Corrupt bureaucrats get away with murder at USDA, apologists accuse black farmers of being thieves while USDA steals billions of farmland through institutional terrorism

This is a chapter from my book, which details corporate terrorism inside USDA. It isn’t the black and family farmers who have gone hog wild; it’s the bureaucrats inside USDA who have been accused of: forging loan documents, not applying millions of dollars of loan payments to loan principal, abusing farmers and retaliating against whistle blowers. Author website

 The Agriculture Hit Man: They get away with murder at USDA

John Perkins, a former high level government and banking executive turned whistleblower/author writes that much of the international political instability, economic crisis and revolution around the world is no accident. He speaks from the perspective of a self-described “Economic Hitman”, whose job was to implement policies that promoted the interests of the U.S. corporatocracy (a coalition of government, banks, and corporations) while professing to alleviate poverty—policies that alienated many nations and ultimately led to September 11 and growing anti-Americanism. (Book review: Confessions of an Economic Hitman)

Hitman tactics are not limited to foreign banks and corporations. In an interview with two farm activists and civil rights leaders, this reporter  learned that some of the above-mentioned tactics used to destabilize foreign governments are also being used domestically against black and disadvantaged farmers. In our interview with Lawrence Lucas, President of the Coalition of USDA Minority Employees, and Tom Burrell, President of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Assoc., we learned that the United States Department of Agriculture is not your garden variety government bureaucracy.

Lucas says USDA operates as a plantation and plays by its own set of rules. Burrell takes it a step further and says the agency operates as a subversive agency, ignoring court orders, bypassing the Constitution, and even operates a goon squad akin to the gestapo.

Lucas says that the agency’s aggressive retaliation against critics, whistleblowers and farm activists borders on Gestapo tactics and he is not surprised that a USDA manager, Shirley Shirrard came under fire. He believes that the lack of accountability within the organization has gone on for years and it has given many USDA employees and managers the idea that they are outside of the law. Lucas and Burrell say that when managers such as Mrs. Sherrard go against the grain and try to help minority and disadvantaged farmers save their farms, they are targeted by the agency.

According to Lucas, the USDA uses taxpayer dollars to fund the defense USDA managers and employees who actively and aggressively use illegal, unconstitutional means to illegally foreclose on farmers and retaliate against USDA critics and whistleblowers. The agency continues to hire expensive “K-Street type attorneys” to fight whistleblowers and employees who complain and file charges against the agency.

Lucas says he and others are disappointed that the USDA backlog of whistleblower complaints and civil rights complaints has not been speedily addressed by the Obama Administration. He believes that, “As long as you allow people to abuse people and get away with it, and as long as you use the tax payer’s money to defend the abusers against poor employees who are struggling day by day, you are not going to get any improvement against this plantation culture at USDA.”

When asked to define that “plantation culture,” Lucas said:

“I mean a culture that is abusive, that is disrespectful, that is hostile, an environment that allows slurs being thrown at Jews, racial epithets being exhibited in the workplace, like hangmen’s nooses, people being called the n-word. The plantation mentality goes beyond just race, the problem that Mrs. Sherrord pointed out was not just about race, but was about economic deprivation. In other words, poor people were suffering the same abuse as minorities, especially African Americans.”

Lucas described the abuse and hostile environment at USDA. “You have white women being abused, sexually abused, and assaulted in the workplace. You have black people being denied promotions, being denied awards. Their white counterparts are treated differently. Because of the abuse we have suffered, we have identified USDA as a plantation. In fact, it was one of the last federal agencies to integrate bathrooms and cafeterias in Washington, DC.”

Lucas says he and others continue to document USDA civil rights cases. “Ms. Lisa Donnelly (a USDA forestry employee and vice-president of the Coalition of USDA Minority Employees) and I have testified about these abuses at congressional hearings and little has been done. I can’t for the life of me understand why race is being put on the back burner, because race is an issue at USDA, but there is also widespread abuse of minority and female employees, that we did not expect to continue under this administration.”

According to Lucas, the pro-corporate farm and plantation mentality continues to infest the USDA. It is manifested as institutional racism, bias, bigotry in loan programs, and an out refusal to abide by the judge’s order in the Black Farmer Settlement case. One of the provisions, whas that if a person prevailed, that is was paid as part of the consent decree, “any debt …in some cases millions of dollars of debt…you were eligible for having that debt written off.”

Contrary to the court order, Lucas says, “A lot of employees at the county level would ignore the court order, and go back into their files and reattach liens, reattach that debt. “In other words, the farmer had his farm free and clear under the consent decree, but underhanded USDA employees would go back into the file and put the liens back on the property.”

According to Lucas, not only are USDA employees violating the court order, the agency is also engaging in a massive retaliation operation against whistleblowers, minority, female and disadvantaged farmers who file lawsuits or complaints. Lucas says the USDA operates a counterintelligence operation against internal and external critics, routinely deny blacks, minorities and women promotions, awards and recognition, and also retaliates and reprises against those who file complaints.

USDA critics such as Lucas and others also say that Breitbart, the Internet blogger, who aired the doctored clip of Mrs. Shirley Sherrord, was a sort of “useful fool” (a person who does the dirty work of a government/government agency). They say Breitbart used information that was sliced, diced and edited by others, all of which served two purposes: to paint blacks within the USDA as vindictive individuals who were out to harm whites, and two, to poison the waters for the passage of the Black Farmers settlement by the Senate.

The Senate failed to pass the measure and headed out of town on recess, leaving tens of thousands of black farmers at risk of losing their land. Many of these farmers stand to lose, or have already lost their land, due to —many because of these illegal activities.

Using tactics first developed and refined by a covert “anti-communism” element within the US intelligence agencies, including the FBI, COINTELPRO targeted so called enemies of the Nixon administration, civil right activists, black power revolutionaries, peacenicks, and other political nonconformists. Today, critics say the USDA’s “agriculture hitmen” are using the same kinds of tactics to illegally develop dossiers on critics in and out of the organization.

Tom Burrel, one of the few black farmers who actually received compensation for USDA’s discrimination, based on the 1999 consent decree and the Black Farmers’ Settlement, says the agency is out of control. Burrell, who served in the military and left a lucrative career in the automotive industry to return to his agriculture roots, says the USDA operates as a subversive agency, ignoring court orders, bypassing the Constitution and unlawfully deprives many family farmers of their land.

Burrell also says the agency operates its own intelligence and intimidation squad, targeting whistleblowers, farmers and critics. Violence is not unknown. Burrell likens these USDA operatives to the Gestapo. According to critics, the agency is full of agricultural hit men—individuals who illegally target farmers with illegal foreclosure and debt.

NOTE: I am actively seeking interviews with farmers, landowners, homeowners who have had problems with banks, mortgage companies and federal loan programs–including student loans. Contact me via email: [email protected]