the The fbi has built a massive network of spies to prevent another domestic attack. infor But are they busting terroristmants plots—or leading them?

by trevor aaronson illustrations by jeffrey smith The fbi has built a massive network of spies to prevent another domestic attack. infor But are they busting terroristmants plots—or leading them?

photos from government sources and trevor aaronson except AP Photos (8), N ewscom/AFP/Getty (2), and R euters (1). ames Cromitie was a man of bluster and bigotry. He made up wild stories The bureau’s answer has been a strategy about his supposed exploits, like the one about firing gas bombs into police known variously as “preemption,” “pre- precincts using a flare gun, and he ranted about Jews. “The worst brother in vention,” and “disruption”—identifying and neutralizing potential lone wolves the whole Islamic world is better than 10 billion Yahudi,” he once said. before they move toward action. To that A 45-year-old Walmart stocker who’d adopted the name Abdul Rahman after end, fbi agents and informants target not converting to Islam during a prison stint for selling cocaine, Cromitie had lots just active jihadists, but tens of thousands of worries—convincing his wife he wasn’t sleeping around, keeping up with the of law-abiding people, seeking to identify those disgruntled few who might partici- rent, finding a decent job despite his felony record. But he dreamed of making pate in a plot given the means and the op- his mark. He confided as much in a middle-aged Pakistani he knew as Maqsood. portunity. And then, in case after case, the “I’m gonna run into something real big,” Maqsood was an undercover operative; government provides the plot, the means, jhe’d say. “I just feel it, I’m telling you. I that much was true. But not for Jaish-e- and the opportunity. feel it.” Mohammad. His real name was Shahed Here’s how it works: Informants report Maqsood and Cromitie had met at a Hussain, and he was a paid informant for to their handlers on people who have, mosque in Newburgh, a struggling former the Federal Bureau of Investigation. say, made statements sympathizing with Air Force town about an hour north of New Ever since 9/11, counterterrorism has terrorists. Those names are then cross- York City. They struck up a friendship, been the fbi’s No. 1 priority, consuming referenced with existing intelligence talking for hours about the world’s prob- the lion’s share of its budget—$3.3 billion, data, such as immigration and criminal lems and how the Jews were to blame. compared to $2.6 billion for organized records. fbi agents may then assign an un- It was all talk until November 2008, crime—and much of the attention of field dercover operative to approach the target when Maqsood pressed his new friend. agents and a massive, nationwide network by posing as a radical. Sometimes the op- “Do you think you are a better recruiter of informants. After years of emphasizing erative will propose a plot, provide explo- or a better action man?” Maqsood asked. informant recruiting as a key task for its sives, even lead the target in a fake oath “I’m both,” Cromitie bragged. agents, the bureau now maintains a ros- to Al Qaeda. Once enough incriminating “My people would be very happy to ter of 15,000 spies—many of them tasked, information has been gathered, there’s an know that, brother. Honestly.” as Hussain was, with infiltrating Muslim arrest—and a press conference announc- “Who’s your people?” Cromitie asked. communities in the United States. In ad- ing another foiled plot. “Jaish-e-Mohammad.” dition, for every informant officially listed If this sounds vaguely familiar, it’s be- Maqsood said he was an agent for the in the bureau’s records, there are as many cause such sting operations are a fixture in Pakistani terror group, tasked with assem- as three unofficial ones, according to one the headlines. Remember the Washington bling a team to wage jihad in the United former high-level fbi official, known in bu- Metro bombing plot? The New York sub- States. He asked Cromitie what he would reau parlance as “hip pockets.” way plot? The guys who planned to blow attack if he had the means. A bridge, Cro- The informants could be doctors, clerks, up the Sears Tower? The teenager seeking mitie said. imams. Some might not even consider to bomb a Portland Christmas tree light- “But bridges are too hard to be hit,” themselves informants. But the fbi regu- ing? Each of those plots, and dozens more Maqsood pleaded, “because they’re made larly taps all of them as part of a domestic across the nation, was led by an fbi asset. of steel.” intelligence apparatus whose only histori- Over the past year, Mother Jones and the “Of course they’re made of steel,” Cro- cal peer might be cointelpro, the program Investigative Reporting Program at the Uni- mitie replied. “But the same way they can the bureau ran from the ’50s to the ’70s versity of California-Berkeley have examined be put up, they can be brought down.” to discredit and marginalize organizations prosecutions of 508 defendants in terrorism- Maqsood coaxed Cromitie toward a ranging from the Ku Klux Klan to civil- related cases, as defined by the Department more realistic plan. The Mumbai attacks rights and protest groups. of Justice. Our investigation found: were all over the news, and he pointed out The bureau’s strategy has changed sig- n Nearly half the prosecutions involved how those gunmen targeted hotels, cafés, nificantly from the days when officials the use of informants, many of them in- and a Jewish community center. feared another coordinated, internation- centivized by money (operatives can be om

“With your intelligence, I know you ally financed attack from an Al Qaeda paid as much as $100,000 per assignment) c can manipulate someone,” Cromitie told sleeper cell. Today, counterterrorism ex- or the need to work off criminal or im- his friend. “But not me, because I’m intel- perts believe groups like Al Qaeda, bat- migration violations. (For more on the ligent.” The pair settled on a plot to bomb tered by the war in Afghanistan and the details of those 508 cases, see charts on synagogues in the Bronx, and then fire efforts of the global intelligence commu- pages 36-37.) Stinger missiles at airplanes taking off from nity, have shifted to a franchise model, n Sting operations resulted in prosecutions using the internet to encourage sympa- against 158 defendants. Of that total, 49

Stewart International Airport in the south- news/news holas/splash ern Hudson Valley. Maqsood would pro- thizers to carry out attacks defendants participated in plots led by an c vide all the explosives and weapons, even in their name. The main Target: agent provocateur—an fbi operative insti- James the vehicles. “We have two missiles, okay?” domestic threat, as the fbi Cromitie gating terrorist action.

he offered. “Two Stingers, rocket missiles.” sees it, is a lone wolf. n With three exceptions, all of the high- ni jb Cromitie:

32 mother jones | september/october 2011 the informants

profile domestic terror plots Western New York Joint Terrorism Task cases since January 2009. With the war on of the last decade were actu- Informant: Force and oversaw the investigation of the terror an open-ended and nebulous con- Shahed ally fbi stings. (The excep- Hussain Lackawanna Six, an alleged terror cell near flict, thefbi doesn’t have an exit strategy. tions are Najibullah Zazi, Buffalo, New York. “Real people don’t who came close to bombing the New York say, ‘Yeah, let’s go bomb that place.’ Real Located deep in a wooded area on a Marine City subway system in September 2009; people call the cops.” Corps base west of Interstate 95—a setting Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, an Egyptian Even so, Ahearn concedes that the up- familiar from Silence of the Lambs—is the who opened fire on the El-Al ticket counter tick in successful terrorism stings might not sandstone fortress of the fbi Academy in at the Los Angeles airport; and failed Times be evidence of a growing threat so much as Quantico, Virginia. This building, erected Square bomber Faisal Shahzad.) a greater focus by the fbi. “If you concen- under J. Edgar Hoover, is where to this day n In many sting cases, key encounters be- trate more people on a problem,” Ahearn every fbi special agent is trained. tween the informant and the target were not says, “you’ll find more problems.” Today, J. Stephen Tidwell graduated from the recorded—making it hard for defendants the fbi follows up on literally every single academy in 1981 and over the years rose to claiming entrapment to prove their case. n Terrorism-related charges are so difficult Counterterrorism is the fbi’s top priority, to beat in court, even when the evidence is thin, that defendants often don’t risk a trial. consuming the lion’s share of its budget— “The problem with the cases we’re talk- and much of the attention of case agents ing about is that defendants would not and a network of some 15,000 informants. have done anything if not kicked in the ass by government agents,” says Martin Stolar, call, email, or other terrorism-related tip it executive assistant director, one of a lawyer who represented a man caught in receives for fear of missing a clue. the 10 highest positions in the fbi; a 2004 sting involving New York’s Her- And the emphasis is unlikely to shift in 2008, he coauthored the Domes- ald Square subway station. “They’re cre- anytime soon. Sting operations have tic Investigations and Operations ating crimes to solve crimes so they can “proven to be an essential law enforce- Guide, or diog, the manual for what agents claim a victory in the war on terror.” In ment tool in uncovering and preventing and informants can and cannot do. the fbi’s defense, supporters argue that potential terror attacks,” said Attorney A former western Texas cop, Tidwell is the bureau will only pursue a case when General Eric Holder in a December 2010 a barrel-chested man with close-cropped the target clearly is willing to participate speech to Muslim lawyers and civil rights salt-and-pepper hair. He’s led some of the in violent action. “If you’re doing a sting activists. President Obama’s Department fbi’s highest-profile investigations, includ- right, you’re offering the target multiple of Justice has announced sting-related ing the DC sniper case and the probe of chances to back out,” says Peter Ahearn, prosecutions at an even faster clip than the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. a retired fbi special agent who directed the the Bush administration, with 44 new On a cloudy spring afternoon, Tidwell,

revised to allow agents to look fbi agents can join forces with terms of entrapment for information—including immigration agents to put the A guide to counterterrorism jargon going through someone’s squeeze on someone to become trash—about a person who is an informant. 1001: Known as the “Al Capone,” hour investigation—which may not formally being investigated, Material support: Providing Title 18, Section 1001 of the feder- include surveillance—that fbi sometimes to flip them as an help to a designated foreign al criminal code covers the crime agents can launch without hav- informant. terrorist organization. This can of lying to federal agents. Just ing a predicate (see below). Domain Management: An fbi include money, lodging, train- as the government prosecuted cointelpro: From 1956 to 1971, data-mining and analysis pro- ing, documents, weapons, and Capone for tax violations, it has the fbi’s Counter Intelligence gram used to map US communi- personnel—including oneself, frequently used 1001 against Program attempted to infiltrate ties along ethnic and religious and including joining a terrorist terrorism defendants whose and sometimes harass domes- lines. cell dreamed up by the fbi. crimes or affiliations it couldn’t tic political groups, from the Hip pocket: An unregistered in- Operator: Someone who wants prove in court. Ku Klux Klan to the National formant who provides informa- to be a terrorist; in the fbi’s Agent provocateur: An infor- Lawyers Guild and the Southern tion and tips to fbi agents but view, sympathizers become mant or undercover operative Christian Leadership Conference. whose information is not used operators. who incites a target to take un- diog: The Domestic Investiga- in court. Predicate: Information clearly lawful action; the phrase origi- tions and Operations Guide, Joint Terrorism Task Force: A suggesting that an individual is nally described strikebreakers a 258-page fbi manual for partnership among federal and involved in unlawful activity; it’s trying to provoke violence. undercover operations and the local law enforcement agen- required for the fbi to start an hussain: redux hussain: Assessment: The term for a 72- use of informants. Recently cies; through it, for example, investigation. —T.A.

