A new report is criticizing the tactic of US law enforcement agencies in sending paid informants into mosques to instigate and trap Muslims into terror plots.
The report, themed “Targeted and Entrapped: Manufacturing the ‘Homegrown Threat’, criticized the government’s tactic of sending informants into mosques to entrap Muslims into terror plots.
It cited three high-profile domestic terrorism prosecutions which raised question marks about the role of the FBI and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in creating the perception of “homegrown” terrorism.
In the cases in New York and New Jersey, paid informants were dispatched to instigate and hatch the plots that were foiled later and eventually led to prosecution.
According to the report, the informants were sent into Muslim communities without any basis for suspicion or current or eventual criminal activity.
In the cases, the informants pretending to be Muslims aggressively pushed ideas about violent jihad and encouraged defendants to believe that it was their duty to take action against the United States.
The informants even selected the proposed locations that the defendants would later be accused of targeting and provided them – or encouraged them to acquire – material evidence, including weaponry, which would be later used to convict them.
“It is abusive to pay government informants to go into Muslim communities, collect information, and then try to incite young men to consider violence and particular plots,” Akbar said.
“The government must immediately stop these perverse practices.”
The defendants in the three cases have all been convicted and currently face prison sentences ranging from 25 years to life.
One of the defendants was targeted by the government and his codefendants with an offer by a government informer, posing as a Pakistani terrorist, of $ 250,000 and a BMW to get them involved in a plot to plant bombs at a Newburgh synagogue.
“Newburgh is an extremely impoverished town,” Alicia McWilliams said.
“How much money did they spend on this whole production? They need to be investing in our communities for the future, not spending millions of dollars on a fake case that makes nobody safer.”
Probe
The report warned that the US tactic of trapping Muslims jeopardize the country’s human rights record.
“Not only do these practices fail to enhance public safety goals, but they pose intolerable threats to basic human rights across the country.”
The report suggested a number of recommendations to ensure that the US government lives up to its human rights obligations.
Among these recommendations is to reject “radicalization” theories that threaten the rights to freedom of religion, opinion, and expression, and (it) should put an end to the preventative policing and prosecution methods that rely on such theories.”
“Congress should hold hearings on the impact of counterterrorism policies on Muslim, Arab, South Asian, and Middle Eastern communities in the United States,” the report said.
The report also called on the Congress to pass the End Racial Profiling Act, a proposed federal legislation to ban racial profiling by law enforcement.
“The Department of Justice (DOJ) should also revise its guidelines that govern such investigations, the report said.
It also called for “an investigation into all terrorism-related cases involving the use of an informant since September 11, 2001, with a view towards examining oversight and actions of informants…and their role in instigating terrorist plots.”
Source: OnIslam
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