FBI er ansvarlige for flere terror-komplotter i Amerika end nogen andre organisationer. Flere end al-Qaeda, flere end al-Shabaab, flere end Islamisk stat. Flere end alle dem sammenlagt.
The FBI is responsible for more terrorism plots in the United States than any other organization. More than al Qaeda, more than al Shabaab, more than the Islamic State, more than all of them combined.
Det er næppe sådan, du ser på FBI. Du tænker sikkert på FBI agenter, der skyder skurke som John Dillinger eller arrestere korrupte politikere.
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.
Efter 9/11 terror angrebene blev FBI mindre bekymret med gangstere og korrupte embedsmænd. Det nye mål blev terrorister og jagten på terrorister har overtaget FBI.
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.
Hvert år bruger bureauet 3,3 milliarder dollars på indenrigs terrorbekæmpelse aktiviteter. Sammenlignet med 2,6 milliarder dollars for organiseret kriminalitet, økonomisk bedrageri, offentlig korruption og alle andre former for traditionel kriminalitet.
Every year, the Bureau spends 3.3 billion dollars on domestic counterterrorism activities. Compare than to just 2.6 billion dollars combined for organized crime, financial fraud, public corruption and all other types of traditional criminal activity.
Jeg har brugt årevis på, at gennemgå sagerne af terror retsforfølgelser i Amerika og konkluderet at FBI er meget bedre til at skabe terrorister, end til at fange dem.
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.
I de 14 år siden 9/11, kan man finde omkring seks rigtige terrorangreb i Amerika. Det inkluderer terrorangrebet i Boston i 2013 såvel som fejlede angreb, som da en mand ved navn Faisal Shahzadn prøvede at aflevere en bilbombe til Times Square I de samme 14 år, har bureauet pralet med hvordan det har forhindret adskillige terrorkomplotter. I alt har FBI arresteret mere end 175 personer i aggressive, undercover terrorbekæmpelse operationer
In the 14 years since 9/11, 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 when a man named Faisal Shahzad tried to deliver a car bomb to Times 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 conterterrorism stings.
Disse operationer, der som reelt er ledet af en meddeler, giver midlerne og muligheden, og nogle gange selv idéen, for psykiske syge og økonomisk desperate mennesker til at blive hvad vi nu kalder terrorister.
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.
Efter 9/11 blev FBI givet en bekendtgørelse: Aldrig mere. Aldrig mere et angreb på amerikansk grund. FBI agenter fik besked på, at finde terrorister før de slå til Dertil rekrutterede agenter et netværk af mere end 15,000 meddelere nationalt, der alle ledte efter nogen, der kunne være farlige En meddeler kan tjene 100,000 dollars eller mere for hver terrorsag de bringer til FBI FBI betaler hovedsaligt kriminelle og fupmagere 6-cifret beløb for at spionere på befolkningssamfund i Amerika, men for det meste amerikansk-muslimske samfund.
After 9/11, the FBI was given an edict: never again. Never another attack on American soil. FBI agents were told to find terrorists before they struck. 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 dollars or more for every terrorism case they bring to the FBI. That's right, the FBI is paying mostly criminals and con men six figures to spy on communities in the United States, but mostly Muslim American communities.
De meddelere snupper folk som Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif og Walli Mujahidh. Begge er psykisk syge. Abdul-Latif har har sniffet benzin og prøvet på at begå selvmord. Mujahidh har haft en skizoaffektiv lidelse, han havde svært ved at skelne mellem virkelighed og fantasi. I 2012 arresterede FBI de to mænd for at konspirere til at angribe en militær rekrutteringsbase udenfor Seattle, med våben forsynet af FBI, selvfølgelig. FBIs meddeler var Robert Child, en dømt voldtægtsforbryder og børnemisbruger, som blev betalt 90,000 dollars for hans arbejde på sagen. Det er ikke et engangstilfælde.
These informants nab people like Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif and Walli Mujahidh. Both are mentally ill. Abdul-Latif had a history of huffing gasoline and attempting suicide. Mujahidh had schizoaffective 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 was paid 90,000 dollars for his work on the case. This isn't an outlier.
En FBI meddeler, som havde flygtet fra Pakistan tiltalt for mord i 2009, ledte fire mænd i et komplot til, at bombe synagogerne i Bronx. Den anklagede var James Cromitie, en fattig Walmart medarbejder med en historie af psykiske problemer. Og meddeleren havde tilbudt ham 250,000 dollars, hvis han deltog i komplottet. Der er mange andre eksempler.
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 Cromitie, a broke Walmart employee with a history of mental problems. And the informant had offered him 250,000 dollars if he participated in that plot. There are many more examples.
