[Ppnews] Fake terror plots, paid informants: the tactics of FBI 'entrapment' questioned

[Political Prisoner News]

Fake terror plots, paid informants: the tactics of FBI 'entrapment' questioned

Critics say bureau is running a sting operation 
across America, targeting vulnerable people by 
luring them into fake terror plots
    * 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/paulharris>Paul 
Harris in <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/new-york>New York
    * <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>guardian.co.uk, 
Wednesday 16 November 2011 12.33 EST
    * 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/16/fbi-entrapment-fake-terror-plots?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038 


David Williams did not have an easy life. He 
moved to Newburgh, a gritty, impoverished town on 
the banks of the Hudson an hour or so north of 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/new-york>New 
York, at just 10 years old. For a young, black 
American boy with a father in jail, trouble was everywhere.

Williams also made bad choices. He ended up going 
to jail for dealing drugs. When he came out in 
2007 he tried to go straight, but money was tight 
and his brother, Lord, needed cash for a liver 
transplant. Life is hard in Newburgh if you are 
poor, have a drug rap and need cash quickly.

His aunt, Alicia McWilliams, was honest about the 
tough streets her nephew was dealing with. 
"Newburgh is a hard place," she said. So it was 
perhaps no surprise that in May, 2009, David 
Williams was arrested again and hit with a 
25-year jail sentence. But it was not for drugs 
offences. Or any other common crime. Instead 
Williams and three other struggling local men 
beset by drug, criminal and mental health issues 
were convicted of an Islamic terrorist plot to 
blow up Jewish synagogues and shoot down military jets with missiles.

Even more shocking was that the organisation, 
money, weapons and motivation for this plot did 
not come from real Islamic terrorists. It came 
from the 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/fbi>FBI, and an 
informant paid to pose as a terrorist mastermind 
paying big bucks for help in carrying out an 
attack. For McWilliams, her own government had 
actually cajoled and paid her beloved nephew into 
being a terrorist, created a fake plot and then 
jailed him for it. "I feel like I am in the 
Twilight Zone," she told the Guardian.

Lawyers for the so-called Newburgh Four have now 
launched an appeal that will be held early next 
year. Advocates hope the case offers the best 
chance of exposing the issue of FBI "entrapment" 
in terror cases. "We have as close to a legal 
entrapment case as I have ever seen," said 
Susanne Brody, who represents another Newburgh defendant, Onta Williams.

Some experts agree. "The target, the motive, the 
ideology and the plot were all led by the FBI," 
said Karen Greenberg, a law professor at Fordham 
University in New York, who specialises in studying the new FBI tactics.

But the issue is one that stretches far beyond 
Newburgh. Critics say the FBI is running a sting 
operation across America, targeting – to a large 
extent – the Muslim community by luring people 
into fake terror plots. FBI bureaux send 
informants to trawl through Muslim communities, 
hang out in mosques and community centres, and 
talk of radical Islam in order to identify 
possible targets sympathetic to such ideals. Or 
they will respond to the most bizarre of 
tip-offs, including, in one case, a man who 
claimed to have seen terror chief Ayman 
al-Zawahiri living in northern California in the late 1990s.

That tipster was quickly hired as a well-paid 
informant. If suitable suspects are identified, 
FBI agents then run a sting, often creating a 
fake terror plot in which it helps supply weapons 
and targets. Then, dramatic arrests are made, 
press conferences held and lengthy convictions secured.

But what is not clear is if many real, actual terrorists are involved.

Another "entrapment" case is on the radar too. 
The Fort Dix Five – accused of plotting to attack 
a <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/new-jersey>New 
Jersey army base – have also appealed against 
their convictions. That case too involved dubious 
use of paid informants, an apparent over-reach of 
evidence and a plot that seemed suggested by the government.

Burim Duka, whose three brothers were jailed for 
life for their part in the scheme, insists they 
did not know they were part of a terror plot and 
were just buying guns for shooting holidays in a 
deal arranged by a friend. The "friend" was an 
informant who had persuaded another man of a desire to attack Fort Dix.

Duka is convinced his brothers' appeal has a good 
chance. "I am hopeful," he told the Guardian.

But things may not be that easy. At issue is the 
word "entrapment", which has two definitions. 
There is the common usage, where a citizen might 
see FBI operations as deliberate traps 
manipulating unwary people who otherwise were 
unlikely to become terrorists. Then there is the 
legal definition of entrapment, where the 
prosecution merely has to show a subject was 
predisposed to carry out the actions they later are accused of.

Theoretically, a simple expression, like support 
for jihad, might suffice, and in post-9/11 
America neither judges nor juries tend to be 
nuanced in terror trials. "Legally, you have to 
use the word entrapment very carefully. It is a 
very strict legal term," said Greenberg.

But in its commonly understood usage, FBI 
entrapment is a widespread tactic. Within days of 
the 9/11 terror attacks, FBI director Robert 
Mueller issued a memo on a new policy of "forward 
leaning – preventative – prosecutions".

