Former congressman says feds ‘shredded’ protections for Americans’ rights

Americans are not able, any longer, to look to the government to protect their rights.

It’s the government, in fact, that has “shredded” them, according to Pete Hoekstra, who was U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands during the Trump administration, after he served 18 years in the U.S. House.

Now a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, he has written there on the huge task facing the newly assembled U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

He explains the group, led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, needs to look into several major areas, including the extent of information that federal agencies now collect, any restrictions that actually protect the rights of citizens, and evidence that government bureaucrats actually violated policy to “target” individuals.

He wrote, “The evidence seems overwhelming. Law enforcement has acted in a way that enhances its capabilities and erodes the rights of American citizens.”

He cited cases where the FBI used a scheme to obtain secret court orders for business records.

It was the Electronic Frontier Foundation that pointed out the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court must issue the order if the FBI so certifies, “even when there are no facts to back it up.”

Then, too, the FBI can use “National Security Letters,” issued without court orders, to grab information.

WND is now on Trump’s Truth Social! Follow us @WNDNews

“In 2000, about 8,500 NSLs were issued. From 2003-2006 that number increased to 192,000. ‘Sneak and peek’ warrants are also now being used more extensively. Without any notification, these allow law enforcement to raid and search someone’s home and computers, among other private property,” he noted.

It happened during the FBI’s collusion with Democrats to create the “Russiagate” conspiracy theory against President Trump, he explained.

It was Glenn Greenwald who explained then, “In sum, the IG Report documents multiple instances in which the FBI – in order to convince a FISA court to allow it spy on former Trump campaign operative Carter Page during the 2016 election – manipulated documents, concealed crucial exonerating evidence, and touted what it knew were unreliable if not outright false claims.”

Hoekstra noted, “In an investigation involving conservative attorney Victoria Toensing, the FBI used the sneak and peek authorization to gain access to personal records without notifying her, even though she was not a target of any investigation. After 18 months, the Justice Department notified her the case was being closed without ever identifying who was being investigated or even what the issue being investigated was.”

He said, “The work ahead for the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization is huge. It seems the collection of data by our law enforcement and intelligence communities is massive, much larger than any of us would have imagined even just a few short years ago. With the advent of new technologies, and passage of legislation after 9/11 that possibly has not aged well, the legal framework protecting American citizens’ rights has been shredded. It seems abundantly clear that our government at multiple levels likely abused its powers, and the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization has a tremendous opportunity to set things right.”

He said the Deep State’s data-collectors including the National Security Agency, FBI, Department of Justice, Homeland Security and IRS, “to name but a few.”

“If the government has this massive treasure trove of information, what are the protections built into the systems regarding the legal rights of the American citizen?” he asked.

“It is time for Congress to fully update the laws surrounding data collection and privacy. This also would give us the ability to see what still works, determine best practices to protect American security and civil liberties, and to end the things that do not – especially those that leave open a backdoor for abuse.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Long the world’s most Christian nation, America today is being taken over by a new “official” national religion, one being imposed on the entire populace by every major societal institution, from government, media and big tech, to academia, entertainment and business.

This new state religion is Wokeism. “Going woke” conjures up visions of someone claiming to be acutely sensitive (“awake”) to “systemic social and political injustice.” And not just alleged bigotry against blacks, but toward every other “minority” as well, from LGBT folk – especially everything transgender and “nonbinary” – to “undocumented immigrants.” All of them, being VICTIMS, intrinsically more virtuous than the shameful oppressor class: primarily heterosexual white males.

This new “woke” consciousness has turned America upside-down – from the nationwide Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots in 2020, to tearing down of historic monuments, to demanding multi-million-dollar reparation payments for blacks, to appointing transgenders as top government officials, to rampant reverse discrimination in every area of life, to the U.S. military imposing mandatory “diversity training” and transgender pronoun use on all personnel, causing recruitment to disastrously plummet.

Yet there is hope. Being “saved” – which in Wokeism is called being “woke” – is largely a matter of worshipping victimhood by becoming an “ally” and “defender” of all the many victim classes, and a determined enemy of the straight white male oppressor class. Thus, “joining the righteous” as an ally – even if one is cursed to be a straight white male – opens the door mercifully for salvation, even to the most wretched.

That is the power of the religion of Wokeism. And it’s explored as never before in the February 2023 issue of WND’s critically acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine. If you’ve ever wondered, for example, exactly how the most radical elements in American society are successfully pressuring the biggest corporations into adopting the most outrageous and immoral policies imaginable, even when doing so permanently damages and devalues the company, the stunning answers are in this issue of Whistleblower, titled “WOKEISM: AMERICA’S OFFICIAL STATE RELIGION.”

For 25 years, WND has boldly brought you the news that really matters. If you appreciate our Christian journalists and their uniquely truthful reporting and analysis, please help us by becoming a WND Insider!

Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@wndnewscenter.org.

The post Former congressman says feds ‘shredded’ protections for Americans’ rights appeared first on WND.