This is a very long article from Georgetown University’s Summer Series for Security Studies. I’ll link it all and copy the beginning but it gets at a problem with sketchy and unreliable federal informants that has been present in Muslim-American communities for years.
https://georgetownsecuritystudiesreview.org/2020/08/19/the-fbi-has-a-racism-problem-and-it-hurts-our-national-security
As stories of ISIS brutality in the Middle East began filling news cycles in 2014, there was an uptick in coverage describing foiled ISIS plots in the United States. The FBI seemed to be finding young men about to fly to Syria, blow up parades, or take hostages at a bar every few weeks. Sensationalist media coverage and headlines tended to obscure that there was often no ISIS involvement at all. Instead, FBI agents posing as ISIS online or in-person helped men (who were often mentally-ill) concoct and buy supplies for domestic terror attacks. In 2016 the New York Times found that about 2/3 of prosecutions involving suspected ISIS supporters included evidence from undercover operations.https://georgetownsecuritystudiesre...XYLoJq3pHZ0kjju4pIAp6guycfUqojTaYE0hvKw#_edn1
These undercover sting operations are clear cases of entrapment, with far reaching implications. They obscure the actual level of the international terrorist threat in the United States, lead to miscalculations in foreign policy, and minimize the terrorist threat posed by domestic far-right groups. FBI sting operations perpetuate the Agency’s long history of minority and immigrant targeting, expand its unjust monitoring and surveillance program, blur the line between programs aimed at improving law enforcement’s relationship with minorities, and reinforce racial biases in American law enforcement at a time when far-right and white supremacist violence is increasing. The best solution to address these challenges may not be to extend law enforcement to white populations, but instead to rethink what we believe about the process of radicalization, and limit law enforcement surveillance and encroachment on free speech rights.
FBI Sting Operations and Entrapment
Many of the FBI’s sting operations target people who would never have been a threat if not coaxed by FBI agents. Take the case of Emmanuel Lutchman, a Black panhandler with a long history of mental health problems. An FBI informant at a local mosque sought him out shortly after he converted to Islam. The FBI agents posing as ISIS concocted a plot with Lutchman to conduct a stabbing and hostage-taking operation at a restaurant in Rochester, New York on New Year’s Eve. To have sufficient cause for arrest and then charge him, law enforcement had to catch him with the equipment needed to carry out this attack. Lutchman did not have the money to buy the zip ties, duct tape, ski mask, and knives required for the plan. The FBI informant gave him $40 and drove him to Walmart to buy the supplies.[ii] So although Lutchman was never actually in contact with ISIS, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.[iii] News coverage of an ISIS New York’s plot rocked the nation, although those who did not read beyond most headlines never had a chance to see that ISIS played no role in this plot. Instead, a man who couldn’t afford a ride to Walmart became another reason for Americans to fear ISIS attacks on the homeland.
