned, “The FBI must be held accountable for its actions. It is not enough for the FBI to investigate itself and remedy its own wrongdoings, especially when it involves law-enforcement overreach involving fundamental religious freedoms.”

But that’s what the FBI appears to have done. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz submitted a report to Congress absolving the FBI of any wrongdoing in the drafting and circulating of the memo. Horowitz wrote, “Our review did not find evidence that anyone ordered or directed Analyst 1 or 2 to find a link between RMVEs and any specific religion or political affiliation, including Church 1, or that there was any underlying policy direction concerning such a link.” The report added, “Additionally, our review of emails, instant messages, and text messages for Analysts 1 and 2 during the relevant time period did not identify any evidence of discriminatory or inappropriate comments by them about Church 1, or individuals who practiced a particular religious faith or held specific political beliefs.”

Previously, both Wray and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland have stonewalled Congress in response to requests to interview FBI agents and analysts responsible for drafting and circulating the memo.

Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand, “The FBI shouldn’t be monitoring most protests, but when massive demonstrations are shutting down higher education institutions that threaten fellow students and incorporate genocidal slogans like ‘From the river to the sea,’ that all should pique the interest of federal law enforcement.”

She continued, “Wray’s comments are yet another hit to the FBI’s credibility after the Department of Justice’s inspector general held last week that the FBI did not commit any wrongdoing when it was looking into ‘racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists’ that they alleged were connected to ‘radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology.’”

Del Turco added, “The FBI’s heightened concern over traditional Catholics appears especially absurd when considering the agency’s total disinterest in protestors who are threatening Jewish students on college campuses.”

Currently, pro-Hamas rallies are taking place at schools such as Ohio State University and the Ivy League Columbia and Yale universities.

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FBI director says terror threats elevated to all-time high since Oct. 7: ‘Blinking lights everywhere’


Chris Pandolfo By Chris Pandolfo Fox News | Published December 5, 2023 11:01am EST | Updated December 5, 2023 12:32pm EST

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified Tuesday that the terror threat facing the United States has reached unprecedented levels since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Wray to describe the current “threat matrix” facing the United States at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

“What I would say that is unique about the environment that we’re in right now in my career is that while there may have been times over the years where individual threats could have been higher here or there than where they may be right now, I’ve never seen a time where all the threats or so many of the threats are all elevated, all at exactly the same time,” the FBI director replied. 

“So, blinking red lights analogy about 9/11 — all the lights were blinking red before 9/11, apparently,” Graham continued. “Obviously, all of us missed it. Would you say there’s multiple blinking red lights out there?” he asked. 

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FBI Director Wray Appears In Senate Judiciary Hearing
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on December 05, 2023 in Washington, DC. Wray used the oversight hearing to call for a renewal the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Section 702 authorities, which allow the FBI and other intelligence agencies to spy on foreigners. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“I see blinking red lights everywhere,” Wray answered. 

He later told Graham that since the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, when Hamas terrorists brutally murdered at least 1,200 Israelis, a “veritable rogue’s gallery of foreign terrorists” has called for attacks against the U.S.

“The threat level has gone to a whole nother level since Oct. 7,” Wray emphasized.

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U.S. Navy destroyer USS Carney. The Pentagon has confirmed 74 attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups on U.S. troops stationed in the Middle East in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17.  (U.S. Navy via Associated Press/File)

The director’s comments on Tuesday echo what he said in October, when he warned Senate lawmakers, “The actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate several years ago.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in October that reported threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities in the United States spiked in the days and weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war. 

The number of attacks on U.S. military bases overseas by Iran-backed proxy groups rose in November as well, with the Pentagon confirming at least 74 attacks on U.S. troops stationed in the Middle East since Oct. 17.

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The 74 attacks on U.S. troops have taken place in Iraq and Syria and began on Oct. 17 by Iraqi militia groups. The attacks are reportedly linked to the U.S.’s support for Israel in its retaliation against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, following its attack on Oct. 7.

The attacks do not include ballistic missiles being shot in the direction of U.S. military vessels, which commanding officers on those ships have ordered to be shot down.

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At home, the FBI and Las Vegas police this week foiled an alleged “lone wolf” terror plot by a teenager who pledged support to ISIS. 

On Friday, a 16-year-old suspect was arrested, and federal agents found components to build an explosive device and terrorist propaganda, officials said. The arrest was made after the suspect allegedly made special media posts announcing his plan for “lone wolf operations in Las Vegas against the enemies of Allah.” 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner, Liz Friden and Chris Eberhart contributed to this report.

Chris Pandolfo is a writer for Fox News Digital. Send tips to chris.pandolfo@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo. j

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Terrorism

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FBI Director Admits He Hasn’t Fired Anyone Over Anti-Catholic Memo


By: Tyler O’Neil / @Tyler2ONeil / December 05, 2023

Read more at https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/12/05/fbi-director-admits-he-hasnt-fired-anyone-anti-catholic-memo/

Christopher Wray in a blue suit speaks in front of a microphone
FBI Director Chris Wray admitted Tuesday that he has not fired anyone over the anti-Catholic memo. Pictured: Wray testifies during the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Nov. 17, 2022. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)

FBI Director Chris Wray admitted to Sen. Josh Hawley that he has not fired anyone at the FBI’s Richmond office over the memo urging the FBI to investigate “radical traditional Catholics.”

“You haven’t fired anybody,” Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said to Wray in a Senate hearing Tuesday.

