Sunday, April 30, 2006
G-man German
[Ed. note: Skookum's editor and colleagues at Public Good Project were involved unofficially in gathering field evidence and information in the Washington state case cited below. We, and undoubtedly others we've worked with, quite possibly owe our lives to former Agent German.]
"In 1992, members of the Fourth Reich Skinheads, World Church of the Creator and White Aryan Resistance had begun amassing explosives and automatic weapons with the goal of attacking synagogues and assassinating prominent minority figures... Detailed plans had been drawn up to bomb the First African Methodist Episcopal church in Los Angeles in a coordinated attack that included using pipe bombs and machine guns to slaughter the 5,000-member, mostly black congregation. ...
Their plans were foiled by a young FBI agent, Michael German, who spent a year infiltrating Skinhead circles and was able to gather evidence that led to the arrest of eight suspects in 1993. Four years later, in 1997, German was undercover again. This time, he was instrumental in bringing seven members of the Washington State Militia and the Seattle-based Freemen to justice on charges of conspiring against the government and possession of destructive devices.
Mike German's 16-year career with the FBI came to an abrupt end in 2004. German, whose infiltrations in California and Washington had earned him accolades including a medal of valor, had been involved in a 2002 investigation in north Florida exploring links between an international terrorist organization and a domestic group that included the sale of illegal drugs. In the course of his investigation, German discovered several instances of FBI mismanagement, and when he reported those findings -- which included an illegal wiretap and the altering of records -- his superiors responded by stripping him of his security clearance and forcing him to resign.
But in the end, a whistle-blower investigation completed by the Justice Department in November 2005 "substantiated German's allegations that the Orlando case was mishandled and mismanaged."
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=1034
"In 1992, members of the Fourth Reich Skinheads, World Church of the Creator and White Aryan Resistance had begun amassing explosives and automatic weapons with the goal of attacking synagogues and assassinating prominent minority figures... Detailed plans had been drawn up to bomb the First African Methodist Episcopal church in Los Angeles in a coordinated attack that included using pipe bombs and machine guns to slaughter the 5,000-member, mostly black congregation. ...
Their plans were foiled by a young FBI agent, Michael German, who spent a year infiltrating Skinhead circles and was able to gather evidence that led to the arrest of eight suspects in 1993. Four years later, in 1997, German was undercover again. This time, he was instrumental in bringing seven members of the Washington State Militia and the Seattle-based Freemen to justice on charges of conspiring against the government and possession of destructive devices.
Mike German's 16-year career with the FBI came to an abrupt end in 2004. German, whose infiltrations in California and Washington had earned him accolades including a medal of valor, had been involved in a 2002 investigation in north Florida exploring links between an international terrorist organization and a domestic group that included the sale of illegal drugs. In the course of his investigation, German discovered several instances of FBI mismanagement, and when he reported those findings -- which included an illegal wiretap and the altering of records -- his superiors responded by stripping him of his security clearance and forcing him to resign.
But in the end, a whistle-blower investigation completed by the Justice Department in November 2005 "substantiated German's allegations that the Orlando case was mishandled and mismanaged."
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=1034
