The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) have come under increased scrutiny after a leaked memo reportedly shows the bureau warning that “radical traditionalist” Catholics pose an extremist threat.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares was joined by 19 other attorneys general in sending a letter to the DOJ condemning an anti-Catholic internal memorandum that became public last week.
The memo, according to those AGs, “identifies ‘radical-traditionalist Catholic[s]’ as potential ‘racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.’”
Kyle Seraphin, a former FBI special agent and federal whistleblower, obtained the document from a field office in Richmond, Virginia, and published it on the UncoveredDC website.
The memorandum attempts to discern between acceptable and unacceptable Catholic beliefs and practices while suggesting there are “radical traditionalists” who have the potential of being “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.”
I cannot believe the FBI had an internal memo calling Catholic Virginians “violent extremists” because of their religious views.
This rhetoric from the government is wrong and un-American, and I demand answers!https://t.co/AwDvp2DXss
— Jason Miyares (@JasonMiyaresVA) February 10, 2023
FBI Labeling Catholics as Potential Violent Extremists?
Miyares condemned the memo as something one “would expect from Communist Cuba.”
“Anti-Catholic bigotry appears to be festering in the FBI, and the Bureau is treating Catholics as potential terrorists because of their beliefs,” the AGs wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
They accuse the bureau of deploying “alarmingly detailed theological distinctions to distinguish between the Catholics whom the FBI deems acceptable and those it does not.”
Here is the FBI memo targeting Catholics as potential radical extremists: https://t.co/3lExOmY7Pp https://t.co/cOtH54eZWs
— Ivory Hecker (@IvoryHecker) February 9, 2023
The AGs also suggest the FBI is embedding agents into Catholic churches, something seen prevalently in the so-called war on terror which resulted in numerous claims of entrapment for practicing Muslims.
“The FBI has been down this road before, having infiltrated countless mosques throughout the country in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,” they write.
“The FBI disavowed this ignominious practice in 2008, and revised its internal guidelines in 2010 and 2013 to prevent its operatives from callously disregarding the religious liberty of American citizens.”
They state that revelations in the memo make it “very concerning indeed if the FBI had revived this practice against American Catholics.”
On Friday, Virginia AG Jason Miyares led 19 other state attorneys general in sending a letter to Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray, demanding that they put any investigation of Catholics for their religious beliefs on ice, or face legal action from the state AGs. pic.twitter.com/zxNvW9I4nt
— Tyler O’Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 10, 2023
RELATED: Report: National School Board Association Wanted Military Deployed At School Board Meetings
This is Becoming a Pattern
Following the publication of the leaked memo showing the targeting of Catholics as potential extremists, the FBI has been furiously trying to clean up the mess.
The bureau has since removed the document from its systems because it does not meet the “exacting standards of the FBI” and claims, according to Fox News, they are “no longer infiltrating the Catholic community.”
A) What standards? B) ‘No longer infiltrating’ suggests admission that it was previous practice. C) Not sure we’re buying it.
The Chicago Thinker managing editor Evita Duffy believes the memo is another example of the Biden administration targeting political enemies.
“This whole investigation is a pretext to persecute the political enemies of the left, and it’s a testimony to just how corrupt the FBI has become,” Duffy told Fox News.
This isn’t exactly an anomaly under this administration.
The White House and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s DOJ, you may recall, worked in tandem with the National School Boards Association (NSBA) to treat parents concerned about their children’s education like domestic terrorists.
A letter sent by the NSBA and coordinated with the White House and DOJ requested an investigation into whether or not confrontations from outraged parents regarding mask mandates or Critical Race Theory (CRT) curricula amounted to a violation of the Patriot Act.
The group suggested that “the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”
The NSBA reportedly had even sought military intervention at school board meetings.
???#BREAKING: Whistleblower Discloses Explosive Documents Showing FBI Using Counterterrorism Tools to Investigate Parents pic.twitter.com/HpbdtinJQo
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) November 16, 2021
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a memo to law enforcement partners last year regarding an American trucker convoy that was poised to protest vaccine mandates in Washington, D.C.
They warned that the truckers were a “real concern” the same week the agency issued a terrorism threat summary report focusing on the spread of pandemic-related “misinformation.”
The ‘Summary of Terrorism Threat to the U.S. Homeland’ bulletin, published at that time, indicated the United States was in a “heightened threat environment,” in particular against ‘false narratives’ about COVID.
A terrorism threat summary against COVID narratives which were ultimately proven correct. Labeling parents as potential terrorists. And now calling Catholics extremists.
And we haven’t even delved into the political persecution of Trump supporters following January 6th and the dogged pursuit of pro-life advocates since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Donald Trump was repeatedly accused of being a dictator when he was in the White House. It turns out that was simply projection from the left for the actual dictator currently occupying the Oval Office.
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