Yesterday I wrote that Trump was certainly going to turn the FBI into his personal Gestapo (here).
I just as easily and perhaps more accurately could have said the was going to turn it into his personal KGB. I wondered what the differences were between these ruthless agencies of oppression and punishment which were used to stiffle dissent in dictatorships. Here's what I discovered:
The Gestapo and KGB were both notorious secret police organizations known for their brutal tactics and widespread surveillance. The Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany, operated during the 1930s and 1940s and was responsible for enforcing Nazi ideology and suppressing dissent. The KGB, the secret police of the Soviet Union, operated during the Cold War era and was known for its extensive network of informants and its ruthless tactics in maintaining control over the population. Both organizations were feared for their ability to infiltrate and control every aspect of society, leading to widespread fear and paranoia among the citizens they targeted.
Methods of Operation
The Gestapo was known for its brutal tactics and widespread use of torture to extract information from suspects. Gestapo agents often relied on informants and surveillance to identify individuals deemed as enemies of the state. Once targeted, individuals could be arrested, interrogated, and sent to concentration camps or executed. The Gestapo also engaged in propaganda and censorship to control public opinion. Similarly, the KGB employed a range of tactics to maintain control and suppress dissent. This included surveillance, wiretapping, and infiltration of dissident groups. The KGB was also known for its use of psychological warfare and disinformation campaigns to manipulate public perception.
My sense is that Trump will draw the line at sanctioning assassination and torture, but that he will use the FBI to make the lives of his enemies miserable. Even if he can't see them convicted, let alone tried, for crimes which if found guilty would end them up in prison he will enjoy watching them sit in court like he had to do in the E. Jean Carroll trial.
Trump will not turn the FBI into the KGB or the Gestapo. He will turn it into something far more personal and unique to him. While Putin and Hitler used their national police departments to thwart and when possible eliminate any opposition to their governing they did this to instill in fear and deter people who might be considering acting against their government they did it not out of an abiding, a deep seated, need to get revenge against them.
In most instances it wasn't personal. An exception might be opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza who was been sentenced to 25 years in jail in Russia for charges linked to his criticism of the war in Ukraine and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenk.
With Trump I expect that in many, if the majority, of the cases it will be personal. Trump is like a bloodthirsty predator that has been kept confined for four years. Even though he's been free to roam around he's like a vicious beast who has been kept in a small zoo cage for people to gawk at. He's about to be freed. He sees potential victims who having been taunting him. There's no cage to stop him from devouring them, from ripping them limb from limb.
Doesn't literally have to hunt them down himself. He will have thousands of armed agents with the power to arrest people 24 hours a day whether they are at home in bed, watching their kids playing sports, or at work.
You might as well coin a new name for this cadre of hunters. While they might now be called FBI agents it may simply be called the TBI.
Of course they will not just investigate. Just like the KGB, which stands for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, which translates to “Committee for State Security," they were more than a mere committee. (The KGB has been replaced by the FBS, which is translated to the Russian Security Service). Like our FBI, the Russian federal police do more than investigate. Once they find a criminal to arrest they may break down doors and drag people who resist into custody.
It may not be long before politicians and others including journalists, and even bloggers, have knocks on their doors with agents flashing badges like these:
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