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.
联邦调查局是在美国的 多起恐怖主义阴谋的 幕后黑手, 数量比其他任何组织都要多。 比“基地组织”, 比“索马里青年党”, 比“伊拉克和沙姆伊斯兰国”都多, 甚至比他们加起来都多。
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.
这跟你们印象中的联邦调查局 大相径庭吧。 印象中的联邦调查局特工应该 逮捕约翰·迪林杰这样的坏蛋, 或者将腐败的政客绳之以法。
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.
在“9·11”恐怖袭击之后, 联邦调查局无暇顾及 匪徒或者官员中的败类。 恐怖分子是他们的新目标, 而追捕恐怖分子 让联邦调查局焦头烂额。
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.
每年,联邦调查局花费33亿美元 用于国内反恐。 相比之下,用于调查有组织犯罪, 金融诈骗,官员腐败等 传统犯罪行为的资金 加起来才26亿美元。
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.
我花了好几年时间研究了 美国的涉恐案卷, 我得出一个结论:联邦调查局 更擅长培养恐怖分子, 而不是逮捕他们。
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.
“9·11”发生后的14年间, 美国本土发生了6起恐怖袭击。 包括2013年的波士顿马拉松爆炸案, 和其他几起未遂案例, 比如一个叫费萨尔·沙赫扎德的人 计划在时代广场引爆汽车炸弹。 同样在这14年间, 联邦调查局却不停在吹嘘 他们挫败了数十起恐怖主义阴谋。 联邦调查局通过激进、 秘密的反恐骗局 总共逮捕了超过175人。
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.
这些行动,通常由 联邦调查局的线人领导, 他们出谋划策,提供机会 甚至直接授意, 将那些有精神问题和穷困潦倒的人 变成我们现在所谓的恐怖分子。
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.
“9·11”之后, 联邦调查局接到的命令是: 不再发生。 不允许恐怖袭击在美国本土再次发生。 联邦调查局特工奉命将恐怖袭击 消灭在萌芽状态。 为完成任务,特工们在全国范围内 招募了超过15000名线人, 寻找任何可能带来危险的人。 上报一件恐怖主义案件, 线人能从联邦调查局得到 超过10万美元的酬劳。 你没听错,联邦调查局支付给 这些线人——主要是罪犯和帮派分子—— 6位数的酬劳让他们监视美国社群, 主要是美国的穆斯林社群。
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.
这些线人逮捕 像阿布·哈立德·阿卜杜勒·拉蒂夫 和瓦利·穆加赫德这样的人。 他们都患有精神疾病。 阿卜杜勒·拉蒂夫 曾喝过汽油并试图自杀。 穆加赫德患有精神分裂症, 无力区分真实和幻想。 2012年,联邦调查局逮捕了上述两人, 罪名是密谋袭击 西雅图郊外的一处征兵站, 而他们的武器,毫无疑问, 正是联邦调查局提供的。 这个案子的线人名叫罗伯特·柴尔兹, 有强奸和猥亵儿童的前科, 因为这个案子他赚了9万美元。 这并不是偶然现象。
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.
2009年,一名联邦调查局的线人, 曾因犯谋杀罪逃离巴基斯坦, 指挥四个人密谋炸毁 (纽约)布朗克斯区的一处犹太教堂。 第一被告名叫詹姆斯·克罗米蒂, 是一名有精神病史的 沃尔玛破产员工。 这名线人给了他25万美元, 让他参加这次袭击。 这样的例子还有很多。
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.
今天,“拦截”网站发表了我的新文章, 是关于在坦帕的一起反恐阴谋, 当事人叫萨米·奥斯马卡什, 他是一名住在佛罗里达州 坦帕市附近的年轻人。 奥斯马卡什同样患有精神分裂症。 同样穷困潦倒, 与国际恐怖主义组织毫无关联。 尽管如此, 联邦调查局的一名线人还是 给了他一份工作,交给他一笔钱, 将他介绍给一名伪装成 恐怖分子的联邦调查局探员, 引诱他去炸毁一家爱尔兰酒吧。
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.
有意思的是: 领头的卧底特工, 就是照片里打了马赛克这位, 回到了在坦帕的区办公室, 身上带着录音设备。 私底下, 联邦调查局探员承认 自己的所作所为是荒谬的。 一位联邦法官不想公开这些谈话。 他将谈话记录封存,严加看管, 防止像我这样的人将其公之于众。 私底下,这名领头的探员, 小队队长, 将这些未来的”恐怖分子“, 描述为“穷困潦倒的弱智傻瓜”。 将他的恐怖主义目标 描述为微不足道、白日做梦。
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.
但联邦调查局没有罢手。 他们为萨米·奥斯马卡什 提供所需的一切。 汽车炸弹,AK-47, 帮他录制了一段所谓的“殉难”视频, 甚至给他付了出租车钱, 送他前往选定的目标地点。 在设计整个圈套的过程中, 小队队长告诉探员们, 他想要一个好莱坞(电影)式的结尾。 结果他如愿以偿了。 当萨米·奥斯马卡什试图将汽车炸弹 运送到位时, 他被抓了,判入狱40年。
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.