september/october 2011 | mother jones 33 the informants dressed in khakis and a blue sweater, had trained would end up reshaping the ing crime syndicates, the drove me in his black Ford F-350 through bureau’s counterterrorism operations. fbi official: bureau would focus on J. Stephen Hogan’s Alley—a 10-acre Potemkin vil- Before 9/11, fbi agents considered chas- Tidwell Jack Bauer-style operators lage with houses, bars, stores, and a hotel. ing terrorists an undesirable career path, disrupting terror groups. Agents learning the craft role-play stings, and their training did not distinguish be- To help run the counterterrorism sec- busts, and bank robberies here, and inside tween Islamic terror tactics and those em- tion, Mueller drafted Arthur Cummings, a jokes and pop-culture references litter the ployed by groups like the Irish Republican former Navy seal who’d investigated the ourtesy fbi ourtesy place (which itself gets its name from a Army. “A bombing case is a bombing case,” first World Trade Center bombing. Cum- c 19th-century comic strip). At one end of Dale Watson, who was the fbi’s counterter- mings pressed agents to focus not only on the town is the Biograph Theater, named rorism chief on 9/11, said in a December their immediate target, but also on the ex- for the Chicago movie house where fbi 2004 deposition. The fbi also did not train tended web of people linked to the target. ress; tidwell: tidwell: ress; P agents gunned down John Dillinger in agents in Arabic or require most of them “We’re looking for the sympathizer who

1934. (“See,” Tidwell says. “The fbi has a to learn about radical Islam. “I don’t neces- wants to become an operator, and we want UMA sense of humor.”) sarily think you have to know everything to catch them when they step over that line to operator,” Cummings says. “Some- times, that step takes 10 years. Other times, “The problem with these cases is that ayne/eyevine/Z it takes 10 minutes.” The fbi’s goal is to P

defendants would not have done anything eter

create a hostile environment for terrorist P if not kicked in the ass by government recruiters and operators—by raising the risk hutto: hutto: agents,” says one of the lawyers involved. of even the smallest step toward violent B action. It’s a form of deterrence, an adap- Inside the academy, a more som- about the Ku Klux Klan to investigate a tation of the “broken windows” theory aronson; aronson; ber tone prevails. Plaques every- church bombing,” Watson said. The fbi used to fight urban crime. Advocates in- A where honor agents who have been had only one Arabic speaker in New York sist it has been effective, noting that there revor revor killed on the job. Tidwell takes me City and fewer than 10 nationwide. hasn’t been a successful large-scale attack T to one that commemorates John O’Neill, But shortly after 9/11, President George against the United States since 9/11. But who became chief of the bureau’s then- W. Bush called fbi Director Robert Muel- what can’t be answered—as many former

tiny counterterrorism section in 1995. For ler to Camp David. His message: never and current fbi agents acknowledge—is Courtesy ar:

c years before retiring from the fbi, O’Neill again. And so Mueller committed to turn how many of the bureau’s targets would art, art, warned of Al Qaeda’s increasing threat, to the fbi into a counterintelligence organiza- have taken the step over the line at all, M ini- no avail. In late August 2001, he left the tion rivaling Britain’s MI5 in its capacity were it not for an informant. M bureau to take a job as head of security for for surveillance and clandestine activity. edux; edux; the World Trade Center, where he died 19 Federal law enforcement went from a fo- So how did the fbi build its informant R days later at the hands of the enemy he’d cus on fighting crime to preventing crime; network? It began by asking where US ussain: ussain: told the fbi it should fear. The agents he instead of accountants and lawyers crack- Muslims lived. Four years after 9/11, the H

2002: Hussain, who will later testify that his family Psst, want a has a long-standing Thebomb? making of an fbi superinformant friendship with former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s, brings 1995-2000: Hussain works January 2002: Facing his son to visit Bhutto his way up from a $4/hour criminal charges and in her hotel room at the job as a gas station deportation after the dmv Ritz-Carlton in New York. attendant to owning a scam is busted, Hussain Bhutto asks the boy, convenience store and a becomes an fbi informant. “How old are you?” His house in a middle-class His first assignment: August 2003: Hussain files answer: 17. “Let me buy suburb of Albany, New York. wearing a wire to gather for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you a car,” she replies, evidence on 13 associates reporting nearly $180,000 according to Hussain, and Fluent in multiple in the driver’s license scam. in debts. He fails to tell 2000-01: gives him $40,000 with languages, including Urdu Some of the targets are his the court of the Pakistani instructions to purchase and Dutch, Hussain takes friends. trust fund from which he a Mercedes-Benz. a job as a dmv translator. will eventually withdraw 1994: Shahed Hussain, He starts a side business $500,000. whose family owns a chain helping dmv test takers of restaurants in Pakistan, cheat for $300 to $500 each. November 2003: Hussain is arrested in Karachi on a meets with Mohammed murder charge—trumped M. Hossain, a Bangladeshi up, he says, for political immigrant who owns a reasons. His father bribes an pizzeria in Albany. Following officer to secure his release, fbi instructions, Hussain and Hussain flees to the US. brags about importing

34 mother jones | september/october 2011 the informants bureau brought in a cia expert on intel- ligence-gathering methods named Phil Mudd. His tool of choice was a data-min- ing system using commercially available information, as well as government data such as immigration records, to pinpoint the demographics of specific ethnic and re- ligious communities—say, Iranians in Bev- erly Hills or Pakistanis in the DC suburbs. The fbi officially denies that the pro- gram, known as Domain Management, works this way—its purpose, the bureau says, is simply to help allocate resources according to threats. But fbi agents told me that with counterterrorism as the bu- reau’s top priority, agents often look for those threats in Muslim communities— and Domain Management allows them to quickly understand those communities’ makeup. One high-ranking former fbi of- ficial jokingly referred to it as “Battlefield Management.” Some fbi veterans criticized the program as unproductive and intrusive—one told Mudd during a high-level meeting that he’d pushed the bureau to “the dark side.” That tension has its roots in the stark dif- ference between the fbi and the cia: While the latter is free to operate internationally without regard to constitutional rights, the fbi must respect those rights in domestic investigations, and Mudd’s critics saw the Serial informant Shahed Hussain (see timeline below) showed off a idea of targeting Americans based on their missile part as he asked a pizzeria owner in Albany, New York, to hold ethnicity and religion as a step too far. money for his “terrorist” friends. Nonetheless, Domain Management

2005: Hussain buys his son October 2007: Hussain’s May 20, 2009: Hussain a new car; this time it's an case is settled in bankruptcy drives Cromitie and three Audi. court. He convinces the other men to Riverdale, in court he can’t start making the Bronx, where Cromitie August 2006: After payments on his remaining places what he believes are swearing to the bankruptcy debts for four years. bombs outside synagogues. court that he can’t afford They are arrested. to pay his debts, Hussain 2008: Hussain befriends buys a run-down hotel in a Newburgh man named September 21, 2010: upstate New York and puts James Cromitie and Hussain testifies that he weapons for his “mujahid surveillance video. His fbi it in his wife’s name. Two takes him to an Islamic created the “impression” brothers” to use in the marching orders are to make years later, three guests sue conference in Philadelphia, that Cromitie would make United States and shows it clear the money is being Hussain for fraud after he all expenses paid by the fbi. a lot of money for his role off a Stinger missile “for laundered for terrorists, but takes prepaid reservations They end up talking about in the bombings. destroying airplanes.” the pizzeria owner seems for rooms that are not the Mumbai attacks, and to think it’s just a loan: “I actually available. Hussain points out that one June 29, 2011: US District January 2004: Hussain just need to keep going, of the gunmen’s targets Judge Colleen McMahon gives the pizzeria owner just so I can pay the bills,” 2007-08: Having “worked was a Jewish community sentences Cromitie to 25 $5,000 in cash. Yassin Aref, he says. Both he and Aref off” the dmv scam charges, center. “I’d like to get years in prison but points a local imam—and the fbi’s will be convicted of money Hussain becomes a paid fbi one of those,” Cromitie out from the bench that primary target in the sting— laundering and material informant. He’s assigned responds. “I’d like to get a the fbi played a key role. “It is brought in to oversee support and sentenced to 15 to spend time in mosques synagogue.” created acts of terrorism the transaction. “Let’s years in prison. in Newburgh, New York, out of his fantasies of do some business, okay? and look for, in his words, bravado and bigotry,” she Let’s make some money, “radicals”—a job that will says, “and then made those okay?” Hussain says in a make him nearly $100,000. fantasies come true.” —T.A. quickly became the foundation for the fbi’s counterterrorism dragnet. Using the demo- terror trials by the graphic data, field agents were directed to Stings,numbers informants, and underwear bombs: target specific communities to recruit infor- Digging through the data from federal terrorism cases* mants. Some agents were assigned to the task full time. And across the bureau, agents’ were charged with240 terrorism annual performance evaluations are now of 508 defendants... based in part on their recruiting efforts. People cooperate with law enforcement 243 158 49 for fairly simple reasons: ego, patriotism, (48%) were (31%) were (10%) were targeted via nabbed via a lured in by an fbi money, or coercion. The ’s recruitment an informant sting informant who has relied heavily on the latter. One tried- led the plot and-true method is to flip someone facing Once terrorism defendants Defendants aren’t necessarily criminal charges. But since 9/11 the fbi has have been indicted, a charge connected to terrorist groups. also relied heavily on Immigration and is virtually certain to stick. Alleged affiliations: Customs Enforcement, with which it has stinger stings Of worked closely as part of increased inter- agency coordination. A typical scenario will play out like this: An fbi agent trying 14defendants to get someone to cooperate will look for 65 (13%) are accused of trying pending trial to get missiles evidence that the person has immigration to bring down troubles. If they do, he can ask ice to begin 110 (22%) have been airplanes: found guilty or expedite deportation proceedings. If the 209 (41%) None immigrant then chooses to cooperate, the (66%) have 333 107 (21%) Al Qaeda fbi will tell the court that he is a valuable pleaded guilty 5tried to get asset, averting deportation. missiles on their 146 (29%) Other own Sometimes, the target of this kind of Islamist groups push is the one person in a mosque who will know everyone’s business—the imam. 46 (9%) Other terrorist groups 9tried to get Two Islamic religious leaders, Foad Farahi missiles from in Miami and Sheikh Tarek Saleh in New an informant or undercover agent York City, are currently fighting deporta- Totals exceed 100% due to tion proceedings that, they claim, began rounding. after they refused to become fbi assets. The Muslim American Society Immigrant Justice Center has filed similar complaints Federal terrorism cases have been filed in 36 states and Washington, DC. on behalf of seven other Muslims with the Department of Homeland Security. Once someone has signed on as an infor- mant, the first assignment is often a fishing expedition. Informants have said in court testimony that fbi handlers have tasked them with infiltrating mosques without a specific target or “predicate”—the term of art for the reason why someone is investigated. They were, they say, directed to surveil law- abiding Americans with no indication of criminal intent. “The fbi is now telling agents they can go into houses of worship without probable cause,” says Farhana Khera, executive direc- tor of the San Francisco-based civil rights group Muslim Advocates. “That raises seri- ous constitutional issues.” Tidwell himself will soon have to defend *Since 9/11, the federal government has prosecuted more than 500 people for plotting terrorist these practices in court—he’s among those acts, trying to assist terrorists, or other crimes connected to terrorism. We reviewed cases involving 400 Department of Justice-designated terrorism defendants and another 108 cases named in a class-action lawsuit over an in- that fit thedoj ’s definition of international terrorism cases. berlin jeff

