The FBI Goes Commando
See the Bureau’s new warrior look, part of its “renewed” war on terrorism
How do you spot the undercover FBI guy at a peace rally? He’s the one with the spit-shined sandals. That joke dates back to the Vietnam era; but today the times are a-changin’ again.
From an organization of crew cuts, cheap suits and “gumshoes,” the Bureau now wants you to see its agents as commandos, dressed in full tactical gear like they’re SEAL Team 6. Since Trump came into office this year, the FBI has adopted the war imagery, its longtime social media landing page photo of its Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters replaced with warriors kitted out in camo gear and automatic weapons.
While decrying the “politicization” of the FBI in supposedly targeting him and his supporters during the Obama and Biden years, the White House has now unleashed the same organization to fight a war on everything that isn’t pro-Trump. In other words, the administration is doing the same thing it claims its predecessor did.
This time though, it’s a war focused on the American people.
There have been three generations of images of FBI agents in America. The first was that of clean cut Joe Friday types in suits, drab to the point of not wanting you to notice them. The second, adopted in the 1990’s, was blue windbreakers and khaki pants, then connoting ready investigators and a lot more action. That image persisted throughout the Trump I and Biden administrations.
Trump II’s FBI has adopted a post-9/11 war on terror look, a striking rebrand of the FBI’s newfound purpose of defending America from what they perceive to be armies of drug cartels, international gangs, and illegal immigrants. Into that mix, the new FBI sees everyone from Tesla vandals to nihilists as terrorists.
The FBI’s official X account for years featured a drab photo of its headquarters in Washington, DC, spanning both Donald Trump’s first administration as well as Joe Biden’s, archived records show. But following Trump’s inauguration, that photo was replaced with one of FBI troopers boarding a Black Hawk helicopter, readying to swoop in.
No one in the FBI exemplifies this shift more than Kash Patel. Since being confirmed as Director, Patel has posted photos of himself emulating Ukrainian president Vladamir Zelensky (or Israeli politicians); that is, as a leader at war. Patel can wear the Washington navy blue suit, the uniform of FBI Directors like James Comey and Christopher Wray, but this new warrior style conveys a completely new message, that they are warfighters and Americans are insurgents.
In one video posted in March to an official account (like all of the images referenced in this story), Patel is wearing a camo outfit while overseeing some kind of door breach exercise. Flashbangs go off as FBI personnel in tactical gear and night vision goggles on their helmets clear the room. They’re later shown repelling from a Black Hawk into a building, looking like a Call of Duty cutscene.
Members of the FBI’s special operations team, the Critical Incident Response Group and its Hostage Rescue Team, do carry out this kind of work. But now it’s like everything is a critical incident, as if 9/11 had just taken place yesterday and America is facing a ticking time bomb. The rebranding matches what Patel is saying about the challenges ahead for the Bureau.
“A renewed mission,” Patel said in a caption accompanying the video.
The mission being renewed is the war on terrorism.
When I did a deep dive into Patel, his extensive background in counter-terrorism stood out to me. Major media coverage of him has tended to stress how “unqualified” he is and as a result overlooked the striking amount of experience he has in different parts of the federal counter-terror apparatus, which seemed to foreshadow how he would run the FBI. From serving as a counterterrorism-focused attorney in the Justice Department to serving as a senior director of counterterrorism in Trump’s first White House, Patel embodies the career trajectory of many high officials who cut their teeth on the post-9/11 war on terror.
Here’s a quick overview of Patel’s career:
2014-2017: Trial attorney in the Justice Department’s National Security Division, focusing on counterterrorism and serving as a liaison to the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (“Delta Force”),
2017-2018: Senior counsel on counterterrorism and aide to Rep. Devin Nunes,
2019-2020: Senior director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council, and
2020: Chief of Staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller at the Pentagon.
Today, Trump’s senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, Sebastian Gorka, hasn’t been shy to say who he thinks the terrorists are. He recently said of critics of the administration’s deportation of alleged terrorists: “are they technically aiding and abetting them?” (Gorka has since confirmed our reporting that he is drafting a new national counterterrorism strategy, per a recent discussion he had with Semafor.)
“This is domestic terrorism,” Patel said of attacks on Tesla vehicles and equipment in a statement vowing a “coordinated” “crack down” on such incidents. Meanwhile, the FBI has launched a task force to pursue such cases as incidents of domestic terrorism.
When I first did a story detailing Patel’s memoir after Trump nominated him for FBI Director, I had hoped for a war on the so-called “Deep State” writ large; but it quickly became clear that he mostly wanted a war on the Democrats.
Now in charge of the country’s premiere law enforcement agency that employs some 38,000 staff, Patel’s got an army and they’re looking for war. How do you spot the FBI agent in the national security state’s war on just about everything? You can’t, because they’re indistinguishable from the military.
— Edited by William M. Arkin
Great stuff Ken! Next mission: Figure out why all the heads of the security state apparatus feel the need to play dress up.
Looking like a cutscene from what? Part of your article is missing.
Also, Kuiu is a hunting brand. What a dipshit lol. I partially blame Hollywood for deifying soldiers and equating warfighter and truck owner with manhood.