‘Social engineering’: FBI whistleblower slams agency effort to convert cars to soy-based tires

An FBI whistleblower is raising alarm over a plan to convert the agency’s government-issued vehicles to soy-based tires, arguing it is an ideological social engineering project ripe for abuse that does nothing to improve law enforcement capabilities.

Steve Friend, a former FBI agent who says he was forced from the agency for raising concerns about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigation, posted an image on Twitter that was reportedly shared with him by FBI insiders and taken from the agency’s unclassified intranet.

The image contains a caption that reads, “The FBI has rolled out new tires made with environmentally friendly soy.”

Other screen captures provided to Just The News show texts reading that “some offices” in the FBI are allegedly “required to give purchasing preference to environmentally preferable products,” and have already begun buying the tires for testing and usage.

Brooke Siegel, an agency Occupational Safety and Environmental Programs’ Sustainability manager, is cited as saying the soy tires work “just as well, if not better” than rubber ones in some instances.

“If there’s no downside ... why wouldn’t we use them,” she is also shown to have said.

Siegel also reportedly developed a guide titled, “How to Buy Bio-Based Tires for the FBI Mission” and was recognized by the Agriculture Department for the FBI’s "commitment to sustainable acquisition.”

The FBI’s national press office did not immediately respond to request for comment, but a recent Justice Department report outlining efforts to make law-enforcement more sustainable confirmed the bureau has indeed begun a conversion to soy-based tires.

“FBI partnered with the DoD STED Program to evaluate samples of soybean oil rubber compound tires at FBI Academy’s Tactical and Emergency Vehicle Operations Center (TEVOC) “ the report said. “Manufacturers have discovered that soybean oil can reduce the amount of petroleum used to manufacture tires and extend tread life. As compared to petroleum oil, soybean oil mixes more easily with the rubber compounds included in tires, improving the energy efficiency of the tire manufacturing process.

”FBI automotive technicians concluded that one of the products performed well given the high-performance purposes of the TEVOC course and that the tires are well suited for FBI’s police and everyday vehicles,” it added. “In FY 2022, FBI’s Occupational Safety and Environmental Programs (OSEP) Unit published guidance encouraging FBI Fleet Managers to purchase the piloted soy-based tires.”

You can read that report here:

Friend told Just The News such initiatives are ill-suited for the country's top law enforcement agency.

“The FBI is an inappropriate arena for the federal government to initiate social engineering or environmental activist causes,” he said. “I also question the wisdom of advocating for a particular product that is only manufactured by a solitary company.”

Goodyear is named as the “only available manufacturer” of the soy tires, according to the information Friend made public.

“That hardly guarantees a fair bidding process and calls the federal government's requirement to prioritize environmentally preferable products into question as a potential avenue for elected officials to route taxpayer funds to their political allies,” Friend also said. 

The former agent expressed other frustrations with the bureau including that it is offering "massage chairs, wellness rooms and daytime yoga classes” at some offices.

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