36 mother jones | september/october 2011 ‑

formant’s allegation that the fbi used him to spy on a number of mosques in South- how the 508 were prosecuted... ern California. That informant, Craig Monteilh, is a convicted felon who made his money ripping off cocaine dealers before be- were charged with240 terrorism 268were charged with other crimes coming an asset for the Drug Enforce- ment Administration and later the fbi. A well-muscled 49-year-old with a shaved Federal terrorism charges cover a range of offenses, from taking hostages to scalp, Monteilh has been a particularly bombings. But many defendants in what versatile snitch: He’s pretended to be a the government considers terrorism Immigration white supremacist, a Russian hit man, and cases are charged with other crimes, most violations commonly immigration violations, instead. 121 a Sicilian drug trafficker. He says when the fbi sent him into mosques (posing as a French-Syrian Muslim), he was told Most common terrorism charges: to act as a decoy for any radicals who might seek to convert him—and to look Criminal conspiracy 73 for information to help flip congregants as informants, such as immigration sta- Providing material tus, extramarital relationships, criminal support to terrorists 192 activities, and drug use. “Blackmail is the ultimate goal,” Monteilh says. Making false 72 statements Officially, thefbi denies it blackmails in- formants. “We are prohibited from using threats or coercion,” says Kathleen Wright, an fbi spokeswoman. (She acknowledges Plotting violence abroad that the bureau has prevented helpful in- 68 Other charges** 59 formants from being deported.) fbi veterans say reality is different from the official line. “We could go to a source Funding terrorists 36 and say, ‘We know you’re having an affair. If Fraud/financial you work with us, we won’t tell your wife,’” 57 crimes says a former top fbi counterterrorism offi- Weapons of cial. “Would we actually call the wife if the 25 mass destruction source doesn’t cooperate? Not always. You

Terrorist acts rico/ do get into ethics here—is this the right thing against Americans racketeering 51 to do?—but legally this isn’t a question. If abroad 16 you obtained the information legally, then Trying to obtain missiles you can use it however you want.” 14 to destroy aircraft Firearms 22 violations But eventually, Monteilh’s operation im- Receiving ploded in spectacular fashion. In Decem- terrorist training 8 Stolen goods/ ber 2007, police in Irvine, California, 6 Bombings counterfeits 17 charged him with bilking two women out Air piracy/attacks of $157,000 as part of an alleged human on pubic transport 4 pick yoursome weapon header here 2 Hostage- Some terrorism statutes can be **Includes murder, drug growth hormone scam. Monteilh has main- taking interpreted broadly. For example, dealing, tax evasion, perjury, seditious tained it was actually part of an fbi investi- the anti-wmd law has been conspiracy, cigarette gation, and that agents instructed him to invoked in cases involving: smuggling, and obscenity Grenades plead guilty to a grand-theft charge and Some defendants serve eight months so as not to blow his Car bombs faced more than one charge. cover. The fbi would “clean up” the charge Improvised explosive devices later, Monteilh says he was told. That didn’t Surface-to-air missiles happen, and Monteilh has alleged in court Backpack bombs filings that the government put him in Richard Reid’s shoe bomb danger by letting fellow inmates know that The “underwear bomber” he was an informant. (fbi agents told me Airplanes hijacked on 9/11 the bureau wouldn’t advise an informant to plead guilty to a state criminal charge;

september/october 2011 | mother jones 37 the informants instead, agents would work with local pros- Shady informants, of course, are as old as “a 340-pound man with a fondness for ecutors to delay or dismiss the charge.) the fbi; one saying in the bureau is, “To firearms and strippers.” He subscribed to The class-action suit, filed by the aclu, catch the devil, you have to go to hell.” Soldier of Fortune and hung around a police alleges that Tidwell, then the bureau’s Los Another is, “The only problem worse supply store on a desolate stretch of Hol- Angeles-based assistant director, signed off than having an informant is not having lywood Boulevard, north of Miami. on Monteilh’s operation. And Tidwell says an informant.” Back in the ’80s, the fbi Howard Gilbert aspired to be a cia agent he’s eager to defend the bureau in court. made a cottage industry of drug stings— but lacked pertinent experience. So to pad “There is not the blanket suspicion of the a source of countless Hollywood plots, his résumé, he hatched a plan to infiltrate Muslim community that they think there often involving briefcases full of cocaine a mosque in the suburb of Pembroke Pines is,” Tidwell says. “We’re just looking for the and Miami as the backdrop. by posing as a Muslim convert named Saif bad guys. Anything the fbi does is going It’s perhaps fitting, then, that one of the Allah. He told congregants that he was a to be interpreted as monitoring Muslims. earliest known terrorism stings also unfold- former Marine and a security expert, and I would tell [critics]: ‘Do you really think ed in Miami, though it wasn’t launched one night in late 2000, he gave a speech I have the time and money to monitor all by the fbi. Instead the protagonist was a about the plight of Palestinians. the mosques and Arab American organiza- Canadian bodyguard and, as a Fort Lau- “That was truly the night that launched tions? We don’t. And I don’t want to.’” derdale, Florida, newspaper put it in 2002, me into the terrorist umbrella of South the best terrorists money can buy Broke-ass losers. Big talkers. Ninja wannabes. How dangerous are the fbi’s sting targets? threat led by fbi by led self -starter self

loser

The Gold Digger Pattern: Target is broke and thinks he can make big money by cater- ing to informant’s suggestions. Case study: Derrick Sha- reef was 22 and desper- ate for cash to fix his car when an informant approached him at the video game store where he worked in the fall of 2006. The informant, a career criminal, offered Shareef a vehicle, a place to live, and free meals at his house. It was the day before Ramadan, and Shareef, who’d been on the outs with his family Shareef excitedly agreed; since he The Convert for robbery and, while out on since converting to Islam at age 15, was still broke, he traded an “arms Pattern: Target is a newcomer parole, wrote letters to John saw the offer as an act of God. dealer”—in fact an undercover fbi to Islam with only a rudimentary Walker Lindh, the American Weeks later, he told the informant agent—a set of speakers for some understanding of the religion; of- student who joined the Taliban. he wanted to attack a courthouse grenades and a 9 mm handgun. ten also broke and/or homeless. Parole officers found out about and “smoke a judge.” The infor- Charge: Attempted use of a Case study: Michael the letters while searching his car mant suggested attacking a shop- weapon of mass destruction Finton converted to and told the fbi. The bureau sent ping mall at Christmas instead. Sentence: 35 years Islam while in prison in an informant—another prison

38 mother jones | september/october 2011 Florida,” Gilbert would later brag to the an associate of Osama bin Laden tasked her to the point that she became afraid for South Florida Sun-Sentinel. with establishing a training camp in the her unborn baby; he was arrested, but in the Nineteen-year-old congregant Imran United States. Gilbert suggested attacking end his wife refused to press charges. Mandhai, stirred by the oration, ap- electrical substations in South Florida, and The jail stint didn’t keep Assaad from proached Gilbert and asked if he could Assaad offered to provide a weapon. fbi working for the fbi on what would turn provide him weapons and training. Gil- agents then arrested Mandhai; he pleaded out to be perhaps the most high-profile bert, who had been providing information guilty in federal court and was sentenced to terrorism bust of the post-9/11 era. In to the fbi, contacted his handlers and asked nearly 14 years in prison. It was a model of 2005, the bureau got a tip from an infor- for more money to work on the case. (He what would become the bureau’s primary mant about a group of alleged terrorists in later claimed that the bureau had paid him counterterrorism M.O.—identifying a tar- Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood. The $6,000.) But he ultimately couldn’t deliv- get, offering a plot, and then pouncing. targets were seven men—some African er—the target had sensed something fishy Gilbert himself didn’t get to bask in his American, others Haitian—who called about his new friend. glory; he never worked for the fbi again and themselves the “Seas of David” and as- The bureau also brought in Elie As- died in 2004. Assaad, for his part, ran into cribed to religious beliefs that blended saad, a seasoned informant originally from some trouble when his pregnant wife called Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The men Lebanon. He told Mandhai that he was 911. She said Assaad had beaten and choked were martial-arts enthusiasts who operated

