the FBI is responsible for more
terrorism plots in the United States
than any other
organization more than
Al-Qaeda more than al-shabab more than
the Islamic State more than all of them
combined this isn't likely how you think
about the FBI you probably think of FBI
agents gunning down bad guys like John
Dillinger or arresting corrupt
politicians after the 9/11 terrorist
attacks the FBI became less concerned
with gangsters and crooked elected
officials the new Target became
terrorists and the pursuit of terrorists
has consumed the FBI every year the
bureau spends $3.3 billion on domestic
counterterrorism activities compare that
to just $2.6 billion combined for
organized crime financial fraud public
corruption and all other types of
traditional criminal
activity I've spent years pouring
through the Case Files of terrorism
prosecutions in the United States and
I've come to the conclusion that the FBI
is much better at creating terrorists
than it is at catching
terrorists in the 14 years since 911 You
Can Count about six real terrorist
attacks in the United States these
include the Boston Marathon bombings in
2013 as well as failed attacks such as
the time a man named Fel Shazad tried to
deliver a A Car Bomb to Time Square in
those same 14 years the bureau however
has bragged about how it's foiled dozens
of terrorism plots in all the FBI has
arrested more than 175 people in
aggressive undercover counterterrorism
stings these operations which are
usually led by an informant provide the
means and opportunity and sometimes even
the idea for mentally ill and
economically desperate people to become
what we now term
terrorists after 911 the FBI was given
an edict never again never another
attack on American
soil FBI agents were told to find
terrorists before they strike to do this
agents recruited a network of more than
15,000 informants Nationwide all looking
for anyone who might be dangerous an
informant can earn $100,000 or more for
every terrorism case they bring to the
FBI that's right the FBI is paying
mostly criminals and conmen six figures
to spy on communities in the United
States but mostly Muslim American
communities these informant NAB people
like Abu khed Abdul Latif and W mujahed
both are mentally ill Abdul Latif had a
history of huffing gasoline and
attempting suicide mujahid had skizo
effective disorder he had trouble
distinguishing between reality and
fantasy in 2012 the FBI arrested these
two men for conspiring to attack a
military recruiting station outside
Seattle with weapons provided of course
by the
FBI the FBI's informant was Robert
Childs a convicted rapist and child
molester who has paid $90,000 for his
work on the case this isn't an outlier
in 2009 an FBI informant who had fled
Pakistan on murder charges LED four men
in a Plot to Bomb synagogues in the
Bronx the lead defendant was James
cromedy a broke Walmart employee with a
history of mental problems and the
informant had offered him $250,000 if he
participated in that plot there are many
more
examples today The Intercept published
my news story about a counterterrorism
stinging in Tampa involving Sammy Osos a
young man who was living near Tampa
Florida oskosh also had skitso effective
disorder he too was broke and he had no
connections to International terrorist
groups nonetheless an FBI informant gave
him a job handed him money introduced
him to an undercover agent posing as a
terrorist and lured him in a Plot to
Bomb an Irish
bar but here's what's interesting the
lead undercover agent you can see him in
this picture with his face blurred would
go back to the Tampa field office with
his recording equipment on behind closed
doors FBI agents admitted that what they
were doing was
farsal a federal judge doesn't want you
to hear about these conversations he
sealed the transcripts and placed them
under a protective order in an attempt
to prevent someone like me from doing
something like this behind closed doors
the lead agent the squad supervisor
described their would be terrorist as a
[\h__\h] fool who didn't have a pot to
piss in they described his terrorist
Ambitions as wishy-washy and a pipe
dream scenario
but that didn't stop the FBI they
provided Sammy oakos everything he
needed they gave him a Car Bomb they
gave him an
AK-47 they helped him make a so-called
martyrdom video and they even gave him
money for a taxi cab so he could get to
where they wanted him to
go as they were working the Sting the
squad supervisor tells his agents he
wanted a Hollywood
ending and he got a Hollywood
ending when Sami OSH attempted to
deliver what he thought was a bar bomb
he was arrested convicted and sentenced
to 40 years in
prison Sami oskosh isn't alone he's one
of more than 175 so-called terrorists
For Whom the FBI has created Hollywood
endings US government officials call
this the war on terror it's really just
theater a national security theater with
mentally ill men like Sammy Osmos
unwitting actors in a carefully
choreographed production brought to you
by the FB I thank
you so so those are some pretty strong
accusations pretty strong charges um how
do how can you back this up so my
research began in 2010 when I received a
grant from the investigative reporting
program at UC Berkeley and a research
assistant and I put together a database
of all terrorism prosecutions at the
time in during the in the first decade
after 9/11 and uh we we we used the
court file to find out whether the
defendants had any connections to
International terrorist groups whether
an informant was used and whether the
informant played the role of an agent
provocator by providing the means and
opportunity and we submitted that to the
FBI and we asked them to you know
respond to our database if they had
errors if they believe there were any
errors we asked them to tell us what
they were and we go back and check and
they never challenged any of our
findings um later I used that data in a
magazine article and and later my book
and um on appearances with plac like CBS
and NPR they were offered that
opportunity again to say you know Trevor
Aronson's findings are wrong and and
they've never they've never come forward
and said these are the problems with
with those findings so the data you know
is is since been used by groups like
Human Rights Watch on its recent report
on these types of Sting operations and
so far the FBI has never really
responded that um you know to the
charges that it's really not catching
terrorist so much as it's catching
mentally ill people that it can dress up
as terrorists in these types of Sting
operations so The Intercept is that new
invest ative journalism website that's
co-founded by Glenn Greenwald uh tell us
about your article and um and why there
right so the intercept seem to be the
most logical place for this because my
article is really leveraging the fact
that a source had leaked to me
transcripts of these private FBI
conversations that a federal judge had
sealed based on the government's claim
that their release would irreparably
damage the US government's law
enforcement strategy and so a place like
The Intercept was set up to protect
journalists and publish their work when
they're dealing with with very sensitive
matters like this and so my story in The
Intercept which is published today tells
the story of how Sami oskosh was set up
in this FBI sting and goes into much
greater detail I mean in this talk I
could only really highlight the things
that they said such as calling him a
[\h__\h] fool but it was much more
elaborate they they went to Great Links
to put money in Sami os's hands which he
then used to purchase weapons from the
undercover agent when he went to trial
the central piece of evidence was that
he paid for these weapons when in truth
these transcripts show how the FBI
orchestrated someone who was essentially
mentally ill and broke to get money to
then pay for weapons that they could
then charge him in a conspiracy for so
uh one final question uh less than 10
days ago the FBI arrested some potential
Isis suspects in Brooklyn saying that
they might be headed to Syria and um
were those real or are they examples of
more of the same well so far we only
know what's come out in the court file
but they seem to suggest it's another
example of the same these type of uh
sting operations have moved from kind of
flavor to flavor so initially it was
Al-Qaeda plots and now the Islamic state
is the current flavor what's worth
noting about that case is that the three
men that were charged only began the
plot to move or to go to Syria after the
introduction of the FBI informant and in
fact the FBI informant had helped them
with the travel documents that they
needed in kind of a comical turn in that
particular case one of the defendants
mother had found out that he was
interested in going to Syria and had hid
his passport so it's unclear that even
if he showed up at the airport that he
ever could have gone anywhere and you
know so yes there are people who might
be interested in joining the Islamic
state in the United States and those are
people that the United States government
should be looking at to see if they're
interested in violence here in this
particular case given the evidence
that's so far come out it does suggest
that the FBI made it possible for these
guys to move along in a plan to go to
Syria when they were never close to that
in the first place thanks a lot that's
amazing thank you so much thank you