In 2011, the FBI authorized the commission of 5,658 crimes or, as the crime-fighting agency designates them, “otherwise illegal activities.” The FBI’s mandate, pursuant to 28 USC 533, is to “detect and prosecute crimes against the United States.” How did that mission mutate into the approval of crimes?

As a recent article in USA Today related, it’s a matter of the end justifying the means. The authorized criminals are FBI informants, officially labeled “confidential human sources.”