to bomb Fountain Place, an iconic support to terrorists; distributing Tarik Shah, a jazz bassist who played Bill Clinton’s Dallas skyscraper. On September information on explosives inauguration, was the target of a three-year fbi 24, 2009, the fbi provided Smadi Sentence: 13 years with what they said was a car operation that revealed little more than a man bomb; he drove it into the build- The Subway Bomber obsessed with his martial-arts prowess. ing’s parking garage and dialed Pattern: With the exception of the number he believed would one attempt to bomb the New trigger the bomb. York City subway, all the headline- convert who, according to an fbi as a man obsessed with his Charges: Attempted use of a grabbing subway “plots” you’ve affidavit, may have been dealing martial-arts prowess and a desire weapon of mass destruction heard of were fbi-led nonstarters. drugs while working for the to train Muslims in hand-to-hand Sentence: 24 years Case study: Farooque bureau. Together with yet combat. In one exchange, Shah Ahmed was a 34-year- another undercover operative, talked about how he could use The Trainee old Pakistani computer Finton hatched a car-bomb plot the sharp pin that his bass rested Pattern: fbi agent or informant engineer living in a middle-class targeting the federal building in on to kill someone. Eventually, offers to train target as a jihadist, suburb of Washington, DC, with Springfield, Illinois. Shelby introduced him to an most often via weapons instruc- his English-born wife and baby. Charges: Attempted use of a Arabic-speaking fbi agent who tion and bodybuilding. He’d worked for Ericsson and a weapon of mass destruction led Shah and a friend in an oath Case study: Marwan Verizon contractor, according to Sentence: 28 years to Al Qaeda. The oath became a el-Hindi was a his LinkedIn profile. In the spring key piece of evidence in his Jordanian-born of 2010, he came to know two The Oath Taker conviction. naturalized citizen with a string of men he believed to be Al Qaeda Pattern: Target swears a ficti- Charge: Conspiring to provide fraudulent businesses. He met representatives, and they met tious Al Qaeda oath made up by material support to terrorists Darren Griffin, a former US Army several times in northern Virginia informant; is charged and con- Sentence: 15 years Special Forces member and fbi hotel rooms, where Ahmed pro- victed based on that oath informant, at his mosque and vided pictures, videos, and Case study: Tarik Shah, The Car Bomber asked him about weapons sketches of Washington Metro an accomplished jazz Pattern: Target and informant training. From then on, Griffin stations. He also told the men, bassist (he played Bill hatch plot together; fbi supplies stayed close to el-Hindi, taking who were fbi assets, that he had Clinton’s inauguration) and vehicle, “explosives,” and phone online terrorist training classes been training for an attack by martial-arts studio owner, met to trigger the supposed bomb. with him, working out at a gym, studying martial arts as well as fbi informant Mohamed Alanssi Case study: Hosam and doing target practice. Griffin, knife and gun techniques. He was through an Islamic bookstore in Smadi, an 18-year-old who is referred to in bureau arrested with great fanfare, New York City. For two years, Jordanian living out- documents as “the Trainer,” spent though the government took Alanssi kept in contact with Shah side Dallas, came to the fbi’s at- more than three years cultivating care to point out that “at no time but got nothing incriminating tention in an extremist chat his target before the fbi arrested was the public in danger.” out of him. So the fbi turned to a room. An undercover agent be- el-Hindi in February 2006. Charge: Attempting to provide second informant, Theodore friended Smadi and introduced Charges: Conspiring to kill, kid- material support to a terrorist Shelby, an ex-convict and former him to two more agents posing nap, maim, or injure another per- organization; collecting informa- Black Panther. He recorded as members of an Al Qaeda son outside of the United States; tion to assist a terrorist attack conversations that showed Shah sleeper cell. They hatched a plan conspiring to provide material Sentence: 23 years —T.A.

september/october 2011 | mother jones 39 the informants out of a dilapidated ware- “Brother.” one exchange. “Once I give you an account house, where they also Informant: “Brother.” number, how long do you think it’s gonna Elie taught classes for local kids. Assaad “You’re not—you have to say your take to get me something in?” The Seas of David’s leader name!” Assaad cried. “So you is scratching my back, [I’m] was Narseal Batiste, the son of a Louisiana “Naz. Naz.” scratching your back—we’re like this,” As- preacher, father of four, and a former “Uh. To commit myself. I am Brother Naz. saad dodged. Guardian Angel. You can say, ‘To commit myself.’” “Right,” Batiste said. In response to the informant’s tip, the “To commit myself, Brother Naz.” The money never materialized. fbi had him wear a wire during meetings Things went smoothly until Assaad got Neither did any specific terrorist plot. with the men, but he wasn’t able to engage to a reference to being “protective of the Nevertheless, federal prosecutors charged them in conversations about terrorist secrecy of the oath and to the directive of Batiste and his cohorts—whom the me- plots. So he introduced the group to Al Qaeda.” dia dubbed the Liberty City Seven—with Assaad, now playing an Al Qaeda opera- Here Batiste stopped. “And to…what is conspiracy to support terrorism, destroy tive. At the informant’s request, Batiste the directive of?” buildings, and levy war against the US took photographs of the fbi office in “Directive of Al Qaeda,” the informant government. Perhaps the key piece of North Miami Beach and was caught on answered. evidence was the video of Assaad’s Al tape discussing a notion to bomb the Sears “So now let me ask you this part here. Qaeda “oath.” Assaad was reportedly Tower in Chicago. Assaad led Batiste, and That means that Al Qaeda will be over us?” paid $85,000 for his work on the case; the other informant got $21,000. fbi officials say they have to flush out James J. Wedick, a former fbi agent, was hired to review the Liberty City case as a terrorist sympathizers—even if it means consultant for the defense. In his opinion, faking plots. “What would you do?” asks the informant simply picked low-hanging one. “Wait for him to figure it out himself?” fruit. “These guys couldn’t find their way down the end of the street,” Wedick says. later the other men, in swearing an “No, no, no, no, no,” Assaad said. “It’s “They were homeless types. And, yes, we oath to Al Qaeda, though the cere- an alliance.” did show a picture where somebody was mony (recorded and entered into “Oh. Well…” Batiste said, sounding re- taking the oath to Al Qaeda. So what? evidence at trial) bore a certain signed. They didn’t care. They only cared about “Who’s on First?” flavor: “It’s an alliance, but it’s like a commit- the money. When we put forth a case like “God’s pledge is upon me, and so is his com- ment, by, uh, like, we respect your rules. that to suggest to the American public that pact,” Assaad said as he and Batiste sat in You respect our rules,” Assaad explained. we’re protecting them, we’re not protect- his car. “Repeat after me.” “Uh, huh,” Batiste mumbled. ing them. The agents back in the bullpen, “Okay. Allah’s pledge is upon you.” “And to the directive of Al Qaeda,” Assaad they know it’s not true.” “No, you have to repeat exactly. God’s said, waiting for Batiste to repeat. Indeed, the Department of Justice had pledge is upon me, and so is his compact. You “Okay, can I say an alliance?” Batiste a difficult time winning convictions in have to repeat.” asked. “And to the alliance of Al Qaeda?” the Liberty City case. In three separate “Well, I can’t say Allah?” Batiste asked. “Of the alliance, of the directive—” Assaad trials, juries deadlocked on most of the “Yeah, but this is an English version said, catching himself. “You know what charges, eventually acquitting one of the because Allah, you can say whatever you you can say? And to the directive and the alli- defendants (charges against another were want, but—” ance of Al Qaeda.” dropped) and convicting five of crimes “Okay. Of course.” “Okay, directive and alliance of Al Qaeda,” that landed them in prison for between 7 “Okay.” Batiste said. to 13 years. When it was all over, Assaad e “Allah’s pledge is upon me. And so is his “Okay,” the informant said. “Now offi- told abc News’ Brian Ross that he had a c compact,” Batiste said, adding: “That means cially you have commitment and we have special sense for terrorists: “God gave me his angels, right?” alliance between each other. And welcome, a certain gift.” “Uh, huh. To commit myself,” Assaad con- Brother Naz, to Al Qaeda.” But he didn’t have a gift for sensing tinued. Or not. Ultimately, the undercover trouble. After the Liberty City case, As- ounty sheriff's offi sheriff's ounty “To commit myself.” recordings made by Assaad suggest that saad moved on to Texas and founded a c “Brother.” Batiste, who had a failing drywall busi- low-rent modeling agency. In March, “Brother,” Batiste repeated. ness and had trouble making the rent for when police tried to pull him over, he led “Uh. That’s, uh, what’s your, uh, what’s the warehouse, was mostly trying to shake them in a chase through El Paso (with his your name, brother?” down his “terrorist” friend. After first ask- female passenger jump-

“Ah, Brother Naz.” ing the informant for $50,000, Batiste is Target: ing out at one point), hit multnomah ourtesy Mohamed c “Okay. To commit myself,” the informant recorded in conversation after conversa- Osman a cop with his car, and Mohamud repeated. tion asking how soon he’ll have the cash. ended up rolling his suv ohamud: ohamud:

“To commit myself.” “Let me ask you a question,” he says in on the freeway. Reached M

40 mother jones | september/october 2011 the informants

by phone, Assaad declined to comment. He’s saving his story, he says, for a book he’s pitching to publishers.

Not all of the more than 500 terrorism prosecutions reviewed in this investigation are so action-movie ready. But many do have an element of mystery. For example, though recorded conversations are often a key element of prosecutions, in many sting cases the fbi didn’t record large portions of the investigation, particularly during initial encounters or at key junctures during the sting. When those conversations come up in court, the fbi and prosecutors will in- stead rely on the account of an informant with a performance bonus on the line. One of the most egregious examples of a missing recording involves a convoluted tale that begins in the early morning hours of November 1, 2009, with a date-rape al- legation on the campus of Oregon State University. Following a Halloween party, 18-year-old Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a Somali-born US citizen, went home with another student. The next morning, the woman reported to police that she believed she had been drugged. Campus police brought Mohamud in for questioning and a polygraph test; fbi agents, who for reasons that have not been disclosed had been keeping an eye on the teen for about a month, were also there. Mohamud claimed that the sex was con- sensual, and a drug test given to his accuser “These guys were homeless types,” one former fbi official says about eventually came back negative. the alleged Sears Tower plotters. “And yes, we did show a picture where During the interrogation, osu police asked Mohamud if a search of his laptop somebody was taking the oath to Al Qaeda. So what?” would indicate that he’d researched date- rape drugs. He said it wouldn’t and gave Mohamud up with a van that he thought But Tidwell, the retired fbi official, says them permission to examine his hard drive. was filled with explosives. On November Mohamud was exactly the kind of person Police copied its entire contents and turned 26, 2010, Mohamud and one of the agents the fbi needs to f lush out. “That kid was the data over to the fbi—which discovered, drove the van to Portland’s Pioneer Square, pretty specific about what he wanted to it later alleged in court documents, that and Mohamud dialed the phone to trigger do,” he says. “What would you do in re- Mohamud had emailed someone in north- the explosion. Nothing. He dialed again. sponse? Wait for him to figure it out him- west Pakistan talking about jihad. Suddenly fbi agents appeared and dragged self? If you’ll notice, most of these folks Soon after his run-in with police, Mo- him away as he kicked and yelled, “Allahu [targeted in stings] plead guilty. They hamud began to receive emails from “Bill akbar!” Prosecutors charged him with at- don’t say, ‘I’ve been entrapped,’ or, ‘I was Smith,” a self-described terrorist who en- tempting to use a weapon of mass destruc- immature.’” That’s true—though it’s also e department e c couraged him to “help the brothers.” “Bill,” tion; his trial is pending. true that defendants and their attorneys an fbi agent, arranged for Mohamud to The Portland case has been held up as know that the odds of succeeding at trial meet one of his associates in a Portland ho- an example of how fbi stings can make are vanishingly small. Nearly two-thirds tel room. There, Mohamud told the agents a terrorist where there might have been of all terrorism prosecutions since 9/11 that he’d been thinking of jihad since age only an angry loser. “This is a kid who, it have ended in guilty pleas, and experts ourtesy el paso poli paso el ourtesy c 15. When asked what he might want to at- can be reasonably inferred, barely had the hypothesize that it’s difficult for such de- tack, Mohamud suggested the city’s Christ- capacity to put his shoes on in the morn- fendants to get a fair trial. “The plots peo-

