Arne's Army Goes Undercover

See the kid with the backpack and the 5 o'clock shadow? He could be D.O.E.?

You've heard about Ferguson, MO's militarized police department. But what about Arne Duncan's militarized D.O.E. army complete with underground agents and paid spies and infiltrators. A Le Carre novel? No, it's real.

Back in 2010, I reported the Dept.'s purchase of dozens of new military-order, Remington Model, 870 police 12/14P Mod GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - Parkerized choke: modified sights: Ghost ring rear, WILSON COMBAT shotguns.They were to replace worn-out shotguns used by the Inspector General's office, said Arne's people.

I asked at the time, but got no answer --- Exactly how did those previous 27 shotguns get worn out?

For context, it was V.P. Joe Biden, laughingly referred to as "Obama's point person on gun control", who advised all of us to go out and "buy a shotgun."

"...just walk out on the balcony here ... put that double-barreled shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house."

"I promise you whoever's coming in is not gonna," Biden said. "You don't need an AR-15 (assault rifle). It's harder to aim. It's harder to use and in fact you don't need 30 rounds to protect yourself."

Then, a year later, I wrote about Arne's militarized army of D.O.E. thugs kicking in parents' doors in the early morning hours to collect on overdue student loans.

Fast forward -- Sunday's NYT reports that dozens of agencies (besides the FBI) now have hired a few thousand secret undercover operatives in order to infiltrate community groups, protests, and catch evil-doers in the act, posing as business people, welfare recipients, political protesters and even doctors or ministers to ferret out wrongdoing. The Times reports that there's so many that, “People are always tripping and falling over each other’s cases.” 

The agents, often youthful looking, will typically “dress down” and wear backpacks to blend inconspicuously into the crowd, says one official.

At the Supreme Court, small teams of undercover officers dress as students at large demonstrations outside the courthouse and join the protests to look for suspicious activity, according to officials familiar with the practice. At the Internal Revenue Service, dozens of undercover agents chase suspected tax evaders worldwide, by posing as tax preparers, accountants drug dealers or yacht buyers and more, court records show. At the Agriculture Department, more than 100 undercover agents pose as food stamp recipients at thousands of neighborhood stores to spot suspicious vendors and fraud, officials said.

Among those government agencies -- you guessed it -- Arne Duncan's D.O.E.

 At the Education Department, undercover agents of the Office of Inspector General infiltrate federally funded education programs looking for financial fraud. 

Lesson in all this? Next time you're on a picket line or at a protest against school closings, ask the kid marching next to you -- the one with the five-o'clock shadow, carrying a back pack -- to say hi to Arne for you.