FBI informants have repeatedly targeted young men of color at the margins of their communities. In 2015, an FBI informant reached out to Harlem Suarez —a Cuban American who had suffered multiple head injuries —on Facebook and helped him plan a bombing in Florida. When Suarez tried to back out, the FBI informant continued to pressure him. Suarez was eventually caught with the equipment to carry out the bombing and now serves a life sentence.[iv] In another 2015 case, Peyton Pruitt, an 18-year old who had been diagnosed with autism and couldn’t tie his own shoe, was charged with terrorism for sending bomb-making instructions to someone he believed was a member of ISIS.[v] In 2013, FBI informants posing as jihadists online worked with a 17-year-old high school student to attack a bar in Chicago.[vi]
In 2009, the Newburgh Four, a group of four Black Muslims in New York were sentenced to 25 years in prison after an FBI informant helped them concoct a plan to fire Stinger missiles at US military planes and bomb a synagogue. The four men were impoverished and had previous histories of drug charges and mental illness. Laguerre Payen, one of the Newburgh Four kept bottles of his own urine in his apartment. The FBI informant had promised one of the men, James Cromitie, a quarter of a million dollars, a new BMW, a trip to Puerto Rico, and a barbershop if he carried out the plot.[vii] The judge who sentenced the four criticized the FBI’s tactics stating, “Only the government could have made a terrorist out of Mr. Cromitie, a man whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in its scope… I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that there would have been no crime here except the government instigated it, planned it and brought it to fruition.”[viii] The four had little knowledge of Islam, and the informant often took to coaching them on the tenants of Islamic concepts. The FBI informant had fraud convictions in the United States and had earned $100,000 from the FBI for this operation.[ix] In 2014, the four men lost their appeal to have their case considered a case of legal entrapment.[x]
Some informants used by the FBI have attempted murder, fraud, and drug distribution on their criminal records. They can be paid up to hundreds of thousands of dollars if they find potential terrorists. Some allegedly go on “fishing expeditions” jumping from mosque to mosque hoping to find a terrorist sympathizer. Many have been turned in to local authorities or have faced restraining orders by the Muslim communities where they operate due to their erratic behavior or their inflammatory violent comments as the attempt to attract terrorist sympathizers.[xi] Muslim civil rights groups have complained about the suspicions and paranoia being sown into their communities because of these agents.
Moreover, FBI informants not only profile Muslims, but have disproportionately targeted the mentally ill and converts. This is a small, but consistent way that American law enforcement continues to target Black Americans, many of whom convert to Islam in American prisons, and re-funnel them into the prison pipeline.
The FBI will often recruit native informants in Muslim communities by exploiting the citizenship process. An FBI training presentation recommended that agents exploit “immigrant vulnerabilities” to recruit informants. Muslims in the visa process have blamed their deportation on their refusal to work with the FBI as informants.[xii] Other US citizens were barred from flying back to the United States after international travel after refusing to act as informants.[xiii] FBI special agents are promoted and rewarded based on the negative information they provide on the communities they are monitoring. Information that exonerates people from suspicion is not similarly rewarded. Suspicious activity is created that otherwise would not have existed.[xiv] Preconceived biases against Muslim communities are confirmed in this manner.
Defenders of these methods may claim that although specific cases may not have been credible threats, the heavy-handed monitoring and enforcement practices raise distrust amongst would-be-terrorists and creates a hostile environment for potential terrorist recruiters and operators. Heavy-handed prosecution is intended to act as a deterrent.[xv]But these methods are highly problematic. They utilize racist practices that result in heavy prison sentences, sow mistrust in communities that the FBI relies on for cooperation, are costly, and are not proven to deter.
This is not only a civil rights issue, but a danger to national security. Entrapment and surveillance isolates Muslim communities and makes them fearful of authorities. If the community members or family of a mentally ill individual have reasons to suspect their activity, they are less likely to report the activity to authorities if they believe he will be entrapped in a fabricated plot or have guilt presumed rather than get access to treatment.
And although there are dozens of cases of FBI sting operations targeting and encouraging marginalized citizens to plan out terror plots, no terrorism case since 2001 has been thrown out because of entrapment. The collective fear in the American imagination towards ISIS and terrorism at large often results in sentences seemingly disproportional to the threat. As Susanne Borday, a defense attorney for a man implicated in an FBI sting operation stated: “When the government supplies a fake bomb and then thwarts the plot, this is insanity. This is grandstanding.”[xvi]
This also misinforms the American public about the extent of the ISIS threat to the United States in the bid to drum up support for extending American presence in the Middle East. ISIS outreach to Americans was not as extensive as the headlines made it seem.
Over 40% of the FBI’s 2020 operating budget is devoted to counterterrorism.[xvii] Almost half of the 500 federal counterterrorism convictions between 2001 and 2014 resulted from informant-based cases.[xviii] These sting operations are costly and arguably target people who would never concoct and follow through on a plot on their own. Samuel Braverman, another New York defense attorney, said FBI informants in sting operations are “picking off the dumbest we have to offer”. [xix]
https://georgetownsecuritystudiesreview.org/2020/08/19/the-fbi-has-a-racism-problem-and-it-hurts-our-national-security
As stories of ISIS brutality in the Middle East began filling news cycles in 2014, there was an uptick in coverage describing foiled ISIS plots in the United States. The FBI seemed to be finding young men about to fly to Syria, blow up parades, or take hostages at a bar every few weeks. Sensationalist media coverage and headlines tended to obscure that there was often no ISIS involvement at all. Instead, FBI agents posing as ISIS online or in-person helped men (who were often mentally-ill) concoct and buy supplies for domestic terror attacks. In 2016 the New York Times found that about 2/3 of prosecutions involving suspected ISIS supporters included evidence from undercover operations.https://georgetownsecuritystudiesre...XYLoJq3pHZ0kjju4pIAp6guycfUqojTaYE0hvKw#_edn1
These undercover sting operations are clear cases of entrapment, with far reaching implications. They obscure the actual level of the international terrorist threat in the United States, lead to miscalculations in foreign policy, and minimize the terrorist threat posed by domestic far-right groups. FBI sting operations perpetuate the Agency’s long history of minority and immigrant targeting, expand its unjust monitoring and surveillance program, blur the line between programs aimed at improving law enforcement’s relationship with minorities, and reinforce racial biases in American law enforcement at a time when far-right and white supremacist violence is increasing. The best solution to address these challenges may not be to extend law enforcement to white populations, but instead to rethink what we believe about the process of radicalization, and limit law enforcement surveillance and encroachment on free speech rights.
FBI Sting Operations and Entrapment
Many of the FBI’s sting operations target people who would never have been a threat if not coaxed by FBI agents. Take the case of Emmanuel Lutchman, a Black panhandler with a long history of mental health problems. An FBI informant at a local mosque sought him out shortly after he converted to Islam. The FBI agents posing as ISIS concocted a plot with Lutchman to conduct a stabbing and hostage-taking operation at a restaurant in Rochester, New York on New Year’s Eve. To have sufficient cause for arrest and then charge him, law enforcement had to catch him with the equipment needed to carry out this attack. Lutchman did not have the money to buy the zip ties, duct tape, ski mask, and knives required for the plan. The FBI informant gave him $40 and drove him to Walmart to buy the supplies.[ii] So although Lutchman was never actually in contact with ISIS, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.[iii] News coverage of an ISIS New York’s plot rocked the nation, although those who did not read beyond most headlines never had a chance to see that ISIS played no role in this plot. Instead, a man who couldn’t afford a ride to Walmart became another reason for Americans to fear ISIS attacks on the homeland.
FBI informants have repeatedly targeted young men of color at the margins of their communities. In 2015, an FBI informant reached out to Harlem Suarez —a Cuban American who had suffered multiple head injuries —on Facebook and helped him plan a bombing in Florida. When Suarez tried to back out, the FBI informant continued to pressure him. Suarez was eventually caught with the equipment to carry out the bombing and now serves a life sentence.[iv] In another 2015 case, Peyton Pruitt, an 18-year old who had been diagnosed with autism and couldn’t tie his own shoe, was charged with terrorism for sending bomb-making instructions to someone he believed was a member of ISIS.[v] In 2013, FBI informants posing as jihadists online worked with a 17-year-old high school student to attack a bar in Chicago.[vi]
In 2009, the Newburgh Four, a group of four Black Muslims in New York were sentenced to 25 years in prison after an FBI informant helped them concoct a plan to fire Stinger missiles at US military planes and bomb a synagogue. The four men were impoverished and had previous histories of drug charges and mental illness. Laguerre Payen, one of the Newburgh Four kept bottles of his own urine in his apartment. The FBI informant had promised one of the men, James Cromitie, a quarter of a million dollars, a new BMW, a trip to Puerto Rico, and a barbershop if he carried out the plot.[vii] The judge who sentenced the four criticized the FBI’s tactics stating, “Only the government could have made a terrorist out of Mr. Cromitie, a man whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in its scope… I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that there would have been no crime here except the government instigated it, planned it and brought it to fruition.”[viii] The four had little knowledge of Islam, and the informant often took to coaching them on the tenants of Islamic concepts. The FBI informant had fraud convictions in the United States and had earned $100,000 from the FBI for this operation.[ix] In 2014, the four men lost their appeal to have their case considered a case of legal entrapment.[x]
Some informants used by the FBI have attempted murder, fraud, and drug distribution on their criminal records. They can be paid up to hundreds of thousands of dollars if they find potential terrorists. Some allegedly go on “fishing expeditions” jumping from mosque to mosque hoping to find a terrorist sympathizer. Many have been turned in to local authorities or have faced restraining orders by the Muslim communities where they operate due to their erratic behavior or their inflammatory violent comments as the attempt to attract terrorist sympathizers.[xi] Muslim civil rights groups have complained about the suspicions and paranoia being sown into their communities because of these agents.