assaad: assaad: mas tree lighting ceremony. The agents set ing,” Wedick says. ple are accused of being part of—attacking

september/october 2011 | mother jones 41 the informants

subway systems or trying but you didn’t record this meeting.’ Some- was finding people who would be harm- to bomb a building—are Target: times, I admit, they might not record some- ful, and radicals, and identify them for the Antonio so frightening that they Martinez thing intentionally”—for fear, she says, that fbi,” Hussain said during Cromitie’s trial. can overwhelm a jury,” the target will notice. “But more often than Most of the mosque’s congregants were notes David Cole, a Georgetown Univer- not, it’s a technical issue.” poor, and Hussain, who posed as a wealthy sity law professor who has studied these Wedick, the former fbi agent, is less for- businessman and always arrived in one of types of cases. giving. “With the technology the fbi now his four luxury cars—a Hummer, a Mer- has access to—these small devices that cedes, two different bmws—made plenty of But the Mohamud story wasn’t quite over— no one would ever suspect are recorders friends. But after more than a year working it would end up changing the course of or transmitters—there’s no excuse not to the local Muslim community, he had not another case on the opposite side of the tape interactions between the informant identified a single actual target. country. In Maryland, rookie fbi agent and the target,” he says. “So why in many Then, one day in June 2008, Cromitie ap- Keith Bender had been working a sting of these terrorism stings are meetings not proached Hussain in the parking lot outside against 21-year-old Antonio Martinez, recorded? Because it’s convenient for the the mosque. The two became friends, and a recent convert to Islam who’d posted fbi not to record.” Hussain clearly had Cromitie’s number. “Allah didn’t bring you here to work for After one sting target’s trial, a judge warned Walmart,” he told him at one point. Cromitie, who once claimed he could that the fbi “created acts of terrorism out “con the corn from the cob,” had a history of his fantasies of bravado and bigotry, and of mental instability. He told a psychiatrist then made those fantasies come true.” that he saw and heard things that weren’t there and had twice tried to commit sui- inflammatory comments on Fa- So what really happens as an informant cide. He told tall tales, most of them en- cebook (“The sword is cummin works his target, sometimes over a period tirely untrue—like the one about how his

the reign of oppression is about 2 of years, and eases him over the line? For brother stole $126 million worth of stuff fbi ourtesy c : : cease inshallah”). An fbi informant the answer to that, consider once more the from Tiffany. z had befriended Martinez and, in recorded case of James Cromitie, the Walmart stock- Exactly what Hussain and Cromitie

conversations, they talked about attacking er with a hatred of Jews. Cromitie was the talked about in the first four months of martine a military recruiting station. ringleader in the much-publicized But just as the sting was building to its Bronx synagogue bombing plot climax, Martinez saw news reports about that went to trial last year. But a the Mohamud case, and how there was an closer look at the record reveals undercover operative involved. He wor- that while Cromitie was no one’s ried: Was he, too, being lured into a sting? idea of a nice guy, whatever leader- dig deeper He called his supposed terrorist contact: ship existed in the plot emanated Want to see for yourself how an fbi sting “I’m not falling for no BS,” he told him. from his sharply dressed, smooth- works? Visit MotherJones.com, where Faced with the risk of losing the tar- talking friend Maqsood, a.k.a. fbi you’ll find much of the behind-the- get, the informant—whose name is not informant Shahed Hussain. scenes information we uncovered in this revealed in court records—met with Mar- A Pakistani refugee who claimed investigation. tinez and pulled him back into the plot. to be friends with Benazir Bhutto But while the informant had recorded and had a soft spot for fancy cars, n Watch surveillance video from terror numerous previous meetings with Marti- Hussain was by then one of the investigations. nez, no recording was made for this key fbi’s more successful counterter- n conversation; in affidavits, thefbi blamed rorism informants. (See timeline, Read internal fbi documents. a technical glitch. Two weeks later, on page 34.) He’d originally come to n December 8, 2010, Martinez parked what the bureau’s attention when he Second-guess the feds. Browse profiles of all of the 508 terrorism defendants and decide how he thought was a car bomb in front of a was busted in a dmv scam that recruitment center and was arrested when charged test takers $300 to $500 much of a threat they were. he tried to detonate it. for a license. Having “worked off” n See which terror cases were tried in your state, Frances Townsend, who served as home- those charges, he’d transitioned which ones involved informants, which charges land security adviser to President George from indentured informant to were filed, and which ones stuck. W. Bush, concedes that missing recordings paid snitch, earning as much as in terrorism stings seem suspicious. But, $100,000 per assignment. n Read previous Mother Jones reporting on she says, it’s more common than you might Hussain was assigned to visit terrorism and civil liberties, including features on think: “I can’t tell you how many times I a mosque in Newburgh, where the Lackawanna Six, “dirty bomber” José Padilla, had fbi agents in front of me and I yelled, he would start conversations John Walker Lindh, and the one-size-fits-all ‘You have hundreds of hours of recordings, with strangers about jihad. “I material support charge.

42 mother jones | september/october 2011 their relationship isn’t known, because the fbi did not record those conversations. Mohamed Osman Mohamud was an 18-year-old wannabe rapper when an fbi Based on later conversations, it’s clear that agent asked if he’d like to “help the brothers.” Eventually thefbi gave him a Hussain cultivated Cromitie assiduously. fake car bomb and a phone to blow it up during a Christmas tree lighting. He took the target, all expenses paid by the fbi, to an Islamic conference in Philadel- phia to meet Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a promi- “Yep.” ternational Airport in Newburgh as well nent African-American Muslim leader. He “I would take ’em down, I don’t even as of synagogues in the Bronx. On May helped pay Cromitie’s rent. He offered to care. ’Cause I know they are the ones.” 20, 2009, Hussain drove Cromitie to the buy him a barbershop. Finally, he asked “We have the equipment to do it.” Bronx, where Cromitie put what he be- Cromitie to recruit others and help him “See, see, I’m not worried about noth- lieved were bombs inside cars he thought bomb synagogues. ing. Ya know? What I’m worried about is had been parked by Hussain’s coconspira- On April 7, 2009, at 2:45 p.m., Cromitie my safety,” Cromitie said. tors. Once all the dummy bombs were and Hussain sat on a couch inside an fbi “Oh, yeah, safety comes first.” placed, Cromitie headed back to the get- cover house on Shipp Street in Newburgh. “I want to get in and I want to get out.” away car—Hussain was in the driver’s seat— A hidden camera was trained on the living “Trust me,” Hussain assured. and then a swat team surrounded the car. room. At Cromitie’s trial, Hussain would At trial, Cromitie told the judge: “I am “I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Cro- admit that he created the—in his word— not a violent person. I’ve never been a ter- mitie told the informant. “impression” that Cromitie would make a rorist, and I never will be. I got myself into “Who? I—” lot of money by bombing synagogues. this stupid mess. I know I said a lot of stu- “Think about it before you speak,” Cro- “I can make you $250,000, but you don’t pid stuff.” He was sentenced to 25 years. mitie interrupted. want it, brother,” he once told Cromitie For his trouble, the fbi paid Hussain “If there is American soldiers, I don’t when the target seemed hesitant. “What $96,000. Then he moved on to another care,” Hussain said, trying a fresh angle. can I tell you?” (Asked about the exchange case, another mosque, somewhere in the “Hold up,” Cromitie agreed. “If it’s in court, Hussain said that “$250,000” United States. n American soldiers, I don’t even care.” was simply a code word for the bombing “If it’s kids, I care,” Hussain said. “If it’s plot—a code word, he admitted, that only For this project, Mother Jones partnered with the Uni- women, I care.” he knew.) versity of California-Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting “I care. That’s what I’m worried about. But whether for ideology or money, Program, headed by Lowell Bergman, where Trevor And I’m going to tell you, I don’t care if it’s Cromitie did recruit three others, and Aaronson was an investigative fellow. Lauren Ellis a whole synagogue of men.” they did take photographs of Stewart In- and Hamed Aleaziz contributed additional research.

september/october 2011 | mother jones 43 by nick baumann

illustration by jeffrey smith (for the^ fbi)

locked upled himabroad into the back of a vehicle. They drove maybe The feds’ secret program 15 or 20 minutes. When the men removed his blind- fold, he was in a cell with white walls. to have American citizens Later, the men—members of Kuwait’s security forces, Mohamed inferred—marched him to an interrogation detained and interrogated room, where they shouted names at him in Arabic. “Osama bin Laden! Do you know him?” “Anwar al- by foreign governments Awlaki?” When he responded “no,” his interrogators slapped hen Gulet Mohamed him across the face. As the days passed, Mohamed finally returned home on claims, they beat him with sticks on the soles of his a chilly Virginia morning feet, asked him to choose between torture by electrocu- in January, the 19-year- tion or power drill, and threatened his family. old from Fairfax was wear- Sometimes, Mohamed later told his lawyer, his cap- ing the same outfit he had tors escorted him, blindfolded, to another part of the fa- on when he disappeared a month earlier in Kuwait. cility, where a man who spoke with an American accent Clad in a fleece hat and a gray Real Madrid sweatshirt, posed specific questions about his life in the US. He the straggly-bearded, wide-eyed teenager stepped out inquired about Mohamed’s siblings by name. “Don’t ofw arrivals at Dulles Airport and into a phalanx of you know we know everything about you?” he asked. television cameras. He wore a bewildered smile—as if he was still unsure of what had happened to him but Mohamed is one of a growing number of American was just grateful it was over. Muslims who claim they were captured overseas and For more than a year, Mohamed had been living in questioned in secret at the behest of the United States, Kuwait City with an uncle. On December 20, 2010, victims of what human rights advocates call “proxy according to legal records, he went to the airport to detention”—or “rendition-lite.” The latter is a reference renew his tourist visa for an additional three months. to the Bush- and Clinton-era cia practice of capturing The process took longer than usual. From a waiting foreign nationals suspected of terrorism and “rendering” area, Mohamed emailed his brother to let him know them to countries such as Egypt, Jordan, or Morocco for he’d run into some red tape. interrogations that often involved torture. Soon afterward, two men in street clothes came in, Many of these episodes follow a similar script. A blindfolded him, escorted him out of the airport, and US citizen is detained, questioned, and sometimes

44 mother jones | September/october 2011 September/october 2011 | mother jones 45 locked up abroad abused in a Middle Eastern or African who left Minnesota between 2007 and 2009 ing to Mohamed, when he requested a country by local security forces. Often for Somalia—intending, the fbi believes, to lawyer, one of the agents told him: “You’re his interrogators possess information that join the Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group al- here; your lawyer is not.” could only have come from US authori- Shabaab. Since then, several more of these Mohamed was also informed that his ties; some of the detainees say American men are believed to have become suicide name had been placed on the no-fly list— officials have been present for the ques- bombers—including one just this past May. effectively blocking his return to the US. tioning. When the suspect is released from Cases like Ahmed’s seem to be on the “Your government is not letting you back detention, he often discovers he’s on the rise. Between 2002 and 2008, an average into your country,” one Kuwaiti official told no-fly list and can’t return home unless of 12 people per year were indicted on him. Another said: “Gulet, we have relation- he submits to further questioning by fbi charges relating to “domestic radicaliza- ships with the Americans. This interrogation agents. Sometimes he’s denied access to a tion and recruitment to jihadist terror- is between you and your government.” lawyer during these sessions. ism,” according to a 2010 report by the In the past, the fbi has denied that it rand Corporation. That number rose Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, is one of the asks foreign governments to apprehend to 42 in 2009. For counterterrorism offi- gems of the Arabian Peninsula. Even as the country teeters on the brink of chaos, Sharif Mobley made it a couple of steps tourists still visit the ancient hill city to gape at the intricate rammed-earth houses before two bullets fractured his that compose its crenellated skyline. femur. “I’m an American!” he yelled as One January morning in 2010, Sharif he was dragged away. Mobley was drinking tea outside a conve- nience store bedecked with a Coca-Cola Americans. But, a Mother Jones in- cials, the face of Islamic terrorism was no sign when two white vans screeched to a vestigation has found, the bureau longer a Saudi trained in the mountains halt on the dusty street. Eight armed men has a long-standing and until now of Afghanistan. It was Nidal Hasan, the dressed in black jumped out. One grabbed undisclosed program for facilitat- Fort Hood shooter, radicalized over the Mobley’s jacket, but the 26-year-old—a ing such detentions. Coordinated by elite internet, or Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani black belt in tae kwon do—slipped away. agents who serve in terrorism hot spots American who attempted to detonate a He made it a couple of steps before two around the world, the practice enables the car bomb in Times Square in May 2010. bullets fractured his femur. “I’m an Ameri- interrogation of American suspects outside A Senate Foreign Relations Committee can!” he yelled as he was dragged away. The the US justice system. “Their citizenship report released in January 2010 warned men threw him in the van and sped off. doesn’t seem to matter to the government,” that Al Qaeda “seeks to recruit American Mobley, who was in Sanaa with his wife says Daphne Eviatar, a lawyer with Human citizens to carry out terrorist attacks in the and two young children, had been advised Rights First. “It raises a question of whether United States” and singled out Yemen not to go to Yemen. “It is unstable,” his there’s a whole class of people out there and Somalia as places where such recruits childhood imam had warned. But for who’ve been denied the right to return might travel. young Muslims, Sanaa can be irresistible. home for the purpose of interrogation in Gulet Mohamed had spent time in Lonely Planet pitches Yemen as “a great foreign custody.” both countries—which by itself would place to learn Arabic,” and it is; the lan- Although it’s difficult to say for certain have raised “a lot of flags,” according to a guage schools are cheap, good, and plenti- whether the men in this story—which is former senior State Department official fa- ful. It has also become a place for young based on interviews with law enforcement miliar with his case. He first visited Yemen western Muslims to complete their radical- and intelligence officials, court documents, in March 2009, planning to study Arabic ization—which is exactly what government transcripts, and other records—are terrorists, and Islam. After a few weeks, however, he officials say Mobley was doing. tourists, or something in between, one thing and his mother decided that the country After Mobley vanished, his family would is clear: Pakistanis, Saudis, and Somalis aren’t was not safe, and he made his way to a not hear anything authoritative about him the only ones being captured and questioned relatively stable part of northern Somalia for nearly six weeks. But on March 11, on our behalf. Americans are too. to stay with family. In August 2009 he 2010, news broke that an American had moved on to Kuwait, where he remained been involved in an action-movie-style In October 2008, a few days before Hallow- until his arrest. escape attempt at al-Jumhori Hospital in een, a 27-year-old Somali American drove a After a week of beatings and harsh in- Sanaa. It was Mobley. car full of explosives into a government office terrogation, Mohamed was transferred to According to Yemeni officials, Mob- in northern Somalia. The bomber’s name a Kuwaiti deportation facility. It was here, ley had tricked his guards at the hospital was Shirwa Ahmed, and he’d grown up in he says, that the fbi showed up. Agents in- into putting down their guns to join him Minneapolis playing basketball and listen- terrogated him repeatedly, asking him why for prayers. Then he grabbed one of the ing to Ice Cube. Ahmed is widely believed he had traveled to Somalia and Yemen weapons, shot two guards—one fatally— to be the first American suicide bomber. and whether he knew Shahzad or Zachary and made a break for it. He didn’t get far What worries federal authorities is that Chesser, an American Muslim charged in before the entire floor was on lockdown. Ahmed was one of at least 20 young men July 2010 with aiding al-Shabaab. Accord- Yemeni counterterrorism forces—many of

46 mother jones | September/october 2011 which are trained and funded by the US— according to the documents, Mobley descended on the hospital and eventually was transferred to a Yemeni prison—but reapprehended Mobley. not before his catheter was removed so After the firefight, information about roughly that he started bleeding pro- Mobley’s past poured out in the press: fusely from his penis. He had once called an acquaintance who In prison, Mobley told Crider, he had fought in Iraq a “Muslim killer,” and was beaten and dragged down stairs he was employed as a maintenance worker before eventually blacking out on a at several nuclear power plants—a fact that metal slab while the blood from his inspired much speculation. By the end of penis soaked through the front of his the week, the AP reported that, according prison garment. He was later taken to to “US officials,” Mobley had “traveled to a second hospital, where, he said, Matt Yemen with the goal of joining” Al Qaeda. and Khan returned to interrogate him Also incriminating was the anonymously sourced allegation that Mobley had com- municated with Anwar al-Awlaki, the New Mexico-born Al Qaeda propagandist now Gulet Mohamed (left) and Sharif Mobley hiding out in Yemen. (above) are among a growing number Awlaki and Mobley spoke on the phone of Americans who claim they were arrested while traveling overseas and and corresponded over email a number interrogated at the fbi’s behest. of times, Mobley’s defense lawyer, Cori Crider, told Mother Jones, but about reli- from 20 to 45, opening new bureaus in gious and personal matters, not terrorism. Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, and Sau- She says the two men met in person once in di Arabia. Another 14 have opened 2008, more than a year before his arrest. since 9/11. The fbi refers to Legats as Initial news accounts mirrored the of- “the foundation” of its “international ficial version of the incident, reporting program” and says they are “essential” that Mobley had been captured in early to preventing terrorist attacks. Among March—when in reality he’d been in custo- their main duties, according to the con- dy for six weeks. According to a notarized gressional testimony of one former fbi letter to Crider from two top officials at the at least once more. Eventually, he tried to official, is “coordinating requests forfbi or police hospital in Sanaa, Mobley was “ad- escape. “Imagine for a minute you were host-country assistance overseas.” mitted to the hospital on the 26th of Janu- shot and held in secret for weeks on end, This could mean something as routine ary to the 10th of February 2010 post gun beaten up, threatened with rape, and told as setting up meetings between fbi honchos shot with a femur fracture. The surgical that your wife and two babies would face and foreign intelligence officials. But ac- therapy was done by one of our orthope- the same fate you had,” Crider says. “Most cording to current and former fbi officials dic surgeons on the 26th of January. After of us in that situation would go to extraor- familiar with the process, sometimes it also treatment the patient was discharged and dinary lengths to protect our families.” entails encouraging a foreign security service

ily handed back to the National Security of Mobley, like Mohamed, has never to detain an American terrorism suspect and m the Republic of Yemen.” been charged with any crime under US passing along questions for interrogators. According to legal documents prepared law. Yemeni officials told the AP that he According to bureau sources, top fbi, Justice obley fa obley m by Crider, Mobley had been visited by hadn’t even been on their list of “wanted Department, and sometimes even White two American agents, “Matt from fbi and militants.” But as of this writing, he’s still in House officials must authorize such requests Khan from [the Pentagon],” while chained prison in Yemen, awaiting trial for allegedly before they’re passed on to the Legat in the to his bed in a secure wing of the hospital. killing a guard during his escape attempt. country where the suspect is traveling. Matt looked “kind of like Matt Damon,” In a statement to Mother Jones, the fbi and Khan was a “heavyset person of South Prior to the 1993 bombing of the World stopped short of admitting that it has re- Asian, possibly Pakistani, descent,” Mob- Trade Center, the fbi didn’t maintain much quested the detention of American terrorist ley told Crider. When Mobley asked for a of a foreign presence. But in the years since, suspects. The bureau acknowledged, howev- P Photo; Mobley: courtesy the the courtesy Mobley: Photo; P A lawyer, the agents told him that he was not the bureau has increasingly relied on its er, that information it has “elected to share” under formal arrest and would not be read network of legal attaches, or Legats—elite with “foreign law enforcement services” has his rights. Mobley claims Matt and Khan fbi agents stationed at US embassies and “at times” resulted in the “detainment of an questioned him repeatedly over the next charged with forming counterterrorism individual.” It also said fbi agents have occa- several weeks, threatening his family and alliances with local law enforcement and sionally “been afforded the opportunity to telling him he would be raped in a Yemeni intelligence services. interview or witness an interview” with de- ed: Jacquelyn Martin/ Jacquelyn ed: m prison if he didn’t cooperate. Some of their Between 1993 and 2001, the fbi more tainees abroad. The bureau maintains that

Moha questions focused on Awlaki. Eventually, than doubled the number of Legat offices fbi agents have “acted [continued on page 68]

