Quote:Gun-Toting Wing of IRS Wants to ‘Put the Fear of God in People’: Ex-Agent

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) headquarters building in Washington, on Mar. 8, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

By Tom Ozimek
February 21, 2023Updated: February 22, 2023
biggersmaller
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0:007:54


As the Internal Revenue Service seeks to bolster the ranks of its weapon-carrying Criminal Investigation unit, a former special agent described the inner workings of the division and said its key function is “to put the fear of God in people” and intimidate Americans into tax compliance.
Former IRS Special Agent Robert Nordlander told Accounting Today, in a wide-ranging interview published on Feb. 20, that while most Americans have a sense of what IRS tax audits look like, the work of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) unit is shrouded in some mystery.
Dubbed “gun-toters,” the armed special agents in the unit are responsible for enforcing those parts of tax code whose violations amount to crimes, he said. “When crimes are committed, the IRS-CI are the ones that actually enforce” the law, Nordlander said.
The IRS-CI examines potential criminal activity related to tax crimes and makes recommendations for prosecution to the tax division of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
There are now around 2,100 “gun-toters” in the criminal investigations division, and the IRS—flush with funds from a new cash injection—is looking to hire more special agents.
Carissa Cutrell, a public affairs officer at IRS-CI, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the unit is hoping to hire between 300 and 350 special agents this year.
In the mid-1990s, the unit had around 3,500 special agents and Cutrell said they lose between 150 and 175 agents each year due to retirement and attrition.
‘Army of 87,000’ Tax Enforcers?
The idea of an “army of 87,000” new tax enforcement agents surged into the spotlight and became an internet meme after Republicans warned that the $80 billion in new IRS funding under the Inflation Reduction Act would squeeze ordinary Americans for “every last penny.”
“87,000 more IRS enforcers would make the IRS bigger than the Pentagon, the State Department, and Border Patrol COMBINED,” Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a tweet last summer, when the Inflation Reduction Act was passed and the IRS funding boost hit headlines.
President Joe Biden, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, former IRS commissioner Charles Rettig, and others have pushed back on such framing of the funding boost. They’ve insisted the money would be used to increase collections from high-earners and help with customer service, while Americans earning less than $400,000 wouldn’t face increased scrutiny from the agency.
Indeed, Yellen insisted that due to improved technology and customer service, people making less than $400,000 “will actually see a lower likelihood of audit.”
IRS officials have also said that whatever portion of the money would go toward new hires wouldn’t just be for tax enforcers.
Terry Lemons, IRS communications and liaison chief, said in an email that the new funding would be used to hire people across various departments. “In reality, the proposal would hire a variety of people across the agency to support not only enforcement but taxpayer service and technology improvements.”
Only part of the new funding will go to hire more special agents for the IRS-CI unit.
Deadly Force
Some have questioned why IRS agents would need to carry firearms at all.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson, for example, on Aug. 4, 2022, led a segment on his show by expressing concern that the government is “treating the IRS as a military agency” and is “stockpiling” ammunition.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) also raised the question of whether IRS agents need to be armed, while pointing to a 2018 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) showing that the IRS-CI had some 2,500 rounds of ammo per armed agent.
The IRS-CI itself says agents might need to respond to “life-threatening situations” on the job, be willing and able to participate in “dangerous assignments” and protect themselves and others from physical attacks, and be willing to use “deadly force.”
And while the NRA said it’s not “difficult to be cynical about all of these new, and possibly armed, IRS agents” given Biden’s anti-gun rhetoric, the gun lobby group conceded that a “segment of the IRS does need to be armed,” given that, historically, tax laws have been used to prosecute drug traffickers and other criminals and the work of IRS-CI agents can be dangerous.
Nordlander, a former IRS-CI special agent, said agents need to carry weapons because they never know what hazards lurk behind closed doors when executing warrants.
“You don’t know if the guy is a drug dealer that happens to just file false tax returns,” he said, recalling a case where someone arrested for tax crimes ended up also being wanted for armed robbery.
In some cases, white-collar criminals can be even more dangerous than gang members who may have been in and out of prisons and have had repeated run-ins with law enforcement, he said.
“These people have a lot to lose,” Nordlander said, suggesting that some white-collar criminals who are confronted by IRS agents can react unpredictably when they realize the jig is up and their world come crashing down.
“They know that they did the fraud, and once they do the fraud, they’re going to go away for many years and their livelihood’s over with.”
While some cases do have guns-drawn moments, Nordlander estimated that around 90 percent of a special agent’s time is spent poring over bank statements, interviewing people, and doing paperwork.
“Accounting nerds” with a gun and a badge is how he described most IRS-CI special agents.
‘Fear of God’
Nordlander said in the interview that the IRS-CI unit is selective in the cases it pursues and refers to the DOJ for prosecution.
Typically, the unit focuses its resources on cases where tax crimes occur over a period of years in order to build a solid case to present before a judge and secure a high rate of conviction.
In its annual report for 2022, the IRS-CI highlighted more than 2,550 investigations and a 90.6 percent conviction rate.
Special agents last year spent around 70 percent of their time investigating tax-related crimes like tax fraud and tax evasion, according to the IRS. The other 30 percent was spent on cases related to money laundering and drug trafficking.
“Our team follows the money,” IRS-CI chief Jim Lee said in a statement.
“We’ve been doing it for more than 100 years, and we’ve followed criminals into the dark web and now into the metaverse. Tax and other financial crimes know no borders. If you violate the law and end up in the crosshairs of an IRS-CI special agent, you are likely going to jail,” he added.
Nordlander said that IRS-CI special agents think long and hard whether they’d be able to convince a jury before referring a case for prosecution.
“At the end of the day, you want the judge to think this crime is so bad that there has to be active sentence time,” he said. “Otherwise, why do this? Because the job of the IRS-CI is really to put the fear of God in people,” he continued.
“They can only take so many cases, and so if everybody’s getting probation … you’re picking the wrong cases,” he said, adding that agents pursue cases that yield sentences of several years and that are “worthy of a press release.”
“So the whole general public knows ‘don’t do this or you go to prison,’ that’s what they’re looking for.”
Cutrell told The Epoch Times that media coverage doesn’t drive case selection but instead “plays an important part in the agency’s deterrence messaging once a case is complete.”
“IRS-CI’s mission includes not only investigating criminals for crimes they’ve committed, but also deterring potential criminals from committing future crimes,” she said.
Reuters contributed to this report.

