Fears of FBI Spying on 'Take Our Border Back' Convoy Show US Democracy Dying
19:21 GMT 31.01.2024 (Updated: 09:18 GMT 01.02.2024)
© AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Subscribe
US conservative activists have expressed concerns that the FBI and other federal agencies may infiltrate the “Take Our Border Back” trucker convoy, which is heading to Texas, to smear the movement. Sputnik sat down with former CIA analyst Larry Johnson to discuss the issue.
The "Take Our Border Back" trucker convoy is driving across the US to Texas. Its stated aim is to mobilize tens of thousands of trucks in order to stop illegal migrants from crossing the nation's southern border.
But some conservative activists worry that the rally may turn into a January 6th-style setup if infiltrated by FBI agents and provocateurs. They have called upon US federal agencies to stay away from the movement.
"Yes, I think these people who are gathering in this convoy have to be genuinely concerned that the FBI will absolutely insert agents, informants, activists in inside," retired CIA intelligence officer and State Department official Larry Johnson told Sputnik. "That organization wants to collect information, but also to be in a position to try to create a situation that would then justify federal intervention."
Johnson also drew attention to the timing of the rally. Most recently, the Texas authorities, which have carried out Operation Lone Star to prevent the flow of illegals into the state, "seized" a section of the US-Mexico border, blocking federal border patrol agents from accessing it.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been at odds with Joe Biden from day one of his presidency as the latter cancelled all border restrictions set by his predecessor Donald Trump. Abbott's legal row over the seizure of the part of the border and placing barbed wire there led to the US Supreme Court's ruling that federal agents can interfere and demolish the barriers. Nonetheless, 25 Republican governors signed a letter supporting Texas in the border control fight with the federal government over the "invasion" of migrants.
Under these circumstances, the Biden administration has a potential motive to aggravate the situation in Texas, as per the former CIA analyst.
"[Team Biden could do this to] portray themselves as the most powerful," Johnson speculated. "You know, right now what is taking place, it's a bit of a political debate, but it's also portraying the Biden administration as being weak. So they see this confrontation as something where they get to assert the fact that they are in charge, that they have the most power. And I think it's very foolish. The numbers that are being talked about with respect to this convoy are approaching almost a million trucks. If that's true, this is huge and it's going to really, it will have an impact. But what we're seeing with respect to the press coverage of that event, just like the press coverage of what's going on in France and in Germany and in Poland with the farmers, the media's trying to ignore it. They're trying to not report on it. I guess they believe that if they ignore it, it'll just go away."
24 January 2023, 15:19 GMT
Meanwhile, the very fact that many American conservatives are afraid to protest because of potential federal entrapment is revealing and evokes strong memories of the federal agencies' manhunt for January Sixers following the riots in Washington DC, which were then groundlessly labeled by Democrats as "insurrection."
"We're on the verge of, if not in the middle of being a fascist state where the power that's consolidated in the federal government and then the relationships with the wealthiest corporations, the pharmaceutical industry, the defense industry, the banking industry, the media industry, they all collaborate to work together to suppress the rights of American citizens, to make it impossible for people to speak their mind," the CIA veteran said.
"Here in the United States, we have, probably, over 200 political prisoners, people that were arrested and many held without charges for extended period of time in isolation, in solitary confinement, for the simple act of having walked into the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021. It's outrageous. And so we've seen this kind of persecution of conservatives that go on with great regularity," he continued.
Johnson believes that the protests will take place regardless and will attract a lot of attention on social media. The CIA veteran assumes that the movement over the unfolding border crisis in the US will ultimately force the Biden administration to back down.
"I'm not sure [Biden has] got enough federal troops that are going to be willing to go in there and confront Texans and particularly members of the Texas National Guard. So this has the potential to go bad, but I think ultimately, cooler heads will prevail," Johnson concluded.
