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FBI Pushed Muslims To Plot Terrorist Attacks: Rights Report

FBI Pushed Muslims To Plot Terrorist Attacks: Rights Report

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 U.S.,” said Andrea Prasow, the rights group’s deputy Washington director.

“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.”

The report cites the case of four Muslim converts from Newburgh, New York who were accused of planning to blow up synagogues and attack a U.S. 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.

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 U.S. government should stop treating American Muslims as terrorists-in-waiting,” the report concluded.

AFP Photo / Stan Honda

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IRS Chief, House Panel Clash Over Scandal-Related Documents

IRS Chief, House Panel Clash Over Scandal-Related Documents

By Lalita Clozel, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The head of the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that it would take years to turn over all the documents subpoenaed by the House Oversight and Government Reform committee in its investigation of the IRS’ alleged targeting of conservative groups.

During a confrontational hearing, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said he needed more time to comply with the committee’s request for the email correspondence of Lois Lerner, a former IRS official in charge of the agency’s nonprofit division.

Lerner refused to testify before the committee earlier this month, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights. That sparked a feud between committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), and ranking Democrat Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), who called Issa’s investigation “one-sided” and “un-American” after Issa ordered Cummings’ microphone turned off. Issa later apologized.

On Wednesday, Issa’s anger was focused on Koskinen.

“Unfortunately, you’ve been more concerned with managing the political fallout than cooperating with Congress or at least this committee,” Issa said, accusing Koskinen of “slow rolling” his investigation.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), threatened to hold Koskinen and the IRS in contempt if the materials were not provided fast enough.

Koskinen said delivering all the emails sent to and from Lerner and three other top IRS officials embroiled in the controversy would be a “fruitless task overwhelming the investigators.” But he added, “If that’s the way the committee wants to go, we will go that way.”

But Koskinen said it would take several years to release all requested documents, including tax-exempt status applications from 2009 to 2013. He said the IRS would first need to review all documents and make redactions to ensure it did not improperly release personal taxpayer data or other sensitive information.

Koskinen defended his agency’s cooperation with Issa’s investigation and five other inquiries into the IRS scandal. The IRS has spent up to $14 million and compiled more than 690,000 pages of documents, he said.

But Republicans and a few Democrats on the committee pressed the IRS to deliver entire blocks of correspondence, instead of batches of emails that respond to specific search terms related to the agency’s mismanagement.

“We want them all,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH). “What if there’s an email from the White House … to Lois Lerner (that) says, ‘Hey Lois, keep up the great work. We appreciate what you’re doing?’”

After an investigation last year, the Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration said the IRS’ actions did not appear to be driven by the White House and stemmed from low-level incompetence, not political bias. Some progressive groups also were targeted.

The organizations were seeking recognition as tax-exempt social welfare groups, which are permitted to do a limited amount of political activity as long as it is not their primary purpose.

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-VA), accused Issa on Wednesday of using the investigation to appeal to conservative voters. “It’s designed to get certain groups all riled up in time for the midterm elections,” he said.

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak