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Turning the Screws
American Thinker.com ^ | December 29, 2019 | Gil Gutknecht

Posted on 12/29/2019 4:44:40 AM PST by Kaslin

The term, “turning the screws” can probably be traced back to 17th century Europe. Germans may have been the first to use the thumb screw as a form of torture and punishment. They proved very effective in securing information or confessions. By placing thumbs into the device and gradually turning the screws, the perp would experience increasingly excruciating pain until they either confessed or had their thumbs crushed. We will never know the number of innocent people who confessed to crimes which they did not commit. 

This form of torture is now seen as barbaric. Accordingly, our FBI has developed far more sophisticated methods of turning the screws. If you have doubts, just ask the attorneys for Michael Flynn or Paul Manafort. The facts in the cases against either of these men are murky. Failing to clearly report a meeting with a Russian diplomat when he had no idea he was being interrogated by agents? That so-called “lying to the FBI” hardly seems enough to convict a man of General Flynn’s otherwise impeccable record. But the DOJ and the FBI under the direction of the viciously partisan Mueller team got him to plead guilty. No, they didn’t break his thumbs. They shamelessly broke him financially and emotionally. They threatened his family like mafia hit men. Why? To get dirt on the duly elected President of the United States that’s why. All in what now looks like a sophisticated (albeit unsuccessful) coup attempt.  

The case against Paul Manafort is admittedly a bit stronger. Essentially, he failed to file paperwork required for representing foreign interests. He also kept some of those earnings off shore to avoid paying taxes. Most multinational companies practice similar strategies to minimize tax obligations. Every American should pay their taxes. But most tax attorneys will tell you that there is a fine line between avoidance and evasion. 

In any event, his crimes hardly warrant the treatment he has received. He is not a hardened criminal let alone a threat to public safety. Yet if federal prosecutors have their way, he may spend the remainder of his days in solitary confinement. 

Both of these men were targeted simply because they were close to Donald Trump. Reports suggest that the Justice Department decided years ago that the evidence against Manafort did not warrant prosecution. Curiously, only when he became Chairman of the Trump campaign, did they reopen his file. The FBI turned the screws on Flynn and Manafort in hopes of getting evidence to justify Operation Crossfire Hurricane. Desperate G-men call for desperate actions. Sadly for these Trump insiders, they had no such evidence to share. No matter how hard the screws were turned. 

Haven’t we had more than a belly full of FBI apologists like Sean Hannity claiming that 99% of our agents are honest professionals? If that were true, we must ask where are the whistle blowers? Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Dozens of agents (the best of the best we are told) participated in these corrupt investigations. Where are the agents who believed General Flynn was telling the truth? Remember the others who kicked open doors in early morning raids, guns drawn in full combat gear? All to intimidate harmless individuals who had already agreed to cooperate. Can we be proud of these Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) tactics? The excuse of just taking orders no longer flies. That was settled at Nuremberg. So, why aren’t these agents coming forward? Their silence gives consent to these abuses.  

Where is the Justice? Where is the accountability? Is FBI Director Wray in a coma or is he complicit?

Thumb screws were outlawed long ago. Congress needs to take a long look at the modern day versions deployed by powerful and unaccountable investigators. Or are we simply consigned to forever live in a police state?

Senator Lindsey Graham said it well. A critical mission of these agencies is to protect Americans and our civil liberties. In the shabby cases against General Flynn and Paul Manafort we are left to ask, who were these federal agents actually protecting and from whom? 

More to the point, who are they protecting now?


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: fbi; torture
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1 posted on 12/29/2019 4:44:40 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

There is no longer any public trust in the FBI. Obama accomplished what he set out to do.


2 posted on 12/29/2019 4:47:26 AM PST by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism)http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obam_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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To: Candor7

The FBI was a corrupt bucket of assholes long before Obama arrived on the scene. Do you think Mueller and Comey were fine, upstanding citizens when they worked in the Bush administration?


3 posted on 12/29/2019 4:54:25 AM PST by Alberta's Child (In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.)
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To: Kaslin
Hi Kaslin,

Please read the following post in its entirety:

Understanding Why There’s No FBI Whistleblowers Outlining Institutional Corruption….

4 posted on 12/29/2019 4:57:32 AM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: grey_whiskers

Bttt


5 posted on 12/29/2019 4:59:42 AM PST by Guenevere (Psalm 37)
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To: Kaslin

The entire legal system top to bottom is geared to deny any rights of freedom of movement, expression, or economic stability to an ever increasing number of citizens.


6 posted on 12/29/2019 5:00:21 AM PST by Louis Foxwell (A deep and terrible ignorance born of abject corruption is required to hate our president.)
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To: Kaslin

Bttt.

5.56mm


7 posted on 12/29/2019 5:03:44 AM PST by M Kehoe (DRAIN THE SWAMP! Finish THE WALL!)
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To: Louis Foxwell

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Who has power over these agencies? That is where the work needs to come from


8 posted on 12/29/2019 5:12:16 AM PST by ronnie raygun
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To: Kaslin
Senator Lindsey Graham said it well. A critical mission of these agencies is to protect Americans and our civil liberties.

With the money laundering going on with part of the loot being passed back to the politicos, linda is lying through her teeth. Same reason she wants a quick trial for President Trump. Can't take the chance of the corruption leaking out.

9 posted on 12/29/2019 5:14:56 AM PST by upchuck (Democrats say the President is out of control. They mean the President is out of THEIR control.)
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To: Kaslin

Real interesting that to arrest Roger Stone on some half-assed charge of lying to the liars (Congress), the FBI didn’t first ask his attorney to make him available (customary with nonviolent offenders). Instead, as with Manafort, twenty-nine of their agents stormed in, Gestapo-style, in idiotic combat attire with a helicopter overhead and boat on the river, with CNN just happening to be in the quiet residential neighborhood at 6 am. All to arrest an unarmed man in his late 60s with his wife awakened by the fascist intrusion. Contrast this to the treatment of Jeffrey Epstein, guilty of numerous pedophilic crimes, who had the goods on some well-known politicians. Left alone in his cell, contrary to Bureau of Prisons’ policy after an inmate “attempts suicide”, “not enough in the budget” to hire extra guards, “not enough in the budget” to fix the two cameras watching Epstein which oddly malfunctioned that night. This is not Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany, Mr. FBI Director Wray.


10 posted on 12/29/2019 5:20:06 AM PST by laconic
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To: laconic

Apparently it has been for decades.


11 posted on 12/29/2019 6:09:04 AM PST by HANG THE EXPENSE (Life's tough.It's tougher when you're stupid.)
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To: ronnie raygun
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely

Lois Lerner

Sandy Berger

Loretta Lynch

Eric Holder

.

.

.

Bill Clinton

Hillary Clinton

Barack Hussein Obama (or whatever his name is)

12 posted on 12/29/2019 6:54:44 AM PST by FroggyTheGremlim (Aiyee Tila, she is a big one!)
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To: Kaslin

Bring them back, people would confess to avoid losing the ability to text.


13 posted on 12/29/2019 7:07:47 AM PST by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: bigbob

BRILLIANT!!!


14 posted on 12/29/2019 7:20:20 AM PST by Roccus (When you talk to a politician...ANY politician...always say, "Remember Ceausescu")
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To: Candor7

Obama used the FBI, but the FBI was already corrupt decades before.


15 posted on 12/29/2019 8:18:33 AM PST by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Have!)
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To: Kaslin
I've seen commercials for a (new?) TV series called FBI: Most Wanted. I laugh every time because all I can think is, most of the FBI itself should be on the most wanted list!
16 posted on 12/29/2019 8:21:52 AM PST by workerbee (America finally has an American president again.)
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To: Alberta's Child

The FBI was a corrupt bucket of assholes long before Obama arrived on the scene. Do you think Mueller and Comey were fine, upstanding citizens when they worked in the JFK, LBJ Bush administration to their thuggery against Trump as candidate, President Elect Trump and President Trump.


17 posted on 12/29/2019 8:22:35 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Lincoln: "The Founders did not make America racist or slaver. They inherited it, that way!")
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To: Grampa Dave
Everything I need to know about the FBI, I learned from Lon Horiuchi.
18 posted on 12/29/2019 8:46:28 AM PST by antidisestablishment
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To: antidisestablishment

That is a crap link; I should read before I post. here’s a better one:

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/jan/07/fbi-punishes-12-agents-but-sharpshooter-who/


19 posted on 12/29/2019 8:53:32 AM PST by antidisestablishment
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To: Kaslin

What all of this boils down to is that if Trump can’t put paid to the transgressors accounts then We The People must...or give up our country and our freedom. Very simple.


20 posted on 12/29/2019 8:57:08 AM PST by TalBlack (Damn right I'll "do something" you fat, balding son of a bitc)
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