Published: September 18, 2008 10:19 am            

CHRISTY: We’ve been expecting you

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, founded in 1924, is supposed to be an investigative law enforcement agency and the principle investigative arm of the Department of Justice. I only say “supposed to be” because government organizations often morph their missions and functions over the years. In government nobody likes budget cuts, and several US Presidents have tried to rein in the powers of the FBI. Federal departments from Agriculture to Veterans Affairs are constantly “growing” their duties in order to avoid extinction.

Reality is different from television, but most of us have a vision of the FBI as suit-wearing men and women who listen more then they talk, and are most famous for saying “I can neither confirm nor deny” as the answer to any question they get from the public. Most of all, the cult of the FBI is that they do not seek or want attention. They prefer to operate in the shadows, gathering their data quietly.

In the whole of the US it would not be uncommon to go through an entire lifetime never having knowingly met an FBI official. I’m sure my parents never met an FBI official; nor their parents before them. Meeting an agent is one of the things you read about but never experience. I can even imagine that its one of the things my parents would have told me never to do: be in any position to even come near an FBI agent. It can only mean you’re already guilty, or somehow so far off-track in your life that you might as well quit right now and confess your life as a failure.

That’s what makes the times we live in, and the location we live in, so amazingly strange. Lately I can’t find anyone who hasn’t met, talked with, heard about or had a friend who has had a visit or phone call from the FBI. Those three letters are maybe the most used in all of Niagara County. In fact I’ve been anticipating someone defacing the entrance signs to the county to read “FBI — We’ve Been Expecting You”.

I spend most of my time in this column trying to impress upon ourselves that we truly live in a special place. We have the most beautiful scenery in the world in my opinion, and the most honest, hardworking and family-oriented neighbors of anywhere I’ve ever traveled. We also have the most decadent, slovenly and sometimes corrupt government officials who have far-outgrown their service of duty and become an oppression that private business cannot survive. It’s simple science: when you’re so close to something you often can’t see it. You need to back up, or rise above, and get a better view of things. That’s what we try to do here each week.

Having said all of that, here’s the strange thing I find about all the Federal Agent sightings lately: no politician has come forward and said the FBI has interviewed them.

The odds that the FBI would be interviewing nearly everyone in the county except the elected officials is unrealistic. The Feds are not Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd meandering around Lewiston or Lockport or Wheatfield interviewing cows and dogs and cats. They know — maybe more than any of us — who the power players are in Niagara County. So it’s a lock that at least a handful of elected officials have been interviewed and perhaps more — perhaps interviewed repeatedly and perhaps participating in an ongoing investigation. Imagine the tension at political meetings lately when elected officials sit in a room and stare at each other, wondering “did he/she say anything? Were they interviewed? I wonder what questions THEY were asked”.

This is the important point to consider, as we demystify the job of elected officials, and break down their true duties: why would it be newsworthy to talk about how great a job you are doing relocating the terminus of the Erie Canal, the success of the Seneca Casino or taxing hazardous waste as it enters the county yet again, but not inform constituents of ongoing investigations into corruption and financial malfeasance? If it’s the elected officials’ job to inform their constituents, why would they be so silent on the role of the Federal Government investigation?

One thing should be certain: every political registration is under the microscope. If this was a political investigation you can be sure the Republicans would be blasting the Democrats or vice versa. When the elected officials and party chairs are silent you can guarantee they are all in the same uncomfortable situation.

Rumors and gossip-mongering are not proud things. So let’s put the issue to rest. The next time you run into an elected official, or department head, or IDA executive, come right out and ask them what the conversations with the FBI are all about. Are the rumors true? What is the truth? Go right to the source, as they say. Only time will tell if they give you an honest answer or not.

Tom Christy is the founder of FAIR Government, a non-political and non-editorial educational foundation dealing with local government issues. www.fair-government.org. He encourages communication and can be reach via e-mail at aim1986@mac.com.

        

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