Pre-dawn raids have a troubling history.

On 6 November, the home of Project Veritas head James O'Keefe was raided by the FBI.  It was a "pre-dawn" raid by ten FBI agents with "a battering ram, and white blinding lights."  O'Keefe was partially clothed and handcuffed in front of his neighbors.  He was not arrested, but his property was seized.

James O'Keefe (YouTube screen grab, cropped).

This appears to be standard operating procedure for the FBI.  There are numerous examples of this tactic: Roger Stone, Elizabeth Rose Williams, Siaka Massaquoi, Jeremy Brown, Thomas Caldwell, and Aaron Wolkind are just a few of the more noted cases.  These raids are designed for maximum humiliation.  Thomas Caldwell tells how his 61-year-old wife "begged to put on her socks before they forced her outside in the cold."  Raids are conducted in the dark with overwhelming force.

This tactic comes straight out of the KGB and Gestapo handbook.  It is described by Alexander Solzhenitsyn: "The kind of night arrest described is, in fact, a favorite, because it has important advantages.  The arrested person is torn from the warmth of his bed.  He is in a daze, half-asleep, helpless, and his judgment is befogged.  In a night arrest, the State Security men have superiority in numbers; there are many of them, armed, against one person who hasn't even finished buttoning his trousers."

We now have a national police force.  Virtually any crime can now be considered a federal crime.  The government has numerous laws and regulations that can be used to cover any activity, legal or not.  The PATRIOT Act regards domestic terrorism, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the Violent Interference with Federally Protected Rights statute, the Conspiracy Against Rights statute, and Executive Orders can be used by a progressive judge to justify any prosecution.  Mothers protesting pornography in school libraries and fathers protesting the rape of their daughters are included.

The FBI made a major mistake in raiding O'Keefe's residence.  The raid was related to the possible theft of President Biden's daughter's diary.  There were serious concerns about the authenticity of the diary.  Project Veritas did not publish the diary for this reason.  However, The National File did publish sections of the document.  

The FBI's raid revealed that the diary was authentic.  The diary claims that the president took "not appropriate" showers with his daughter as a child.  Some people might find this disturbing. 

Within an hour of the FBI's raid, The New York Times reported that the raid had taken place.  This reveals the close relationship the FBI has with the media.  The FBI also coordinated with CNN in the Roger Stone raid.  Media coverage is also a tool to spread fear of possible government repression.

Why is the possible theft of a diary a federal crime?  Fox News's Gregg Jarrett claims, "A journalist cannot be criminally prosecuted for publishing stolen material unless the journalist himself or herself is involved in the theft."  Why was it necessary to send 15 FBI agents to Talladega to investigate a fake noose in Bubba Wallace's NASCAR garage?  Is it necessary for the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Education, the FBI and its National Security Branch & Counterterrorism Division, the Secret Service, and its National Threat Assessment Center, and the U.S. Postal Service to investigate parents at school board meetings?

John Dietrich is a freelance writer and the author of The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy (Algora Publishing).  He has a Master of Arts degree in international relations from St. Mary's University.  He is retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.  He is featured on the BBC's program "Things We Forgot to Remember:" Morgenthau Plan and Post-War Germany.

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