Seasons one two and three and no I have not watched any but thought someone might like the series.

This is happening to take the Persian Gulf offline. It's scorched earth strategy.




https://twitter.com/PeterZeihan/status/1...8602248192



Times of Israel


"There are very few instances when a prisoner would refuse a chance to get out of jail... In Russia, convicts have the opportunity to join the Wagner Group in exchange for a get-out-of-jail card." Wagner is considered to have low casualties because they don't count their convict cannon fodder as troops.

Quote:Wagner Group Likely 'Cut Off' From Russian Artillery Supply: ISW

The Wagner Group has reportedly lost access to its supply of weaponry by the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD), according to the latest assessment from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Wagner and longtime ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Monday that the Russian military had stopped providing his private mercenary group with artillery shells due to his "complicated relationships" with unspecified Russian officials, wrote the ISW.

The think tank reports that Prigozhin is likely referring to officials of the Russian MoD, as ties between the Wagner Group and Russian military continue to weaken.

"Prigozhin claimed that Wagner has 'complete shell hunger' as a result of Russian military officials ignoring his demands and introducing new limitations and restrictions on his ammunition procurement," read Monday's assessment.

As a result, Prigozhin claimed, Wagner mercenaries were facing "twice the number of causalities," the ISW wrote.

The Russian MoD has also halted Prigozhin's ability to recruit prisoners and blocked them from utilizing select Russian training grounds for its own troops. According to the Wagner founder, some Russian officers have "violated the military code" by still providing weapons to his mercenary group.

Despite sharing a friendly history with Putin, Prigozhin's troops have recently been caught in a feud with the Russian government after the two forces clashed over which troops played a leading role in Russia's advancement toward the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Wagner forces have played a pivotal role in Russia's invasion, but seem to be quickly losing influence in Ukraine, with the ISW previously reporting instances of Putin replacing "exhausted" Wagner troops with his own military along the front lines in the Donetsk region.

The Wagner Group has also reportedly faced heavy death tolls in its fight alongside Russia, particularly among its troops who were recruited from Russian prisons. The U.K. defense ministry reported Friday that Wagner's deployed convict recruits had likely experienced a casualty rate of up to 50 percent.

Last week, the Wagner Group blamed "hundreds" of its deaths on the Russian government in a post to its Telegram account, claiming that the Russian MoD had failed to send "weapons, ammunition and everything necessary on time" for its troops along the front lines in Ukraine.

However, on Saturday, Prigozhin continued his "informational campaign" against the Kremlin, reported the ISW, claiming that Wagner "is not subordinate to the [Russian MoD] and 'has nothing to do with the Russian Army.'"
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian MoD for comment.

