Ron Paul FBI

Prior to being called the FBI, the FBI was called the APL, and was a "Citizen Spy Network."

The APL was formed in 1917 by A. M. Briggs, a wealthy Chicago advertising executive. Briggs believed the Department of Justice was severely understaffed in the field of counterintelligence in the new wartime environment. He proposed a new volunteer auxiliary, with participants to be neither paid nor to benefit from expense accounts.[1] Briggs was given authority to proceed with his plan by the Department of Justice on March 22, 1917 and by President Woodrow Wilson and his cabinet on March 30, 1917[2] and the American Protective League (APL) was born.[1]