September/october 2011 | mother jones 47 locked up abroad [continued from page 47] in accordance with a member of a variety of terrorist groups, is serving a 10-year sentence for receiving established fbi policy and guidelines” in including Al Qaeda, and spent another 11 training from Al Qaeda. But Meshal has these cases. The bureau declined to com- months in prison before the uae deported not been charged with a crime. Backed by ment on specific cases. him to Lebanon. He later said his confes- the aclu, he is suing the government, claim- “America since the fall of the Berlin sion was fiction—after weeks of torture, he’d ing that fbi agents violated his rights by in- Wall has been eager to find proxies to do told his interrogators whatever they wanted terrogating him in a series of African prisons our dirty work,” says Michael Scheuer, the to hear. The fbi, for its part, extensively in- without access to a lawyer. ex-head of the cia’s Osama bin Laden unit vestigated Hamdan’s activities in the US. Human rights advocates believe many and the author of a recent biography of the He was never charged with a crime. more Americans may have been subjected late Al Qaeda leader. “We’ve been lucky to “From some of the other proxy deten- to proxy detention but have not come for- find Jordans and Egypts that were willing tions, it’s clear that the government has got ward for fear of retaliation or prosecution; to do that—not just to help us, but also be- it flat wrong about which individuals pose some may still be secretly imprisoned. As cause the people we were aiming at were the a threat,” says the aclu’s Michael Kauf- Gulet Mohamed declared when he arrived people they were also aiming at.” man, who’s on Hamdan’s legal team. “It back in the US: “There are still probably In theory, an fbi official says, foreign wouldn’t be surprising if Naji was one of other people out there that are being tor- security forces are told that US citizens those horrible, horrible mistakes.” tured like I was. My voice has been heard, detained as part of this program are not Along with the cases of Hamdan, Mob- but their voices are not being heard.” to be harmed. But, the official acknowl- ley, and Mohamed, there are others that During his detention in Kuwait, one of Mohamed’s fellow prisoners had given him “If you don’t confess, I swear to God access to a smuggled cell phone. He called his family, who contacted a lawyer; eventu- I’m going to bring your wife to this room, ally Mohamed used the phone to describe and you’ll see what we do to her,” the his plight to the New York Times’ Mark lead interrogator vowed. Mazzetti. The story made headlines, embar- rassing the Obama administration and rais- edges, foreign security forces are show indications of US involvement. ing questions about its track record on civil sometimes overzealous. Torture Yusuf Wehelie, another 19-year-old Virgin- liberties and human rights. An irate US isn’t the point, though, the source ian, claims he was detained and beaten by Embassy official later visited Mohamed’s explains—fear is. Throwing a guy Egyptian security forces in May 2010 after cell with a highlighted copy of the Times from suburban Virginia into a Middle the fbi questioned him and his older broth- story. “You didn’t cooperate with the fbi,” Eastern jail cell might shake loose infor- er Yahya at a hotel in Cairo. The Egyptians he said, according to Mohamed. “That is mation that wouldn’t come out in an fbi who beat and interrogated Wehelie “stated why you didn’t leave. You went public. We interrogation room in Washington, DC. over and over that they worked for the need to calm this down.” United States government, and that they At a press conference when Mohamed Whether the information is accurate is an- were questioning me at the request of the finally did return home, his lawyer, Gadeir other matter. Weeks after being interviewed United States government,” he later said. Abbas, addressed the scrum of reporters. by fbi agents in the United Arab Emirates The Egyptian interrogators asked Wehelie “What’s great about being an American in 2008, Naji Hamdan, a naturalized US “the same questions that the American fbi citizen traveling abroad is that you have citizen who had run an auto-parts business agents had been asking.” Some focused the full power and privilege of the most in California, was abruptly arrested by the on Mobley. After Wehelie was allowed to powerful country in the world at your country’s security forces. Over a period of return home, his brother was forced to re- back,” he said. “But in this situation, it three weeks, he was repeatedly beaten and main in Cairo for two more months. Yusuf doesn’t look like Gulet had those powers questioned. “If you don’t confess, I swear later told a reporter he was interviewed by and privileges that are routinely granted to to God I’m going to bring your wife to the fbi 10 times and submitted to a poly- other American citizens.” n this room, and you’ll see what we do to graph test before he was permitted to return her,” the lead interrogator vowed at one home. (The Wehelies, through their lawyer, volume 36, number 5. Address all editorial, business, and point. During one interrogation, Hamdan declined to comment.) production correspondence to Mother Jones, 222 Sutter Street, says, an American was present. “I’ve lived In 2007, Kenyan authorities arrested Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94108. Subscriptions: $24. Add US$10 for Canadian and other foreign subscriptions­ for postage. enough in the US to recognize the accent Amir Meshal, of New Jersey, and New POSTMASTER: Send change of address to Mother Jones, PO Box of the person when he talks,” he says. “I had Hampshire-raised Daniel Maldonado after 3029, Langhorne, PA 19047. Subscription questions and orders can also be directed to (800) 438-6656 (Mon. to Fri., 7 a.m.-10 no doubt that the person who was talking they sought refuge in Kenya when Ethiopia p.m., Sat. to Sun., 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Eastern Time) or subscribe to me was a Caucasian American.” Ham- invaded Somalia and displaced its Islamist @motherjones.com. Mother Jones subscribers are members of dan’s interrogators kicked him in the side government. (Both men claim they went to the Foundation for National Progress. Printed in the USA. MOTHER JONES (issn 0362-884) is published bimonthly by until he passed out. When he came to, the Somalia, which was comparatively stable the Foundation for National Progress. Preferred Periodicals “American” spoke: “You better do what before the Ethiopian invasion, only for the Postage paid at San Francisco, CA, and additional mailing offices. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. these people want, or they’ll fuck you up.” experience of living in an Islamic country.) Canada returns to be sent to Pitney Bowes, PO Box 25542, Hamdan eventually confessed to being Maldonado has since taken a plea deal and London, ON N6C 6B2.

68 mother jones | September/october 2011

by josh harkinson illustration by jeffrey smith the

To many on the left, Brandon Darby was a hero. turncoatTo fbi officials consumed with busting anarchist terror cells, he was the perfect snitch.

or a few days in September 2008, as the Iraq War and the administration’s assault on the Republican Party kicked off its civil liberties. St. Paul was their first large-scale pro- national convention in St. Paul, Min- test, and when they arrived they were taken aback: nesota, the Twin Cities were a micro- Rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades, tumbling tear- cosm of a deeply divided nation. The gas canisters—to McKay and Crowder, it seemed atmosphere around town was tense, like an all-out war on democracy. They wanted to with local and federal police facing off fight back, even going so far as to mix up a batch against activists who had descended of Molotov cocktails. Just before dawn on the day upon the city. Convinced that anarchists were plot- of Palin’s big coming out, a swat team working ting violent acts, they sought to bust the protesters’ with federal agents raided their crash pad, seized hangouts, sometimes bursting into apartments and the Molotovs, and arrested McKay, alleging that he houses brandishing assault rifles. Inside the cavern- intended to torch a parking lot full of police cars. fous Xcel Energy convention center, meanwhile, an Since only a few people knew about the fire- out-of-nowhere vice presidential nominee named bombs, fellow activists speculated that someone Sarah Palin assured tens of thousands of ecstatic Re- close to McKay and Crowder must have tipped off publicans that her running mate, John McCain, was the feds. Back in Texas, flyers soon began appearing “a leader who’s not looking for a fight, but sure isn’t at coffeehouses urging leftists to beware of Brandon afraid of one either.” Darby, an “fbi informant rat loose in Austin.” The The same thing might have been said of David allegation came as a shocker; Darby was a known McKay and Bradley Crowder, a pair of greenhorn and trusted member of the left-wing protest crowd. activists from George W. Bush’s Texas hometown “If Brandon was conning me, and many others, it who had driven up for the protests. Wide-eyed guys would be the biggest lie of my life since I found out in their early 20s, they’d come of age hanging out in the truth about Santa Claus,” wrote Scott Crow, one sleepy downtown Midland, commiserating about of many activists who rushed to defend him at first.

September/october 2011 | mother jones 49 the turncoat

Two months later, Darby came clean. “The Duane de la Vega, it dredges up a wealth of had found his way to Austin’s slacker scene, simple truth,” he wrote on Indymedia.org, “is fbi documents and court transcripts related where one day he helped his friend, med- that I have chosen to work with the Federal to Darby’s interactions with his fellow activ- ical-marijuana activist Tracey Hayes, scale Bureau of Investigation.” ists to suggest that Darby acted as an agitator Zilker Park’s 165-foot moonlight tower (of Darby’s entanglement with the feds is as much as an informant. The film makes a Dazed and Confused fame) and unfurl a gi- part of a quiet resurgence of fbi interest in compelling case that Darby, with the fbi’s ant banner painted with pot leaves that read left-wingers. From the Red Scare days of blessing, used his charisma and street cred- “Medicine.” They later “hooked up,” Hayes the 1950s into the ’70s, the fbi’s Counter ibility to goad Crowder and McKay into says, and eventually moved in together. She Intelligence Program, a.k.a. cointelpro, pursuing the sort of actions that would later introduced him to her activist friends, and monitored and sabotaged communist and land them in prison. Darby flatly denies it, he started reading Howard Zinn and histo- civil rights organizations. Nowadays, in and recently sued the New York Times over ries of the Black Panthers. what critics have dubbed the Green Scare, a story with similar implications. (The Times Some local activists wouldn’t work with the bureau is targeting the global-justice corrected the disputed detail.) “I feel very Darby (he liked to taunt the cops during movement and radical environmentalists. morally justified to do the things that I’ve protests, getting them all riled up). But that In 2005, John Lewis, then the fbi official in done,” he told me. “I don’t know if I could changed after Hurricane Katrina, when charge of domestic terrorism, ranked groups have handled it much differently.” he learned that Robert King Wilkerson, like the Earth Liberation Front ahead of ji- one of the Angola Three—former Black hadists as America’s top domestic terror Brandon Michael Darby is a muscular, Panthers who endured decades of solitary threat. fbi stings involving informants have golden-skinned 34-year-old with Holly- confinement at Louisiana’s Angola Pris- been key to convicting 14 elf members since wood looks and puppy-dog eyes. Once on—was trapped in New Orleans. Darby 2006 for a string of high-profile arsons, and notorious for sleeping around the activist and Crow drove 10 hours from Austin to sentencing a man to 20 scene, he now often sleeps towing a jon boat. When they couldn’t get years in prison for conspir- with a gun by his bed in it into the city, Darby somehow harangued ing to destroy several tar- response to death threats. some Coast Guard personnel into rescu- gets, including cell phone His former associates call ing Wilkerson. The story became part of towers. During the St. Paul him unhinged, a megalo- the foundation myth for an in-your-face protests, at least two ad- maniac, a manipulator. New Orleans relief organization called the ditional informants infil- “He gets in people’s minds Common Ground Collective. trated and helped indict a and can pull you in,” Lisa It would eventually grow into a national group of activists known as Fithian, a veteran labor, group with a million-dollar budget. But at the rnc Eight for conspir- environmental, and anti- first Common Ground was just a bunch war organizer warned me of pissed-off anarchists working out of the before I set out to interview house of Malik Rahim, another former

rnc protesters David McKay (far left) and Bradley Crowder (top) went to prison after Brandon Darby (left) told the fbi they had mixed Molotov cocktails.

