Last week, a video went viral of an Oklahoma woman being interrogated by people who were allegedly FBI agents. Officers arrived at her front door, apparently there to ask her about Facebook posts.
The video is a terrifying preview of the direction of the US government. The FBI agent’s reaction to the woman’s justified questions was astounding.
The fiction itself behind the visit has major Big Brother vibes. What would the Founding Fathers say about the apparent police state that the United States has become?
If they were on social media, they would also be targets of the federal government.
Knock Knock
Oklahoma resident Rolla Abdeljawad was visited by FBI agents last month. The officers said they were there to speak with her about some Facebook posts she had made.
Fortunately, Ms. Abdeljawad filmed the exchange in which the officer said:
“Facebook provided us with a couple of screenshots of your account.”
In addition to refusing to provide identification when she asked for it on camera, the officers continued, compounding the inappropriateness of the exchange. After she asks if the United States is no longer a free country, the FBI agents tell her yes, but:
“We do this every day, all day. It’s just an effort to keep everyone safe and make sure no one has ill will.”
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To which Ms. Abdeljawad rightly responds:
“All I have done is exercise my right as an American citizen on a public social media platform with my personal opinions.”
An act that almost all American citizens perform multiple times a day on numerous favorite social media platforms.
it can happen to you
In a stroke of irony, Ms. Abdeljawad predicted that this scenario could happen to many like her. In an earlier social media post, Ms. Abdeljawad wrote about the federal government and Muslims like her:
“Don’t fall for their games. Our community is being watched and they are just waiting for any reason to gather us.
He continued with this bit of clairvoyance:
“If you are Muslim and/or pro-Pal, consider all your media accounts, Google searches, email, Messenger, local mosques and political events monitored. #NYC #USA #PoliceState #FreePalestine”
Ms. Abdeljawad’s social media posts are highly critical of Israel and the war in Gaza. However, there is no evidence that anything she has posted is outside the scope of what she has every right to express.
She’s just unfortunate enough to have an unpopular opinion. But perhaps most notable is that her views run counter to the federal government’s foreign policy.
In a statement to the media about the engagement with Ms. Abdeljawad, the FBI said:
“Every day, the FBI speaks with members of the public to advance our mission, which is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.”
For those Americans who think this type of tactic is what prevents a repeat of 9/11 or is justified because of the horrific actions taken by Hamas terrorists on October 7, I would ask that you widen your opening. It is a dangerous downward spiral when a society begins to sacrifice God-given rights in the name of potential or imagined security.
Scares everywhere, in everything
What happened to Rolla Abdeljawad can and is happening to Americans nationwide. According to a recent GAO report:
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have mechanisms to share and receive information related to threats related to domestic violent extremism with social media and gaming companies.”
Right; the FBI is actively spying on your 14-year-old daughter while she plays Diablo and your elderly mother while she searches Facebook for photos of her grandchildren. All this activity is carried out in the name of fighting domestic terrorism.
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Since 2019, the FBI and DHS have used the following five categories of domestic terrorism-related threats to guide their efforts:
- racially/ethnically motivated violent extremism
- anti-government/anti-authority violent extremism
- animal rights or environmental violent extremism
- violent extremism linked to abortion
- all other domestic terrorist threats
How well have these guardrails worked in preventing an impartial deterrent against domestic terrorism? The evidence points to an alarming trend for Americans whose views diverge from those of the federal government.
Intimidation leads to submission
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court presided over the decision Murthy v. Missouri. This case is about the many American citizens, from doctors and scientists to journalists and ordinary people, who dared to publish opinions about COVID-19 that differed from the DC narrative.
Thanks to the Twitter files, we all discovered that the White House, CDC, FBI, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) actively encouraged and pressured social media platforms to censor these citizens. And let’s not forget anti-abortion activist Mark Houck, who was arrested at gunpoint in front of his children by the FBI SWAT team.
Mr. Houck was ultimately acquitted and is now suing the Justice Department for $3.25 million.
If you agree with Ms. Abdeljawad views It does not matter.
What matters is that if the Department of Justice can show up unannounced at your home to ask questions about your free speech on social media… what else can they do?
Now is the time to support and share the sources you trust.
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