I dag, offentliggjorde The Intercept, min nye historie om en terrorbekæmpelse operation i Tampa, involverende Sami Osmakac, en ung mand som levede nær Tampa, Florida. Osmakac havde også en skizoaffektiv lidelse. Han havde heller ingen penge, og han ingen forbindelser til internationale terrororganisationer. Alligevel, en FBI meddeler gav ham et job, gav ham penge, introducerede ham til en undercover agent der udgav sig for en terrorist, og lokkede ham ind i et komplot, til at bombe en irsk bar.
Today, The Intercept published my new story about a counterterrorism sting in Tampa involving Sami Osmakac, a young man who was living near Tampa, Florida. Osmakac also had schizoaffective 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.
Men her er det interessante: Den ledende undercover agent -- du kan se ham her i billedet med hans ansigt sløret -- tog tilbage til feltkontoret i Tampa med hans optageudstyr på. Bag lukkede døre, indrømmede FBI agenter, at hvad de lavede var en farce. En føderal dommer vil ikke have, at du hører om de samtaler. Han forseglede transskriptionerne og lagde dem under beskyttelse i forsøg på at stoppe nogen som mig, i at gøre noget som det her. Bag lukkede døre beskrev den ledende agent, den tilsynsførende, deres vordende terrorister som "ludfattige retarderede idioter." De beskrev hans terrorist ambitioner som pis-pladder og ønsketænkning.
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 farcical. 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 "retarded fool who didn't have a pot to piss in." They described his terrorist ambitions as wishy-washy and a pipe dream scenario.
Men det stoppede ikke FBI. De forsynede Sami Osmakac med alt, hvad han havde brug for. De gav ham en bilbombe, de gav ham en AK-47, de hjalp ham med, at lave en såkaldt martyrvideo og de gav ham endda penge til en taxi, så han kunne tage hen, hvor de ville have ham til. Mens de arbejdede på sagen, fortæller den tilsynsførende sine agenter, at han ønsker en Hollywood slutning. Og han fik en Hollywood slutning. Da Sami Osmakac prøvede, at aflevere hvad han troede var en bilbombe, blev han arresteret, dømt og straffet med 40 år i fængsel.
But that didn't stop the FBI. They provided Sami Osmakac 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 that 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 Osmakac attempted to deliver what he thought was a car bomb, he was arrested, convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Sami Osmakac er ikke den alene. Han er én af mere end 175 såkaldte terrorister, som FBI har skabt Hollywood slutninger for. Amerikanske myndigheder kalder det Krigen mod Terror. Men det er virkeligt bare et teater, et nationalt sikkerhedsteater, med psykiske syge personer som Sami Osmakac Intetanende aktører i en forsigtig koreograferet produktion bragt til dig af FBI.
Sami Osmakac isn't alone. He's one of more than 175 so-called terrorists, for whom the FBI has created Hollywood endings. U.S. government officials call this the War on Terror. It's really just theater, a national security theater, with mentally ill men like Sami Osmakac unwitting actors in a carefully choreographed production brought to you by the FBI.
Tak.
Thank you.
(Klapsalve)
(Applause)
Tom Rielly: Det er nogle seriøse anklager, meget seriøse beskyldninger. Hvordan har du belæg for det her?
Tom Rielly: So, those are some pretty strong accusations, pretty strong charges. How can you back this up?
Trevor Aaronson: Min forskning begyndte i 2010 da jeg modtog et stipendium fra Investigative Reporting Program på U.C. Berkeley, og en forskningsassistent og jeg sammensatte en database af alle terrorretsforfølgelser på tidspunktet af det første årti efter 9/11. Og vi brugte rettens filer til, at finde ud af om de tiltalte havde nogle forbindelser til internationale terrorist grupper, om en meddeler var brugt og om meddeleren havde spillet rollen som en agent provocateur ved at forsyne midlerne og muligheden. Og vi indsendte det til FBI og vi bad dem om, at reagere på vores database. Hvis de mente, der var nogle fejl, vi bad dem om, at fortælle os hvilke og vi ville tjekke op på det og de satte aldrig spørgsmål til vores resultater. Senere brugte jeg dataene i en artikel og senere i min bog, og på optrædener hos CBS og NPR, de blev tilbudt muligheden igen til at sige, "Trevor Aaronsons resultater er forkerte." Og de er aldrig kommet frem og sagt, "Det her er problemerne med resultaterne." Dataene er sidenhen blevet brugt af grupper som Human Rights Watch i deres seneste rapport om de former for undercover operationer Indtil videre har FBI aldrig rigtigt reageret til de beskyldninger, at de ikke fanger terrorister i det omfang de fanger psykisk syge personer som de kan klæde ud som terrorister i undercover operationer.