Panther. Rahim asked Darby to set up an out- post in the devastated Ninth Ward, where not even the Red Cross was ing to riot and damage property. allowed at first. Darby But it’s Darby’s snitching that brought in a group of has provided the most intriging volunteers who fed tale. It’s the focus of a radio mag- people and cleared de- azine piece, two documentary bris from houses while films, and a book in the making. By far the him. “He’s a master. And you are going to being harassed by police, right along with most damning portrayal is Better This World, feel all kinds of sympathy for him.” the locals who had refused to evacuate. “If an award-winning doc that garnered rave The son of a refinery welder, Darby grew I’d had an appropriate weapon, I would reviews on the festival circuit and is slated up in Pasadena, a dingy Texas oil town. His have attacked my government for what they to air on pbs on September 6. The product parents divorced when he was 12, and soon were doing to people,” he declared in a clip of two years of work by San Francisco Bay after he ran away to Houston, where he lived featured in Better This World. He said he’d

Area filmmakers Katie Galloway and Kelly in and out of group homes. By 2002, Darby since bought an AK-47 and was willing to (3) films loteria courtesy

50 mother jones | September/october 2011 use it: “There are residents here who have with a vague plan to launder money into to buy Molotov supplies. said that you will not take my home from the Palestinian territories. Hamad also “The reality is, when we woke up the next me over my dead body, and we have made spoke about smuggling bombs into Isra- day, neither one of us wanted to use them,” a commitment to be in solidarity with those el, he claims. Darby says he discouraged Crowder told me. They stored the fire- residents.” Hamad at first, and then tipped off Bry- bombs in a basement and left for the con- But Common Ground’s approach soon son, who put him in touch with the fbi. “I vention center, where Crowder was swept began to grate on Darby. He bristled at its talked,” he told me. “And it was the fuck- up in a mass arrest. Darby and McKay later consensus-based decision making, its inter- ing weirdest thing.” He knew his friends talked about possibly lobbing the Molo- minable debates over things like whether would hate him for what he’d done. (The tovs on a police parking lot early the next serving meat to locals was serving oppres- fbi raided Hamad’s home, and discovered morning, though by 2:30 a.m. McKay was sion. He idolized rugged, iconoclastic popu- nothing incriminating; he was found dead having serious doubts. “I’m just not feeling lists like Che Guevara—so, in early 2006, he in Austin’s Lady Bird Lake two months the vibe on the street,” he texted Darby. jumped at a chance to go to Venezuela to later—an­ apparent suicide.) “You butt head,” Darby shot back. “Text solicit money for Katrina victims. Darby was me when you can.” He texted his friend deeply impressed with what he saw, until a McKay and Crowder first encountered repeatedly over the next hour, until well af- state oil exec asked him to go to Colombia Darby in March 2008 at Austin’s Monkey ter McKay had turned in. At 5 a.m., police and meet with farc, the communist guer- Wrench Books during a recruitment drive broke into McKay’s room and found him rilla group. “They said they wanted to help for the St. Paul protests. Later, in a scene in bed. He was scheduled to fly home to me start a guerrilla movement in the swamps re-created in Better This World, they met at Austin two hours later. of Louisiana,” he told “This American Life” reporter Michael May. “And I was like, ‘I “I stated that I wasn’t interested in being don’t think so.’” It turned out armed revolu- tion wasn’t really his thing. part of a group if we were going to sit and Darby’s former friends dispute the Ven- talk too much,” Darby told the fbi. “I stated ezuela story as they dispute much that he that I was gonna shut that fucker down.” says. They accuse him of grandstanding, being combative, and even spying on his a café to talk strategy. “I stated that I wasn’t The feds ultimately convicted the rivals. In his short-lived tenure as Com- interested in being a part of a group if we pair for making the Molotov cock- mon Ground’s interim director, Darby were going to sit and talk too much,” Darby tails, but they didn’t have enough drove out 30 volunteer coordinators and emailed his fbi handlers. “I stated that I was evidence of intent to use them. replaced them with a small band of loy- gonna shut that fucker down.” Crowder, who pleaded guilty rather than alists. “He could only see what’s in it for “My biggest impression from that meet- risk trial, and a heavier sentence, got two him,” Crow told me. For example, Darby ing was that Brandon really dominated it,” years. McKay, who was offered seven years preempted a planned police-harassment fellow activist James Clark told the filmmak- if he pleaded guilty, opted for a trial, argu- hot line by making flyers asking victims to ers. Darby’s fbi email continued: “I stated ing on the stand that Darby told him to call his personal phone number. that they all looked like they ate too much make the Molotovs, a claim he recanted af- The flyers led to a meeting between Dar- tofu and that they should eat beef so that ter learning that Crowder had given a con- by and Major John Bryson, the New Or- they could put on muscle mass. I stated that flicting account. McKay is now serving out leans cop in charge of the Ninth Ward. In they weren’t going to be able to fight any- the last of his four years in federal prison. time, Bryson became a supporter of Com- body until they did so.” At one point Darby mon Ground, and Darby believed that they took everyone out to a parking lot and threw At South Austin’s Strange Brew coffee- shared a common dream of rebuilding the Clark to the ground. Clark interpreted it as house, Darby shows up to meet me on a city. But he was less and less sure about his Darby sending the message: “Look at me, chromed-out Yamaha with flames on the peers. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve replicat- I’m badass. You can be just like me.” (Darby side. We sit out back, where he can chain- ed every system that I fought against,’” he insists that this never happened.) smoke his American Spirits. Darby is recalls. “It was fucking bizarre.” When the Austin activists arrived in St. through being a leftist radical. Indeed, he’s By mid-2007, Darby had left the group Paul, police, acting on a Darby tip, broke now an enthusiastic small-government and become preoccupied with the conflict open the group’s trailer and confiscated conservative. He loves Sarah Palin. He in Lebanon. Before long, Darby says, he the sawed-off traffic barrels they’d planned opposes welfare and national health care. was approached in Austin by a Lebanese- to use as shields against riot police. They “The majority of things could be handled born schoolteacher, Riad Hamad, for help soon learned of similar raids all over town. by people and by communities,” he ex- “It started to feel like Darby hadn’t amped plains. Climate change is “a bandwagon” more Better This World is a must-see these things up, and it really was as crazy and the epa should be “strongly limited.” for anyone concerned about the erosion and intense as he had told us it was going Abortion shouldn’t be a federal issue. of civil liberties and the creep of domestic to be,” Crowder says. Feeling that Darby’s He sounds a bit like his new friend, surveillance. See a trailer and read a Q&A tough talk should be “in some ways, a Andrew Breitbart, who made his name pro- with the filmmakers atMotherJones.com . guide of behavior,” they went to Walmart ducing sting videos [continued on page 67]

September/october 2011 | mother jones 51 the turncoat gresswoman helped secure its passage by [continued from page 51] targeting npr, acorn, working behind the scenes. “I was at the Planned Parenthood, and others. About a tip of the spear,” she explained later. Bach- year after McKay and Crowder went to jail, mann didn’t change the law; she changed Breitbart called Darby wanting to know the environment. why he wasn’t defending himself against the left’s misrepresentations. “They don’t in washington, Bachmann has shown print what I say,” Darby said. Breitbart of- no signs of letting up; if anything, the fered him a regular forum on his website, stakes have gotten even higher and the na- BigGovernment.com. Darby now socializes tion, under the stewardship of President with Breitbart at his Los Angeles home Obama, has careened that much further and is among his staunchest defenders. along the road to ruin. She’s made her (Breitbart’s takedown of acorn, he says, mark by framing her opponents’ views was “completely fucking fair.”) in the most dire terms—charging that the Entrapment? Darby scoffs at the sugges- Obama administration would deny conser- tion. He pulls up his shirt, showing me his vatives health care, and that AmeriCorps, chest hair and tattoos, as though his macho the Peace Corps’ domestic equivalent, is physique had somehow seduced Crowder a forerunner for “reeducation camps for and McKay into mixing their firebombs. young people.” To Bachmann, the Obama “No matter what I say, most people on the administration is a “gangster government,” left are going to believe what reinforces unmoored entirely from the biblically sup- their own narrative,” he says. “And I’ve ported constitutionalism she’s espoused quit giving a shit.” since her Oral Roberts days. Her rigid con- The fact is, Darby says, McKay and servative dogma, an outlier at the outset of Crowder considered him a has-been. His her first congressional campaign, has set tofu comment, he adds, was a jocular re- the tone for the 112th Congress. sponse after one of them had ribbed him How far can she go? That’s the question for being fat. “I constantly felt the need to that’s been on the minds of political ob- show that I was still worthy of being in their servers since Bachmann threw herself into presence,” he tells me. “They are complete the presidential race. Early polls showed fucking liars.” As for those late-night texts her tied with or even ahead of former to McKay, Darby insists he was just trying Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the to dissuade him from using the Molotovs. consensus front-runner, in Iowa; she’s He still meets with fbi agents, he says, been running a strong second in New to eat barbecue and discuss his ideas for Hampshire. With Iowa and South Caro- new investigations. But then, it’s hard to lina, another social-conservative hotbed, know how much of what Darby says is among the three earliest contests, she’s true. For one, the fbi file of his former well positioned to make a serious run friend Scott Crow, which Crow obtained deep into the nomination process. under a Freedom of Information Act re- But in some respects she’s already won. quest last year, suggests that Darby was Whoever claims the gop nomination will talking with the fbi more than a year be- likely do so by adopting the government- fore he claims Bryson first put him in shrinking, “constitutional conservative” touch. Meanwhile, Crow and another ac- approach that Bachmann’s trumpeted for tivist, Karly Dixon, separately told me decades. As she said in 2006 while lead- that Darby asked them, in the fall of 2006, ing a prayer at a Minneapolis fundraiser to help him burn down an Austin book- for an anti-gay ministry named You Can store affiliated with right-wing radio host Run But You Cannot Hide International: Alex Jones. (Hayes, Darby’s ex, says he told “I thank you, oh God, that you are, liter- her of the idea too.) “The guy was trying to ally right now, by faith you are lighting a put me in prison,” Crow says. fire, a fire of the Gospel that would sweep Such allegations, Darby claims, are sim- this city, but even more so that it would ply part of a conspiracy to besmirch him sweep Minnesota. And that Minnesota and the fbi: “They get together, and they would just become a burning incense. A just figure out ways to attack.” Believe sweet-smelling incense of praise and sac- whomever you want to believe, he says. rifice into your kingdom.” Bachmann has “Either way, they walk away with scars— lit the fire. The rest is in God’s hands.n and so do I.” n

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