Quote:Biden in Kyiv, pledges $500 million more in military aid; Japan commits $5.5 billion: Live Ukraine updates

Biden also announced an additional $500 million in weaponry for Ukraine. The State Department pegged the figure at $450 million, plus another $10 million in emergency aid for Ukraine's energy infrastructure, which has been damaged by Russian attacks.


King Charles III met with Ukrainian troops undergoing five weeks of basic training in Wiltshire, England.

A few days after his confrontational meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, headed for Moscow to meet with Russian officials, possibly including President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said.

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Pretty amazing video if you have not seen it -




https://vimeo.com/755806209

Choose a fav or two: Top 30 Songs About UFOs - Or one not on that list.

Megadeth, "Hanger 18" (1990)







Not on that list...Nina Hagen - UFO (1982)

This is some sad news IMO

https://lists.youmaker.com/links/pktFQwW...YNeHfdAfSX

Quote:[/url]
Undercover DC Police Officer Pushed Protesters Toward Capitol, Climbed Over Barricade: Court Filing

Two undercover Metropolitan Police Department officers walked behind Ashli Babbitt on the northwest side of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. One had earlier remarked that "someone will get shot" that day. (William Pope via U.S. District Court/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

By Joseph M. Hanneman
February 18, 2023Updated: February 19, 2023
biggersmaller
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0:008:47


Three undercover Metropolitan Police Department officers joined the march of protesters up the northwest side of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021—including one who climbed over a barricade and pushed others toward the Capitol, and another who walked behind Ashli Babbitt and predicted that “someone will get shot,” according to newly disclosed court documents.
New court motions filed by Jan. 6 defendant William Pope of Topeka, Kansas, also show MPD bicycle officers stopping four armed men in plainclothes on Jan. 6. The men turned out to be federal agents. Video included with Pope’s filings also shows uniformed MPD officers saying, “we were set up” to fail on Jan. 6.
Information in the court papers will rekindle the debate about the role that undercover officers and agents played in the riots of Jan. 6 and why the U.S. Department of Justice and federal judges have kept the evidence under seal and away from public view.
“This video clearly evidences undercover law enforcement officers urging the crowds to advance up the stairs and scaffolding towards the Capitol on January 6,” Pope wrote in one motion. “The government may claim that incidents like this did not happen, but the facts show they did.
“Since the government cannot be trusted to disclose these facts,” Pope wrote, “it becomes even more important that defense teams, including Pro Se defendants, be able to directly examine the evidence.”
Two undercover Metropolitan Police Department officers (red and grey caps) outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Archive.org/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)
The three undercover MPD officers approached the northwest corner of the Capitol grounds at about 1:40 p.m. on Jan. 6, one of the motions states. Officer 1, who was filming their journey, joined the crowd chanting, “Drain the swamp!”
When a group of men ran past them toward the Capitol, Officer 2—wearing a Trump beanie—remarked, “Those guys are getting shot,” the motion said.
At the base of the scaffold stairs, Officer 1 joined the crowd in a chant, “Whose house? Our house!”
“Officer 1 began yelling at people in front of him to ‘Go, go, go!’ As they climbed bicycle racks, Officer 1 yelled for the crowd to ‘help him up, help him up!” followed by ‘push him up, push him up!’” the motion reads of Pope describing how Officer 1 climbed over a barricade.
“Needing help to get up, Officer 1 asked a nearby man to give him a boost,” the motion says. “The man gives Officer 1 a lift up, and Officer 1 says ‘Thanks, bro.’”
Officer 1 pushed protesters in front of him to advance on the Capitol, shouting, “c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, let’s go!,” the motion said. People around him climbed over bike-rack-style barricades and scaffolding that had been set up for the presidential inauguration.
Right Behind Ashli Babbitt
At one point, Officers 2 and 3 were almost directly behind Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt on the exterior stairs, about an hour before Babbitt was gunned down at the entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby, Pope said in a Twitter post on Feb. 18.
“Why hasn’t the government informed the public that undercover MPD officers were chanting, ‘Our house!’ and repeatedly urging protesters to advance up the northwest steps of the Capitol on January 6?” Pope wrote on Twitter under his handle @FreeStateWill. “Officer 2 said someone would get shot and went up right behind Ashli Babbitt.”

