FBI uses Burning Man festival for agent training!

Just another excuse for gov officials to party on company time at someone elses expense.

I think Nugget's hit it on the head with this one. All expenses paid to attend the Festival on the Gov't dime, plus per diem. I wouldn't pass on that one! A quick report to write up saying such and such tech didn't work (because ya never used it) and yer golden.

Charles1952,
Oh trust me. If people were dispatched, they took it serious. But they did probably have fun as well. The smart ones can multi-task.

I think the problem is...a free nation doesn't (or didn't...) deploy law enforcement assets to set up and outright work a major event, undercover, and covertly...on a giant hypothetical or possibility.

It is possible someone could buy a remote control plane tomorrow, find natural anthrax as it does happen in the natural world, load a "bomb bay" with it, and go crop dust Washington? That IS possible. Is it likely? Absolutely not....but should we turn Washington into what it would require to STOP that threat? After all..it IS possible!

I'd say, again, of course not. It would require Washington looking something like a Police State under siege to stop any R.C. craft, rising from anywhere in the city, with no prediction for where it'd go, how far or how high. Still..it's possible!


Likewise..is it possible terrorists or domestic terror group members may attend Burning Man? OF COURSE THEY DO. Does anyone actually believe the members of ALF and ELF miss that event?! It is a defining thing for their own overall message to at least drop by and enjoy with everyone else. Is it possible a terrorist ATTACK would happen there? Umm... Sure... The moon could be made of cheese too...and we've all been lied to since Armstrong stepped down and failed to note the mushy mess (smirk).

...so do we become a police state to address every possibility, with undercover feds at ever major public gathering to actively work and gather intelligence on all participants?

HEY!... That sounds *JUST* like the 'Red Squads' of the late 60's and 70's huh? People that our leaders today cussed, outright attacked and did everything to fight ...until they BECAME the authority.

Now? Well... I am sure the Stasi would have worked any such gathering too...if not just outlawed it outright. However...the GDR Secret Police worked exactly like this. Gather intelligence and work your OWN citizens..because..in the end...the enemy comes from among them, which means they ARE the enemy until proven different.

When did we get this bad? When did it go this far??

Sneaking and peaking won't no...nor should it. If there is a major event in Los Angeles for instance...the LAPD Intelligence Unit had better have a presence, or I'd wonder what the heck they get paid to do? There is a Grand Canyon worth of space between an LAPD detective on his own streets gathering info for local police files ....and federal agents with the full records, power and follow through of the United States Government working the same event and collecting for the "mass" that is the U.S. Government proper. 

Prior to "perpetual war" as Bush introduced to our lives...I don't recall intelligence units working events 'just to be there' from the federal level since the Church/Pike Committees and the rest of the fall-out that made things like the 'Red Squads' public knowledge to have been a real thing (a damned scary one too, to learn about that aspect in depth). 

I think our current leadership is determined to go well beyond the merging of 22 federal law enforcement agencies to form the D.H.S. at the start of the wars. Obama's people have said, very early on, the redundancy of federal to state to local law enforcement is wasteful and bad. I really think they are working hard to blur ANY line between those three levels, and where possible, blur where the Military can or does overlap now as well. 

One big happy Stasi family in the New Amerika. (Hey..can Trump win early and evict the little dictator, with his troop of thugs?)

Doug,

Details..I'm not getting into. They may not be entirely accurate anyway ..but I believe local cops at least, are starting to find some national organization in terms of being collectively fed up with being shot and abused as a sport. I really see their point too. The hate went way too far and faster than some really thought it could I think...others always wanted it to, and still further, too.

Interesting times may well be turning to bad times..Dunno...but I'd say keeping an eye on current events and local ones equally is coming to be real important.

(Might even be a decent idea to buy some standard home size blue light bulbs.. but.. hey..dunno..just heard a rumor or something. )

* Obama has 1 year left, and if he is ever going to overstep and push for end results over means to get there? This is about that time.