Not a complete surprise given our history of torture and injustice

 

September 23

GUEST: Murtaza Hussain, reporter at The Intercept who focuses on national security and foreign policy, and has appeared on CNN, BBC, and MSNBC, talks about The Fort Dix Five, and how young Muslim men were entrapped by the FBI.

Murtaza Hussain is a reporter at The Intercept

9/11 brought out the very worst of our corrupted and violent criminal justice system. The FBI ever fixated on its own image, set out to entrap poor and uneducated Muslim men so that the organization would look good to the general public. The plots were depressingly similar. There would be one or two FBI infiltrators  who would make friends with these young people, offering them emotional support and a chance to get rich quick. The FBI "plot" would revolve around a few angry young men talking tough about what they would do, all taped by the informants. When the talk was over, it was time for the bribes. $25,000 for loading up a car and driving across state lines. What was loaded? Well, fake weapons that were supposed to be part of an FBI contrived terrorist attack. 

Why not hire actors? Well then you couldn't arrest them and enhance your career as a crime fighter. Chris Christie made a name for himself with the Fort Dix Five Plot. He went on to become one of the very worst governors New Jersey ever had, a completely corrupted prosecutor following Hunter Thompson's road to success: "In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile."

So September 11 brought out the swine, from the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq to the FBI entrapment of Muslim men in this country. And so much of this was based on a deep seated racism towards Muslims, a key ingredient of the American Empire. There are many people sitting in US prisons who are completely innocent. Not a total surprise given our history of torture and injustice at Guantanamo Bay.