Washington (AFP) - The FBI encouraged and sometimes even paid Muslims to commit terrorist acts during numerous sting operations after the 9/11 attacks, a human rights group said in a report published Monday.
"Far from protecting Americans, including American Muslims, from the threat of terrorism, the policies documented in this report have diverted law enforcement from pursuing real threats," said the report by Human Rights Watch.
Aided by Columbia University Law School's Human Rights Institute, Human Rights Watch examined 27 cases from investigation through trial, interviewing 215 people, including those charged or convicted in terrorism cases, their relatives, defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges.
"In some cases the FBI may have created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals by suggesting the idea of taking terrorist action or encouraging the target to act," the report said.
In the cases reviewed, half the convictions resulted from a sting operation, and in 30 percent of those cases the undercover agent played an active role in the plot.
"Americans have been told that their government is keeping them safe by preventing and prosecuting terrorism inside the US," said Andrea Prasow, the rights group's deputy Washington director.
US attorney general Eric Holder speaks at the US ambassador's residence in Oslo on July 8, 2014 …
"But take a closer look and you realize that many of these people would never have committed a crime if not for law enforcement encouraging, pressuring and sometimes paying them to commit terrorist acts."
US Attorney General Eric Holder has strongly defended the FBI undercover operations as "essential in fighting terrorism."
"These operations are conducted with extraordinary care and precision, ensuring that law enforcement officials are accountable for the steps they take -– and that suspects are neither entrapped nor denied legal protections," Holder said July 8 during a visit to Norway.
The HRW report, however, cites the case of four Muslim converts from Newburgh, New York who were accused of planning to blow up synagogues and attack a US military base.
A judge in that case "said the government 'came up with the crime, provided the means, and removed all relevant obstacles,' and had, in the process, made a terrorist out of a man 'whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in scope,'" the report said.
This booking photo courtesy of the US Department of Justice shows suspect Rezwan Ferdaus on October…
The rights group charged that the FBI often targets vulnerable people, with mental problems or low intelligence.
It pointed to the case of Rezwan Ferdaus, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison at age 27 for wanting to attack the Pentagon and Congress with mini-drones loaded with explosives.
An FBI agent told Ferdaus' father that his son "obviously" had mental health problems, the report said. But that didn't stop an undercover agent from conceiving the plot in its entirety, it said.
"The US government should stop treating American Muslims as terrorists-in-waiting," the report concluded.
Mike German, a former FBI agent now with the Brennan Center, said FBI counterterrorism excesses were a source of concern -- "concerns that they both violate privacy and civil liberties, and aren't effective in addressing real threats."
But JM Berger, a national security expert, said law enforcement faces a dilemma: it can't just ignore tips or reports about people talking about wanting to commit a terrorist action or seeking support for one.
"The question is how to sort out which cases merit investigation and which do not," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fbi-pushed-muslims-plot-terrorist-attacks-rights-report-160325158.html

#America getting paranoid.

They did the same thing to for about 3yrs. You need to get liver stand ur ground. They send pseudo-Muslims (informants) or outright trained non-Muslims(informants and agent provocateurs) to spy and record conversations. These nasty folks would like to be my "friend". They tracked my every move and physically followed me. They wired themselves and I wired myself too. I didnt mind spending $$ to buy spy-gear to protect myself. I wrote my brief story on article open by tbaba before NL was hacked. I just keep full story of the incident with me for now. It was very scary stuff with undercover cops and fbi tapping my phone and follow me physically.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMRns4ViuEY

Why will Islam be always used as a willing weapon of terror? Why are Bhuddist, Jews, Hindus, Chriatians etc, not used as a willing terrorist weapon.

Muslims have to come to terms with the bloodletting tendencies of their religion, whether they are being manipulated or not. We must not always blame Washington for Islamic atrocities.

Is the US also responsible for sunni vs shia unending religions crisis that has dated for more that 1400yrs?

true2god: Why will Islam be always used as a willing weapon of terror? Why are Bhuddist, Jews, Hindus, Chriatians etc, not used as a willing terrorist weapon.

As the thread have shown son far, christians are the major initiators of terror they think terror that is why FBI would go great lengths towards conceiving plots, it would take Osama over a 100, 000 9-11 attacks to equal the number of deaths caused by christian madness during the first and second world wars, the majority of terror attacks are carried out by non muslims, http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/05/muslims-only-carried-out-2-5-percent-of-terrorist-attacks-on-u-s-soil-between-1970-and-2012.html.

true2god:
Muslims have to come to terms with the bloodletting tendencies of their religion, whether they are being manipulated or not. We must not always blame Washington for Islamic atrocities.

really? so you mean the senseless theology in your religion that states a certain god had to murder himself to forgive himself for sins people commit, is not founded on bloodletting tendencies?[/quote]

true2god:
Is the US also responsible for sunni vs shia unending religions crisis that has dated for more that 1400yrs?

There was no alqeada in Iraq no sunni-shia conflict in Iraq until a mad bible thumper, Bush went into that country and destroyed it with the foolishness and lies christian parrot.