Read More
Doctor Who Tried to Save Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6 Charged With 4 Misdemeanors for Time at the US Capitol

Video shot by the undercover officers is under court seal.
Pope argued in his motions that the DOJ is trying to prevent him from accessing the full Jan. 6 evidence databases. He is defending himself against seven criminal counts brought by federal prosecutors in February 2021. He asked U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras to compel the DOJ to give him full access to discovery materials.
Metropolitan Police Department officers stopped four armed men in plain clothes on Jan. 6, 2021. All of them produced law-enforcement credentials and were allowed to go on their way. (Metropolitan Police Department/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)
In a motion filed with the court on Feb. 17, Pope included a tranche of bodycam video with evidence not disclosed publicly before.
The bodycams of three MPD bicycle officers—Tyquan Brown, Daniel Styles, and Christopher Vanacore—shows them stopping a group of four men and a woman at 12:19 p.m., walking east during then-President Trump’s speech at the Ellipse. “Is anyone armed?” Brown asked. “We all are,” the men said, adding that they were law enforcement officials. The woman was not armed.
The four men showed the MPD officers their law-enforcement credentials and were allowed to go on their way. The IDs all appeared very similar, but the video is not of sufficient resolution to read what agency they are from. Brown chided one of the men, “You’ve got to do a little bit better at hiding it,” pointing to his concealed handgun.
A Metropolitan Police Department officer states his belief that he and his colleagues were set up when protecting the west front of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Metropolitan Police Department/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)
The bodycam of MPD Officer Lawrence Lazewski shows Lazewski and another MPD officer express the belief that police had been “set up” on Jan. 6.
After nearly 90 minutes on the police line on the west front of the Capitol, Lazewski retreated to the Upper West Terrace at 2:33 p.m. He approached a group of other officers, one of whom was engaged in an animated discussion.
‘They Set Us Up’
“They set us the [expletive] up,” the officer said. “That’s what they did. They set us up.
“They set up [Unit] 64, absolutely, and then they ask you all to come two hours later,” the officer said. “They set us up.”
Lazewski replied, “They needed everybody right away,” to which the other officer said, “Nah, right away, they set us the [expletive] up. We ain’t got [expletive].”
A few moments later, the unidentified officer said, “Take this mother[expletive],” and waved his hand at the Capitol in disgust.

At about 2:40 p.m., half an hour after the Capitol was first breached, Lazewski who was outside the building approached another MPD officer on the side of the Capitol. On the way, he heard a group of officers discussing the police deployment of CS gas along the barricades on the west front. Many officers were not outfitted with gas masks.
“I didn’t know we were coming up for this or I would have made sure we all had our masks,” the officer told Lazewski.
“I didn’t realize how bad … they set us up to fail,” Lazewski said.
“They did,” the other officer replied.
“There was no way we were winning that,” Lazewski said. “Now you’ve got at least four platoons that are just gassed out.”
‘Keep the March Going’
Video from the bodycam of MPD Officer Terry Thorne shows him imploring protesters on the way down Constitution Avenue to the Capitol from Trump’s speech at 12:30 p.m. to “keep the march going.”
“Let’s keep it going,” Thorne said, waving protesters away from a side street. “Let’s keep the march going. Let’s keep it going. Guys, let’s keep the march going.”
Bodycam from MPD Officer Anthony Alioto gives a behind the scenes look at police action along the west front of the Capitol. His bodycam captured some of the actions of Officer Daniel Thau, who used a taser on protesters four times, tossed countless munitions into the crowd, and fired a 40 mm shell at protesters.
On Alioto’s video, Thau is shown using pepper spray on protesters that is partially blown back in officers’ faces. “Hey Danny,” Alioto said. “Watch the wind direction!”
Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Thau fires a blast of pepper spray at the crowd on Jan. 6, 2021. (Metropolitan Police Department/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)
[url=https://rumble.com/v29wy6w-exhibit-81-2-bodycam-footage-from-officer-luke-foskett.html]Officer Luke Foskett’s bodycam shows some of the chaos inside the Capitol. He approached a Capitol Police supervisor and asked, “Where can we start?”
“I don’t [expletive] know,” the man replied. “You want to talk about getting caught with your pants down. We have no direction. Nobody can get on the [expletive] radio.
“I called the Command Center and let them know that you guys are here with us. At least you’re accounted for,” the Capitol officer said.
Officers in that section of the Capitol were looking for a man who might have been armed. Someone asked the Capitol Police supervisor how they could identify undercover operatives.
“They will have a wristband. Their guns will have a candy stripe on the barrel,” he said. “I don’t know the wristband color but they’ll have a wristband somewhere.”

Feel free to post any tunes you feel fit the categories.

Not so long ago, we had no idea if all the stars we see in the sky were lone suns or if they had planets orbiting them.

Thanks to Kepler, we now have those answers!