09/03/2014
From: Jeff Stewart
Although the conservative media has been covering Operation Choke Point, it’s been limited to only two of the "high-risk" industries on DOJ’s list, namely pay-day lenders and gun shops. No one’s been mentioning that publishers of "racist materials" is also on the list. Remember how Jared Taylor and AMERICAN RENAISSANCE have been targeted.
Due to pressure from small businesses, conservative advocates and the House Oversight Committee, the government has recently “clarified” its highly alarming industry-killing policy, Operation Choke Point. [FDIC Backpedals On Operation Choke Point As Victims Fight Back, NRA-ILA, Dailly Caller, August 4, 2014]
Uncovered by the media in May, the DOJ along with agencies like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have apparently been targeting for investigation banks that were serving industries they deemed ‘prone to consumer fraud’, but that were otherwise perfectly legal. Discussion in the media about the program has focused predominately on payday lenders and gun stores, but the program covers much more, including publishers of so-called “racist materials.” [U.S. House of Representatives: The Department of Justice’s “Operation Choke Point”, May 29, 2014
How their reformed approach will be applied is unknown, but that such a policy was ever contemplated shows the rapid pace with which we are approaching IngSoc government.
Although the details of the program are sparse, it’s certain the listof industries targeted is simply those the White House doesn’t like. Like Administrative Amnesty, the Obama administration is “reinterpreting” black letter law to achieve its radical ends. As the Heritage Foundation recently concluded in a report about the program, “FIRREA enforcement tools [subpoena powers under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989] specifically designed for attacking businesses engaged in fraud are being applied by DOJ to attack non-fraudulent purveyors of financial services that operate in disfavored market segments.”
Operation Choke Point specifically targets banks and third-party processers, such as PayPal, which are needed by almost all internet businesses to facilitate their online transactions. Those intermediaries dealing with “high-risk” businesses, like “racist” publishers, may be considered complicit in suspected “fraudulent” activity, according to DOJ, the result being that they become far more likely to receive an FDIC audit to ensure ultra-compliance.
Considering the headache of dealing with potential audits and investigations, banks are simply sending out letters to “high-risk” clients informing them, without elaboration, that their accounts will be closed and loans cut off. Although the importance of banks and third-party processers make them more resemble public utilities, such a government-induced shut-down leaves little room for challenge. As the Heritage authors write, “[t]he implicit coercion of third-party financial institutions (who fear government investigations) into achieving a dubious government end by “cutting off” disfavored merchants is particularly insidious: It effectively precludes the ultimate victims from directly challenging the government’s authority to act.”
With regard to the administration’s inclusion of “racist materials” on their target-list, no evidence appears to be offered in the guidance that such publishers are particularly prone to consumer fraud, nor is “racist material” ever defined. But no doubt the designation simply includes publications that question modern multiculturalist doctrine.
The damage already done by Operation Choke Point in the form of cancelled loan contracts and chilled business plans is unknown. If restarted again in future, it may just become the most blatant example of the government’s war on Whites we’ve ever seen.
See previous letters from Jeff Stewart.
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