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| Terrorism informants at work across nation | |
| 2006-05-13 | |
| His work as an informant began after Oregon FBI agents first contacted him in connection with another criminal investigation. The foreign-born man was not arrested and began cooperating with a federal investigation into potential terrorist-related activities by other Muslims. His work led to arrests and prosecutions. That's the scenario played out not only in Lodi last year, but in 2002 in the FBI's investigation into the "Portland Seven," a group of Taliban sympathizers. And it's similar to terrorism investigations throughout the United States since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Naseem Khan, the Pakistani-born informant who infiltrated Lodi's Muslim community, is again expected to be a key witness in the government's second trial of Umer Hayat, a 48-year-old mobile ice cream vendor accused of lying to the FBI about his alleged firsthand knowledge of Pakistani terrorist training camps. Khan, 32, previously testified that his conversations about Hamid Hayat's "training" referred to his attendance at a terrorist camp. Umer Hayat's defense team argued the reference applied to religious education. Hayat's first trial ended last month in a hung jury that was split on the two counts. Federal prosecutors announced May 5 they would retry the case, with jury selection scheduled to start June 5. Hayat's son, 23-year-old Hamid Hayat, was convicted April 25 by a different jury that decided he received terrorist training and lied about it. Oliver "Buck" Revell, a former associate deputy director of the FBI, said informants are often necessary to stop potential terrorists or their friends from aiding America's enemies. Their use as a law enforcement tool grew in the 1950s, he said. "The use of informants is nothing new," Revell said. "It's just that in the terrorism area, people aren't used to prosecutions absent a violent act, so now the prosecutions are based before the act, before they do anything violent." Federal officials acknowledge that there were no impending attacks when terrorism-related arrests were made in Lodi; Toledo, Ohio; and Detroit. Revell said arrests have other functions, though. "It's definitely intended to be a deterrent to specific acts and specific behaviors," Revell said. "If you choose to participate in a criminal enterprise, and if you lie or take some sort of material action that aids and abets, then you've violated the law." But often, the suspects are arrested on "tenuous charges" based on an informant's reports and conversations, according to Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond, Virginia, law professor who studies terrorism cases. He said Muslim informants often aren't given specific targets but instead are asked to look for possible suspects. In the Hayats' case, he said the fact Khan was paid roughly $230,000 in wages and expenses raises suspicions about informants' motives. "You have to wonder when they get $250,000 and a car," Tobias said. James J. Wedick, a retired FBI agent who worked with the Hayats' defense team, said other veteran FBI agents consider many of the terrorism cases weak. Wedick said informants are taking advantage of many Muslim immigrants' sympathy for other Muslim nations. "Anybody who joins the bureau for a good case wouldn't work any of these cases for all the tea in China," Wedick said. "I would rather chase a white-collar crook or some violent guy, because there's plenty of them out there, rather than make up a case on these folks. "They've gone into the Muslim community and found a level of hate there, and instead of trying to understand it,
Muslims who attended the Hayats' trials said the FBI is actively recruiting other Muslims to look for other potential homegrown or immigrant terrorists. The FBI's use of Khan in Lodi now has the city's Muslims suspicious of any newcomers. Revell said that's similar to the reaction many Italian-Americans had after the FBI infiltrated the mafia in the 1960s. "It's an unfortunate aspect, but it's mandatory to penetrate organizations like al-Qaida or the Muslim Brotherhood," Revell said. "In order to do that, they have to send people in who can listen, overhear and report." | |
| Posted by:ryuge |