He pressed Wray on the FBI Richmond office’s Jan. 23 memo citing the Southern Poverty Law Center in urging an investigation of “radical, traditional Catholic hate groups.” After a whistleblower published it in February, the FBI rescinded that memo, saying it did not reach the bureau’s standards. Hawley cited a report that the House Judiciary Committee and the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released on the Catholic memo Monday.

“In fact, what the House found is what is it, you admonished them,” Hawley said. Mockingly, he added, “Oh I feel much better. They’ve been sent to bed without food.”

“Good heavens, director! This is one of the most outrageous targetings,” the senator added. “You have mobilized your division, the most powerful law enforcement division in the world, against traditionalist Catholics—whatever the heck that means—and you have just told us you have not fired a single person.”

He went on to cite the House report, which found that key staff at the Richmond office did not see a problem with the report.

“What are you going to do about this? Are you going to fire these people or not?” the senator pressed.

“Those individuals have all been admonished and it is all going into their… annual performance reviews, which has direct impact on their compensation, among other things,” Wray responded.

“Do you have a problem with systemic bigotry against Catholics at the FBI?” Hawley also asked.

Wray flatly responded, “No.”

The FBI memo urged agents to probe the supposed nexus between “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” and “radical-traditional Catholics,” citing the Southern Poverty Law Center and including a list of SPLC-designated “hate groups” for agents to target.

The FBI told The Daily Signal that it was rescinding the memo after FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin published it on UncoverDC.com on Feb. 8. The national FBI office claimed that the memo “does not meet the exacting standards of the FBI” and promised to remove the document from its systems and “conduct a review of the basis for the document,” but it refused to answer further questions about the move.

As I explain in my book “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC took the program it has used to bankrupt organizations associated with the Ku Klux Klan and weaponized it against conservative groups, partially to scare donors into ponying up cash and partially to silence ideological opponents. The SPLC places conservative groups on a “hate map” with KKK chapters.

After the SPLC fired its co-founder amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal in 2019, a former staffer claimed that the SPLC’s accusations of “hate” are a “cynical fundraising scam” aimed at “bilking northern liberals.” Critics across the political spectrum have voiced opposition and alarm at the organization’s hate group smears. A terrorist even targeted an SPLC-designated “hate group” in Washington, D.C., in 2012, and he told the FBI he used the “hate map” to find his target. The SPLC condemned that act of terror, but kept the target on the list and the map.

The SPLC has also suggested that the Catholic Church itself holds a position on human sexuality that would qualify it as a “hate group.”

2023-12-04-The-FBIs-Breach-of-Religious-Freedom-The-Weaponization-of-Law-Enforcement-Against-Catholic-Americans14Download

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Political

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FBI will bring document alleging Biden ‘criminal bribery scheme’ to Capitol Hill — but a major question remains


By: CHRIS ENLOE | June 02, 2023

Read more at https://www.theblaze.com/news/fbi-brings-biden-document-capitol-hill/

MANDEL NGAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

FBI Director Christopher Wray will allow congressional investigators to view a document related to alleged criminal activity involving President Joe Biden.

Last month, the House Oversight Committee demanded that Wray turn over a copy of an FBI document that allegedly shows evidence that Biden, as vice president, was engaged in a “criminal bribery scheme” that involves “an exchange of money for policy decisions.”

According to Fox News, the FBI will bring the document in question to Capitol Hill on Monday. Only House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member on the committee, will be allowed to view the document. The document will be kept in a SCIF, a secured environment for viewing sensitive — most often, highly classified — information.

News of the planned document viewing comes after Wray offered to bring the document to Capitol Hill in a phone call with Comer on Wednesday. The FBI had previously refused to give Congress any access to the document. Bureau officials said the decision was necessary to protect confidential human sources. Still, it’s not clear whether Wray is complying with the subpoena, technically speaking.

On Wednesday, Comer said:

We have been clear that anything short of producing these documents to the House Oversight Committee is not in compliance with the subpoena. If the FBI fails to hand over the FD-1023 form as required by the subpoena, the House Oversight Committee will begin contempt of Congress proceedings.

A spokesman for the Republican lawmaker reaffirmed that sentiment on Thursday, suggesting the current plan may not spring Wray from contempt proceedings.

“Chairman Comer has been clear that anything short of producing the FD-1023 form to the House Oversight Committee is not compliance with his subpoena,” the spokesperson said. “This unclassified record contains pages of details that need to be investigated further by the House Oversight Committee.”

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FBI Director Says Terrorists Armed with Drones Will Attack U.S. [WATCH]


Posted by GirlsJustWannaHaveGuns.com | on September 27, 2017

Congress was warned on Wednesday that terror groups are ready to wage a drone war against the U.S., according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“I think we do know that terrorist organizations have an interest in using drones,” said the director during a hearing for the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

“We’ve seen that overseas already with growing frequency. I think the expectation is that it’s coming here imminently. I think they are relatively easy to acquire, relatively easy to operate, and quite difficult to disrupt and monitor,” Wray added.

During the same hearing Nicholas Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, expressed the same views as Wray’s.

“Two years ago this was not a problem. A year ago it was an emerging problem. Now it’s a real problem. So we’re quickly trying to up our game,” Rasmussen testified.

The Daily Caller reports, ‘He said that counterterrorism agencies have ramped up efforts to bring together intelligence professionals to help understand the tactics and techniques that drone-using terrorist groups might employ.’

“That could be dropping small explosives the size of a grenade. It could be dispersal of toxins, potentially,” Rasmussen said. 

 

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Islamic Alert

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