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Tag Archives: Boston

Tarek Mehanna Campaign Denounces Witch-Hunt and Bribes for Capture of Co-defendant, Ahmad Abousamra

Three years after returning to his ancestral homeland in Syria, Ahmad Abousamra was indicted in absentia with Tariq Mehanna. This 2009 indictment is the very same document that inspired the theatrical press conference by US Attorneys to unleash on the public a non-existent but undeniably dramatic plot of a mall shooting spree.

Now three years later, a new drama unfolds, featuring the release of a poorly produced public announcement in search of the alleged fugitive, “Aa-Maad” Abousamra.

Of note in the grander scheme of criminal activity is that the FBI field office in Boston is in pursuit of several fugitives; a convicted murderer who stabbed a man to death, a man who shot and beat a police chief to death, a man wanted for the molestation of three young girls, and a man wanted for the repeated rape of two young boys, who, sadly, is the only other fugitive with a reward offer and at half of that of Abousamra’s.

Yet none of the above mentioned were worthy of a video and a vast effort to spread a global campaign of media alerts and social networking awareness, especially when it seems as though a potential serial-child-rapist in one’s own backyard is a more eminent threat than a man who is not even accused of committing an act of violence, living in a foreign country. The disproportionate attention given to Abousamra and Mehanna only glaringly illustrates the political nature of such prosecutions.

As such, the video regurgitates the same conjectures of Abousamra’s supposed intentions that are found in indictments and press releases; the ‘wanted’ video merely adds a visual dimension to the propaganda.

Viewers are primed in anticipation when the video alert reveals an upcoming audio clip. What would they hear when the “armed and dangerous” Ahmad Abousamra, a man who’s crime was to believe in “the glory of dying on the battlefield,” speaks? Read the rest of this entry »

FBI Foils Own Fabrication – Again…

04 Oct

On Wednesday 28th September, a US citizen was apprehended and charged with plotting an attack against the Pentagon and US Capitol building in Washington using explosive remote-controlled aircrafts. Similarly, he was charged with providing material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organisation, namely Al-Qaeda. Rezwan Ferdaus, a 26 year-old physics graduate was arrested in Massachusetts as part of an intensive sting operation carried out by the FBI who posed as al-Qaeda sympathisers.He had allegedly requested the undercover agents to get him materials including explosives, grenades and six AK-47s which would be used to ‘launch a jihad against Americans in the US and abroad’. According to an affidavit, Ferdaus had apparently created IED’s disguised as mobile phones to be used against American troops overseas and was reportedly pleased when two undercover agents falsely said that the mobile phone IED’s had killed three U.S soldiers.

Ferdaus’ case however is not unique as this is not the first sting operation in the US which has resulted in an individual charged with terrorism. According to a study carried out by Ohio University, 40% of all the terrorism cases relating to the US since 2001 were instigated or facilitated by undercover FBI agents. For example in September 2009, a Jordanian citizen, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, was arrested and charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction on a skyscraper in downtown Dallas. Like Ferdaus, he too was under surveillance by the FBI who disguised themselves as being part of an al-Qaeda sleeper cell. However, according to the affidavit and US attorney Carmen Ortiz, Ferdaus was allegedly solely responsible for concocting the planned attacks unlike other sting operations which have been rumoured to frame individuals.

Oh the Humanity!!! The terror of it all....

In Ferdaus’ case, the accusation is primarily of a terrorist nature. However, a phenomenon within the American justice system has been highlighted recently by another study conducted by Mother Jones in conjunction with the University of California-Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program. Afterreviewing 508 terrorism-related cases in the US, they found that 53% of the cases did not involve any terrorism charges. These cases were merely associated with terrorism because of the offender’s identity rather than the actual nature of the crime. The three New Jersey Arab grocers are an example of this as they were caught with stolen Kelloggs Cornflakes and yet were somehow linked to terrorism and the infamous example of Aafia Siddiqui, who was charged with attempted murder and sentenced to 86 years as a result.

Tariq Mehanna: September 28, 2011 (Disingenuous & Shameful)

28 Sep

Here we go again. As the time-tested formula goes, they send an undercover agent to an unsuspecting naivete to fire him up. Then at the right stage, they begin secretly recording the conversations with the agent to nail down enough quotes to beef up the planned indictment. Then they buy him weapons. Then they swoop in to “foil the terror plot” – their own terror plot – just in time to prevent him from using the weapons … that they bought him! Then they announce that another “homegrown terrorist” has been caught red-handed trying to “kill Americans,” but that the “public was never in any danger” because “the plot was being closely monitored by authorities at at all times” (the term ‘closely monitored’ is a euphemism for ‘orchestrated & sustained’). Then the public reacts in shock that such a person could be “in our midst.”

And such is the classic script. Disingenuous on the part of the American government, and shameful on the part of the American public that buys into the government’s deception and allows this to keep happening.

I’d like to ask the FBI agents who work these cases: do you feel a genuine sense of fulfillment? Do you truly consider yourselves to be on a noble endeavor? By manufacturing artificial “plots” to compensate for a lack of authentic ones, do you honestly consider yourselves heroic vanguards of the homeland? On the frontlines of the ‘War on Terror’? Setting aside my understandable bias, this still seems anything but noble. Rather, it seems nothing but dishonorable and unscrupulous that with 14 million Americans so poor that they’re officially considered to be in poverty, and over twice as many unable to find work with which to feed their hungry families, and over three times as many unable to afford even basic health care, and public schools unable to pay their teachers or renovate their buildings, and with the entire economy so devastated and in shambles, somehow, the cash endlessly & magically materializes from your tax dollars to instead be used by the FBI to generate “terror plots” where there were no plots, to destroy the lives & families of people who wouldn’t & couldn’t have “plotted” anything without the coaxing and assistance of the very government agents who arrested them … all to perpetuate the public fear that justifies an ever-increasing annual budget that allows the Feds to foil more of their own “plots,” in an endless Catch-22.

Disingenuous on the part of the American government, and shameful on the part of the American public that buys into their deception and allows this to keep happening. It’s baffling how almost all the reporting on this case willfully ignores the fact that it was the FBI agents who actively facilitated the “plot,” as opposed to merely “discovering” it.

But I should credit the government. At least this time, the charges match the accusations. It’s a step up from my own case where nearly two years after my face was splashed across the news as the ‘Shopping Mall Shooter,’ I have yet to be charged with being part of any “terror plot” - shopping mall or otherwise. Even though I’m quickly approaching trial, I have yet to be told by the U.S. government which mall I was going to supposedly attack, or when I was going to attack it, or what evidence exists that this ever happened. And you don’t even want to know how many millions of tax dollars have been and will continue to be snatched up by the government to put me on trial and keep me locked up. It is quite a hefty sum.

Disingenuous on the part of the American government, and shameful on the part of the American public that buys into their deception and allows this to keep happening.