Feds ensnare innocents in 'terrorism' plots, says rights group

Federal investigators “created terrorists out of law-abiding citizens” by using undercover agents and criminal informants to encourage mostly Muslim Americans to carry out attacks on the United States, according to a new report. After targeted individuals attempted to carry out plots cooked up by the government, the FBI arrested them, the rights group behind the study found.

The “Illusion of Justice” report, released Monday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) argues that such tactics are not effective at catching people who wouldn’t otherwise be involved in acts of violence, and, by targeting Muslim Americans, has “alienated the very communities the government relies on most to report possible terrorist threats.”

More than 500 terrorism prosecutions have been carried out since the Sept. 11 attacks, many of them resulting in long custodial of life prison sentences. HRW said it had concerns with 494 of these cases.

In most cases, HRW said the government’s behavior should constitute “entrapment,” whereby it lures people to commit crimes they wouldn’t have committed had the authorities not intervened. Prosecutors usually have to convince a judge or jury that the defendant already had a “predisposition” to committing the crime for ‘entrapment’ not to be used as a successful defense.

But when it comes to terrorism prosecutions, HRW says “inflammatory stereotypes and highly charged characterizations of Islam” can make it difficult for defendants to convince courts they didn’t have the “predisposition” toward political violence.

In one case, FBI agents found Muslim-American teenager in Chicago on an Islamic chat forum and allegedly groomed him into attempting to attack a bar in the city in 2012. Before young Adel Daoud met the FBI online, his parents had told him that the Islamic precept of “jihad,” or “struggle,” meant helping his family, not committing acts of violence. His trial is set for November.

“Certainly the U.S. government believes it is actually prosecuting potential terrorists. But that is based on a false belief that people who espouse certain views will necessary take violent action,” said Andrea J. Prasow, deputy director of HRW’s Washington, D.C. office.

“Much of the FBI’s investigative work is based on the so-called ‘radicalization’ theory, which places lawful, protected speech on a continuum towards violent action. It’s time for the FBI, and the U.S. government as a whole, to reject this theory and focus on actual criminal conduct, instead of treating all American Muslims as would-be terrorists,” Prasow continued.

The HRW report looked at 27 cases of terrorism charges and found a pattern of federal law enforcement goading otherwise innocent Americans. The report said the U.S. government “overstepped its role by effectively participating in developing terrorism plots.” In two cases, HRW found, the agents offered suspects money in order to encourage them.

“It’s hard to beat offering an unemployed man $250,000 to commit a terrorist act,” Prasow said when asked what the most egregious abuse of the tactic was, referring to four men from Newburgh, New York convicted of charges related to a 2009 plot to blow up Bronx synagogues and attack a military plane at a nearby airport.

The report details human rights concerns, including prosecutions that use broad interpretations of “material support” of terrorism and the targeting of people who are particularly vulnerable to manipulation or coercion, including the poor or those with mental health problems.

HRW recommended restricting the use of informants and not sending them into communities until real suspicion of a crime exists, employ a less broad interpretation of “material support” that does not include free expression and make sure prisoners received humane treatment.

The report found “draconian conditions post-conviction, including prolonged solitary confinement and severe restrictions on contact with families or others, sometimes without explanation or recourse."

“One detainee,” the report said, “called it ‘a touch of hell.’”