Trevor Aaronson: My research began in 2010 when I received a grant from the Investigative Reporting Program at U.C. Berkeley, and a research assistant and I put together a database of all terrorism prosecutions at the time during the first decade after 9/11. And 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 provocateur by providing the means and opportunity. And we submitted that to the FBI and we asked them to respond to our database. If they believed there were any errors, we asked them to tell us what they were and we'd go back and check and they never challenged any of our findings. Later, I used that data in a magazine article and later in my book, and on appearances on places like CBS and NPR, they were offered that opportunity again to say, "Trevor Aaronson's findings are wrong." And they've never come forward and said, "These are the problems with those findings." So the data has 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 to these charges that it's really not catching terrorists so much as it's catching mentally ill people that it can dress up as terrorists in these types of sting operations.
TR: The Intercept er den der nye undersøgende journalistik hjemmeside, der er medstiftet af Gleen Greenwald. Fortæl os om din artikel og hvorfor der.
TR: So The Intercept is that new investigative journalism website, that's cofounded by Glenn Greenwald. Tell us about your article and why there.
TA: The Intercept virkede som det mest logiske sted for det her fordi min artikel virkelig løfter den kendsgerning at en kilde har lækket en transskription til mig af private FBI samtaler, som en føderal dommer har forsejlet baseret på regeringens påstand, at deres offentliggørelse ville uoprettelig skade den amerikanske regerings strategi til at håndhæve loven. The Intercept var lavet for, at beskytte journalister og offentliggøre deres arbejde når de har at gøre med sensitive områder som det her. Min historie i The Intercept, som var offentliggjort i dag fortæller historien om hvordan Sami Osmakac blev bondefanget af FBI og går i meget større detaljer. I det her oplæg har jeg kun fremhævet de ting som de har sag som det at kalde ham et "retarderet fjols." Men det var meget mere omstændigt, de gik ikke af vejen for, at putte penge i Sami Osmakacs hænder som han derefter brugte til, at købe våben fra undercover agenten. Da han skulle for retten, var det centrale stykke bevis, at han havde betalt for de våben når transskriptionerne faktisk viser, hvordan FBI iscenesatte nogen som var psykisk syg og fattig til at få fat i penge for, at betale for våben så de kunne anklage ham for konspiration.
TA: The Intercept seemed 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 U.S. government's law enforcement strategy. So a place like The Intercept was set up to protect journalists and publish their work when they're dealing with very sensitive matters like this. So my story in The Intercept, which was just published today, tells the story of how Sami Osmakac was set up in this FBI sting and goes into much greater detail. In this talk, I could only highlight the things that they said, such as calling him a "retarded fool." But it was much more elaborate, they went to great lengths to put money in Sami Osmakac'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.
TR: Et sidste spørgsmål. Mindre end 10 dage siden, arresterede FBI nogle mulige ISIS mistænkte i Brooklyn, efter sigende, at de måske var på vej til Syrien, og var de virkelige eller flere eksempler af det samme?
TR: One final question. Less than 10 days ago, the FBI arrested some potential ISIS suspects in Brooklyn, saying that they might be headed to Syria, and were those real, or examples of more of the same?
TA: For så vidt, ved vi kun, hvad der dukker op i rettens filer, men det ser ud til, at være et eksempel på det samme. De her former for operationer har forandret sig undervejs Oprindeligt var det al Qaeda komplotter og nu er det Islamisk stat. Hvad der er værd at notere om sagen, er, at de tre mænd som var tiltalt kun planlagde at tage til Syrien efter introduktionen af FBI meddeleren, og faktisk havde FBI meddeleren hjulpet dem med rejse dokumenter de skulle bruge. Som et slags komisk tvist i den her sag, har en af de tiltaltes mødre fundet ud af, at han var interesseret i, at tage til Syrien og skjulte hans pas. Det er uklart om hvis han havde mødt op ved lufthavnen havde været i stand til at rejse. Så ja, der er nogen der måske er interesseret i at tilslutte sig Islamisk stat i Amerika, og det er de mennesker som den amerikanske regering skulle kigge på for at se om de vil udøve vold her. I den har sag har beviserne såfremt tydet på at FBI gjorde det muligt for dem at fremsætte en plan om, at tage til Syrien når de aldrig var tæt på det overhovedet.
TA: 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 types of sting operations have moved from 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 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 defendant's 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 had showed up at the airport, that he ever could have gone anywhere. 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 suggests 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.
TR: Mange tak, det er utroligt. TA: Tak.
TR: Thanks a lot, that's amazing. TA: Thank you.
(Klapsalve)
(Applause)