Michael German

Michael German

Michael German is a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program, where he "focuses on law enforcement and intelligence oversight and reform." The Brennan Center for Justice is a partner of Justice at Stake, a coalition of progressive organizations engaging in judicial activism to advance social justice. Michael German has several articles posted at Just Security (based at New York University School of Law).

Michael German often emphasizes the danger of white supremacy, while downplaying the dangers posed by Marxist radicals.

Biography

Prior to joining the Brennan Center for Justice, Mr. German served as the policy counsel for national security and privacy for the American Civil Liberties Union Washington Legislative Office. He "is a sixteen-year veteran of federal law enforcement, Mr. German served as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he specialized in domestic terrorism and covert operations."

Michael German "also served as a counterterrorism instructor at the FBI National Academy. There, he taught courses on extremism in democratic societies and developed a graduate-level training program for state, local and international law enforcement officers."

"Mr. German left the FBI in 2004 after reporting continuing deficiencies in FBI counterterrorism operations to Congress. He began lecturing on counterterrorism and intelligence matters and served as an adjunct professor for Law Enforcement and Terrorism at the National Defense University. He joined the ACLU Washington Legislative Office staff in 2006. Mr. German is the author of scholarly articles including “Squaring the Error,” published by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College and “Trying Enemy Combatants in Civilian Courts,” published in the George Washington Law Review. His first book, Thinking Like a Terrorist: Insights of a Former FBI Undercover Agent, was published in 2007. Mr. German currently serves on the Constitution Project's Liberty and Security Committee and is a Senior Fellow with GlobalSecurity.org. Mr. German graduated from the Northwestern University Law School, and graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University with a B.A. in Philosophy.

Critical of 'Domestic Terrorism' Label

Michael German was quoted in an article, along with American Civil Liberties Union National Security Project Director Hina Shamsi, as being critical of "protesters" being labeled as "national security threats."

"FBI Whistleblower: White Supremacists Are Major Domestic Terrorist Threat"

In a 2005 Democracy Now! article titled "FBI Whistleblower: White Supremacists Are Major Domestic Terrorist Threat," Michael German was described as a "whistleblower" who "took on the FBI’s approach to domestic terrorism."

Excerpt:

"Mike German worked for the agency for more than 15 years and quit last year. On June 5th, he wrote an editorial in the Washington Post advocating that law enforcement pay more attention to organizations that produce so-called lone wolf extremists like Timothy McVeigh who was executed for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and Eric Rudolph who planted bombs at the Atlanta Olympics, abortion clinics and a gay nightclub. German writes that “lone extremists pose a challenge for law enforcement because they are difficult to predict. It’s like searching every haystack for a needle. Perhaps we’d have better luck if we paid more attention to the needle factories.”

"Mike German, ex-FBI agent who resigned from the agency last year in protest of what he saw as continuing failures in the FBI counter terrorism program. German had worked for years going under cover to infiltrate domestic terrorist organizations like white supremacist skinhead groups and anti-government militias.

Implications of Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization

In an article for Just Security, Michael German and Faiza Patel, Co-Director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, Former Senior Policy Officer at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons argue that designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization would have serious implications for mainstream innocuous people and organizations, further claiming that concerns about associations with the Muslim Brotherhood are "smear tactic[s] used against prominent Americans." Michael German wrote that the Muslim Brotherhood "disavowed violence decades ago" and is now a "religious organization, a political party, and a social service provider."

"According to experts on the Middle East, the Muslim Brotherhood is a religious organization, a political party, and a social service provider that has operated for decades in numerous Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African countries. Though it has engaged in political violence in the past, it disavowed violence decades ago in favor of political engagement. In 2011, it won elections in Egypt, forming a government that was fully recognized by the United States. Two previous administrations, one Republican and one Democratic, concluded the Muslim Brotherhood did not engage in terrorism and did not warrant designation as an FTO."

External links

• Michael German