----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim May" <tcmay@got.net> To: <cypherpunks@lne.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2001 4:48 PM Subject: Re: Secret Warrants and Black Bag Jobs--Questions
On Wednesday, August 8, 2001, at 04:03 PM, Dr. Evil wrote:
I agree with Dr. Evil about the unlikelihood of it ever happening, but if it did, I think the intruder is toast. In California, there is the presumption
Actually, now that I think about it, I think it is essentially impossible for it to ever happen. If it were to happen, it is almost certain that either the breaking-and-entering team or the suspect/homeowner or both would be injured or killed in the ensuing firefight. The FBI knows this. Having agents injured is absolutely unacceptable to them, and having suspects injured or killed is also a highly undesirable outcome for them. You can be sure that during the break-in, they would have a team watching every approach to the house. If somehow or other someone showed up to enter the house during this time, and the FBI couldn't get him distracted in some way, they would just flash their badges and arrest him before he went in.
And now that I think about it some more as well, I wonder if some of the more controversial black bag jobs are subcontracted out to NGOs. The stuff of many a bad B-movie on late night cable, there are still a lot of reasons why gangs would be hired to hit the homes of political dissidents.
Absolutely they are- but quite a bit more sophisticated than the "gang" or "mafia" contacts a la the U.S. and Cuba in the 1960s. See e.g. E-Systems (look particularly at it's board of directors- a who's who of former intelligence big wigs). 8 of every 10 dollars in their contracting revenue are from classified projects. E-Systems employees were frequently doing counter-narcotics intelligence work inside the U.S. and reporting directly to intelligence agencies without the charter to operate domestically. This came to light more recently when one E-Systems employee- while cleaning his weapon in a motel room in preparation for an operation- had an accidental discharge and killed a guest in the adjacent room. (4+ million paid to the widow after a lawsuit in 1991).
--Tim May