Fusion Centers, the FBI & White Supremacy: Whistleblower Mike German | Hide & Speak

Streaming live on May 30 at 4pm ET, we're diving deep into the surveillance machinery most Americans have never heard of, with Mike German, the former FBI agent who spent years undercover inside white supremacist groups and militant cells before becoming a whistleblower. Brought to you by vp.net/, the only verifiable zero-trust VPN. Mike co-authored the Brennan Center's "Ending Fusion Center Abuses," and this week we get into what it actually feels like to live a cover identity for months, the 2002 illegal wiretap he reported at enormous personal cost, and why eighty fusion centers have almost nothing to show for two decades of operation. This month The Intercept reported on a Colorado fusion center bulletin warning that DHS's own ICE recruitment messaging was so saturated with white supremacist imagery it could incite vigilante violence, and that extremists were openly discussing infiltrating ICE. In March, Mike testified before a California committee that voted a week later to audit three of the state's fusion centers. The 2020 BlueLeaks documents already showed fusion centers across multiple states monitoring Black Lives Matter protesters, and a contractor breach that same year exposed hundreds of thousands of federal records. Whether you're a longtime privacy advocate or just starting to wonder who is collecting what about you and why, this episode is built to show you how the system really works from someone who sat inside it. 🎙️ ABOUT OUR GUEST: Mike German (Ex-FBI agent, whistleblower, scholar & writer) Mike German worked undercover inside white supremacist and right-wing militant groups during his time at the FBI, then blew the whistle on illegal conduct within the Bureau and paid for it with his career. He now writes and researches on domestic intelligence, fusion centers, and civil liberties, and co-authored "Ending Fusion Center Abuses." He's also a past Hide & Speak Hero of the Week. 🔥 KEY TOPICS IN THIS EPISODE Life Under Deep Cover: What months of living a false identity inside dangerous extremist movements actually does to a person, and how you hold two contradictory things at once. The Hollywood Version: What the Daniel Radcliffe film Imperium got right about undercover work, and what Mike had to fight to keep accurate. The 2002 Decision: The moment he chose to report colleagues running an illegal wiretap, knowing what it would cost, and what vindication felt like years too late. The Whistleblower Gap: Where federal protections look strong on paper but fail the people who actually rely on them. What Fusion Centers Really Are: Who sits at the desks, which private industries are at the table, and what eighty of these centers produce all day with no record of stopping an attack. Surveilling Protest: What the 2020 leaked documents revealed about fusion centers monitoring Black Lives Matter, and a contractor breach that exposed hundreds of thousands of federal records. The ICE Recruitment Bulletin: How a Colorado fusion center flagged white supremacist imagery in federal recruitment messaging, and whether that sharpens or complicates the case against these centers. Ending the Abuse: What Mike told the California committee that moved them to audit, and what an analyst who quietly agrees should do tomorrow morning. Don't forget to Like, Subscribe, and hit the Bell 🔔 to stay notified! 🔒 BROUGHT TO YOU BY VP.NET 🔒 Hide & Speak is brought to you by vp.net, the only VPN that you don't have to trust, because it can't spy on you: vp.net/ ✉️ ALSO SPONSORED BY BMAIL ✉️ Your email's best-kept bimil. bmail is the only verifiably private email: end-to-end encrypted, zero-knowledge, and architecturally incapable of reading your messages. bmail.ag/ 🔗 CONNECT WITH MIKE GERMAN Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/rethinkintel.bsky.social #FusionCenters #MikeGerman #MassSurveillance #Whistleblower #HideAndSpeak