Moreover, FBI informants not only profile Muslims, but have disproportionately targeted the mentally ill and converts. This is a small, but consistent way that American law enforcement continues to target Black Americans, many of whom convert to Islam in American prisons, and re-funnel them into the prison pipeline.
The FBI will often recruit native informants in Muslim communities by exploiting the citizenship process. An FBI training presentation recommended that agents exploit “immigrant vulnerabilities” to recruit informants. Muslims in the visa process have blamed their deportation on their refusal to work with the FBI as informants.[xii] Other US citizens were barred from flying back to the United States after international travel after refusing to act as informants.[xiii] FBI special agents are promoted and rewarded based on the negative information they provide on the communities they are monitoring. Information that exonerates people from suspicion is not similarly rewarded. Suspicious activity is created that otherwise would not have existed.[xiv] Preconceived biases against Muslim communities are confirmed in this manner.
Defenders of these methods may claim that although specific cases may not have been credible threats, the heavy-handed monitoring and enforcement practices raise distrust amongst would-be-terrorists and creates a hostile environment for potential terrorist recruiters and operators. Heavy-handed prosecution is intended to act as a deterrent.[xv]But these methods are highly problematic. They utilize racist practices that result in heavy prison sentences, sow mistrust in communities that the FBI relies on for cooperation, are costly, and are not proven to deter.
This is not only a civil rights issue, but a danger to national security. Entrapment and surveillance isolates Muslim communities and makes them fearful of authorities. If the community members or family of a mentally ill individual have reasons to suspect their activity, they are less likely to report the activity to authorities if they believe he will be entrapped in a fabricated plot or have guilt presumed rather than get access to treatment.
And although there are dozens of cases of FBI sting operations targeting and encouraging marginalized citizens to plan out terror plots, no terrorism case since 2001 has been thrown out because of entrapment. The collective fear in the American imagination towards ISIS and terrorism at large often results in sentences seemingly disproportional to the threat. As Susanne Borday, a defense attorney for a man implicated in an FBI sting operation stated: “When the government supplies a fake bomb and then thwarts the plot, this is insanity. This is grandstanding.”[xvi]
This also misinforms the American public about the extent of the ISIS threat to the United States in the bid to drum up support for extending American presence in the Middle East. ISIS outreach to Americans was not as extensive as the headlines made it seem.
Over 40% of the FBI’s 2020 operating budget is devoted to counterterrorism.[xvii] Almost half of the 500 federal counterterrorism convictions between 2001 and 2014 resulted from informant-based cases.[xviii] These sting operations are costly and arguably target people who would never concoct and follow through on a plot on their own. Samuel Braverman, another New York defense attorney, said FBI informants in sting operations are “picking off the dumbest we have to offer”. [xix]
No shyt