Central to that is a growing informant network. 
The FBI is not choosy about the people it uses. 
Some have criminal records, including attempted 
murder or drug dealing or fraud. They are often 
paid six-figure sums, which critics say creates a 
motivation to entrap targets. Some are motivated 
by the promise of debts forgiven or immigration 
violations wiped clean. There has also been a 
relaxing of rules on what criteria the FBI needs to launch an investigation.

Often they just seem to be "fishing expeditions". 
In the Newburgh case, the men involved met FBI 
informant Shahed Hussain simply because he 
happened to infiltrate their mosque. In southern 
California, FBI informant Craig Monteilh trawled 
mosques posing as a Muslim and tried to act as a magnet for potential radicals.

Monteilh, who bugged scores of people, is a 
convicted felon with serious drug charges to his 
name. His operation turned up nothing. But 
Monteilh's professed terrorist sympathy so 
unnerved his Muslim targets that they got a 
restraining order against him and alerted the 
FBI, not realising Monteilh was actually working on the bureau's behalf.

Muslim civil rights groups have warned of a 
feeling of being hounded and threatened by the 
FBI, triggering a natural fear of the authorities 
among people that should be a vital defence 
against real terror attacks. But FBI tactics 
could now be putting off many people from 
reporting tip-offs or suspicious individuals.

"They are making mosques suspicious of anybody. 
They are putting fear into these communities," 
said Greenberg. Civil liberties groups are also 
concerned, seeing some FBI tactics as using 
terrorism to justify more power. "We are still 
seeing an expansion of these tools. It is a 
terrible prospect," said Mike German, an expert 
at the American Civil Liberties Union and a 
former FBI agent who has worked in counter-terrorism.

German said suspects convicted of plotting terror 
attacks in some recent FBI cases bore little 
resemblance to the profile of most terrorist 
cells. "Most of these suspect terrorists had no 
access to weapons unless the government provided 
them. I would say that showed they were not the 
biggest threat to the US," German said.

"Most terrorists have links to foreign terrorist 
groups and have trained in terrorism training 
camps. Perhaps FBI resources should be spent finding those guys."

Also, some of the most serious terrorist attacks 
carried out in the US since 9/11 have revolved 
around "lone wolf" actions, not the sort of 
conspiracy plots the FBI have been striving to 
combat. The 2010 Times Square bomber, Faisal 
Shahzad, only came to light after his car bomb 
failed to go off properly. The Fort Hood killer 
Nidal Malik Hasan, who shot dead 13 people on a 
Texas army base in 2009, was only discovered 
after he started firing. Both evaded the radar of 
an FBI expending resources setting up fictional 
crimes and then prosecuting those involved.

Yet, as advocates for those caught up in 
"entrapment" cases discover, there is little 
public or judicial sympathy for them. Even in 
cases where judges have admitted FBI tactics have 
raised serious questions, there has been no 
hesitation in returning guilty verdicts, handing 
down lengthy sentences and dismissing appeals.

The Liberty City Seven are a case in point. The 
2006 case involved an informant, Elie Assaad, 
with a dubious past (he was once arrested, but 
not charged, for beating his pregnant wife). 
Assaad was let loose with another informant on a 
group of men in Liberty City, a poor, 
predominantly black, suburb of Miami. The targets 
were followers of a cult-like group called The 
Seas of David, led by former Guardian Angel Narseal Batiste.

The group was, perhaps, not even Muslim, as its 
religious practices involved Bible study and 
wearing the Star of David. Yet Assaad posed as an 
Al-Qaida operative, and got members of the group 
to swear allegiance. Transcripts of the 
"oath-taking" ceremony are almost farcical. 
Batiste repeatedly queries the idea and appears 
bullied into it. In effect, defence lawyers 
argued, the men were confused, impoverished members of an obscure cult.

Yet targets the group supposedly entertained 
attacking included the Sears Tower in Chicago, 
Hollywood movie studios and the Empire State 
Building. Even zealous prosecutors, painting a 
picture of dedicated Islamic terrorists, admitted 
any potential plots were "aspirational", given 
the group had no means to carry them out.

Nonetheless, they were charged with seeking to 
wage war against America, plotting to destroy 
buildings and supporting terrorism. Five of them 
got long jail sentences. Assaad, who was recently 
arrested in Texas for attempting to run over a 
policeman, was paid $85,000 for his work.

This year the jailed Liberty City men launched an 
appeal and last week judgment was handed down. 
They lost, and officially remain Islamic 
terrorists hell-bent on destroying America. Not 
that their supporters see it that way.

"Our country is no safer as a result of the 
prosecution of these seven impoverished young men 
from Liberty City," said Batiste's lawyer, Ana Jhones.

"This prosecution came at great financial cost to 
our government, and at a terrible emotional cost 
to these defendants and their families. It is my 
sincere belief that our country is less safe as a 
result of the government's actions in this case."
    * © 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or 
its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.




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