萨米·奥斯马卡什并不是特例。 他只是这超过175名 所谓的“恐怖分子”中的一员, 联邦调查局给他们 编造了一个好莱坞(电影)式的结尾。 美国政府官方所谓的“反恐战争”, 其实只是一场戏, 一场国家安全的大戏, 由萨米·奥斯马卡什这样的精神病人, 在毫不知情的情况下出演, 而剧本由联邦调查局 精心编写,并呈献给大家。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)
Tom Rielly: So, those are some pretty strong accusations, pretty strong charges. How can you back this up?
汤姆·雷利(TR): 这些指控非常严重, 罪名很大。 你有什么依据吗?
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.
特雷弗·阿伦森(TA): 我的研究开始于2010年, 当时我受邀参加加州大学伯克利分校 一个调查报告项目, 我和我的研究助理 将“9·11”事件发生后十年以来 所有恐怖主义案件的数据进行了汇总。 我们通过研究法院文件 来调查这些案件的被告 是否跟国际恐怖组织有关, 是否有线人牵涉其中, 线人是否扮演了卧底探员的角色, 为他们(被告)出谋划策, 创造机会。 我们将这些材料提交给了联邦调查局 要求他们作出回应。 如果他们发现材料有误, 可以指出来,我们会再查证, 但他们从未反驳过我们的任何发现。 之后,我将这些数据用在杂志文章上, 用在我的书里, 哥伦比亚广播公司和国家公共广播电台 也用过这些数据, 他们再次获得了反驳的机会, 大可以说,“特雷弗·阿伦森在胡扯。” 但他们从来没有站出来说, “这些事并不属实。” 所以这些数据 最近被“人权观察”组织 用在他们关于此类虚假行动 的调查报告中。 到目前为止,联邦调查局从未正式回应 上述指控:他们逮捕的不是恐怖分子, 只是些精神病人 被伪装成恐怖分子, 上演了一出虚假反恐的戏码。
TR: So The Intercept is that new investigative journalism website, that's cofounded by Glenn Greenwald. Tell us about your article and why there.
TR:“拦截”是一家新的 进行新闻调查的网站, 由格伦·格林沃尔德等人联合创建。 跟我们讲讲你的文章, 为什么发表在他们网站。
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.
TA:“拦截”是最适合发表的地方, 因为我的文章揭露了一个事实, 消息人士提供给我的录音文本 是联邦调查局的私密对话, 联邦法官将其封存, 因为政府认为一旦泄露, 将对美国政府的执法战略 带来无法弥补的损失。 所以像“拦截”这样的网站就建立起来了, 用来保护记者 并发表他们的文章, 尤其当记者在报道 如此敏感的事件的时候。 所以我的文章, 今天刚刚在“拦截”上面刊登, 讲述了萨米·奥斯马卡什 如何被联邦调查局设计陷害, 并挖掘了一些更深的细节。 在本次演讲中,我只强调了 他们所说的部分内容, 比如称他为“弱智傻瓜”。 但这更是个精心策划的阴谋, 他们计划周详,为萨米·奥斯马卡什 提供资金, 他随后又从卧底探员手中购买武器。 当他接受审判时, 他购买武器的行为 成为了最关键的证据, 但这些录音文本揭露了真相, 联邦调查局精心策划, 为这些精神病人和破产者提供资金, 让他们购买武器, 随后再起诉他们意图不轨。
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?
TR:最后一个问题。 不到十天前, 联邦调查局在布鲁克林逮捕了 一些“伊拉克和沙姆伊斯兰国”的嫌疑人, 称他们可能会前往叙利亚, 这件事是真的吗?还是同样只是演戏。
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.
TA:到目前为止,我们所知 事实都来源于法庭文件, 但在我看来这又是一场戏。 这种虚假反恐行动总是紧跟潮流, 起初“基地组织”戏份最多, 现在“伊斯兰国”成了他们的最爱。 这个案子值得注意的是, 被指控的三名男子, 都是在与联邦调查局的线人接触后, 才开始密谋要前往叙利亚, 而实际上,他们的旅行证件 都是联邦调查局的线人 帮他们办理的。 最为搞笑的一个转折就是, 其中一名被告的母亲 在发现儿子要前往叙利亚后 就把他的护照给藏起来了。 所以即使他能成功抵达机场, 恐怕也哪儿都去不了。 的确,在美国也许会有人对加入 “伊斯兰国”感兴趣, 这部分人才是美国政府应该关注的, 看他们是不是有暴力倾向。 而在这件案子中, 就目前所掌握的证据而言, 正是联邦调查局让这些人 产生了去叙利亚的想法, 而之前他们可能连想都没想过。 TR:非常感谢,很棒的演讲。 TA:谢谢你。
TR: Thanks a lot, that's amazing. TA: Thank you.
(掌声)
(Applause)