- A legal definition. Entrapment occurs when law enforcement
officials or agents induce, influence, or provoke crimes that otherwise
wouldn't be committed. However, it doesn't apply in cases of willingness
to act lawlessly, government merely aiding, abetting, or facilitating a
good chance to do so.
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- Entrapment involves the following:
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- -- government officials or agents initiated the idea;
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- -- individuals were persuaded to act; and
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- -- they had no previous intent or willingness to do so.
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- Key is that prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable
doubt that subjects weren't entrapped. Otherwise, due process convictions
are prohibited, though judicial fairness seldom occurs in cases involving
anyone for political reasons, especially Muslims. An earlier article explained.
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- Post-9/11, they've been victimized, vilified, and persecuted
for their faith, ethnicity, prominence, activism, and charity. They've
been targeted, hunted down, rounded up, held in detention, kept in isolation,
denied bail, restricted in their right to counsel, tried on secret evidence,
convicted on bogus charges, given long sentences, then incarcerated as
political prisoners. Hundreds languish in America's gulag, the shame of
the nation.
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- Many there were lawlessly entrapped, a common FBI tactic,
one of several earlier articles explained, accessed through the following
link:
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- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/12/americas-war-on-islam-fort-dix-five.html
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- The above case involved bogusly convicting five Muslim
men for allegedly conspiring to attack American soldiers at Fort Dix, New
Jersey despite no plot, no crime or intent to commit one. Numerous other
cases were similar, including alleged plans to attack US marines at Quantico,
VA, down National Guard jets with stinger missiles, attempt to buy and
use a surface-to-air missile against Pakistan's ambassador, and others
just as preposterous.
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- They include a fake shoe bomber, fake underwear bomber,
fake Times Square bomber, an earlier fake one there, fake shampoo bombers,
fake Al Qaeda woman planning fake attacks on New York landmarks, fake Oregon
bomber, fake armed forces recruiting station bomber, fake 9/11 bombers,
and others to enlist public support for the fake war on terror.
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- All cases involved entrapped Muslims. Accusations against
them were bogus, yet they were arrested, charged, convicted and sentenced
to long imprisonments - for being Muslims in America at the wrong time,
not conspiracy to commit crimes.
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- Attorney General Eric Holder Defends Lawless Entrapment
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- Stings are a common FBI tactic, Wikipedia calling them:
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- "deceptive operation(s) to catch a person (allegedly)
committing (or intending to commit) a crime. A typical sting (involves)
law-enforcement officer(s) or cooperative member(s) of the public (a complicit
well-paid plant) play(ing) a role as criminal partner or potential victim
(by) go(ing) along with a suspect's (alleged) actions to gather evidence
of....wrongdoing."
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- Sting operations are common in America. Other countries
like Sweden and the Netherlands ban them. Every nation should because usually
they're used lawlessly to entrap.
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- However, on December 10, Holder publicly defended them,
New York Times writers Malia Wollan and Charlie Savage headlining, "Holder
Calls Terrorism Sting Operations Essential," saying:
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- Addressing a San Francisco area Muslim audience, he called
"the tactic (an) 'essential law enforcement tool in uncovering and
preventing terror attacks,' " despite using them to entrap. Attendees
weren't pleased.
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- Farhana Khera, President of Muslim Advocates, a legal
advocacy/civil rights organization (the event sponsor) said entrapment
operations "may be getting people involved in (alleged) terrorism
who otherwise would not have done anything." These operations also
divert investigators from actual threats and provoke widespread anti-Muslim
sentiment, she added.
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- Council on American-Islam Relations spokesman, Ibrahim
Hooper, said:
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- "We maintain concerns about FBI policies regarding
informants in mosques and provocateurs in our community" up to no
good. "There's a sense of being under siege in many Muslim communities.
People just assume there are agents or informants in their mosque now.
It's a fact of life."
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- Moreover, few believe the FBI claiming their tactics
prevented numerous post-9/11 attacks. They did not.
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- A recent case shows why, one enraging California Muslims.
On December 5, Washington Post writer Jerry Markon explained, headlining
"Tension grows between Calif. Muslims, FBI after informant infiltrates
mosque," saying:
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- Craig Monteilh, aka Farouk al-Aziz, code name Oracle,
spied on dozens of Irvine Islamic Center Muslims "in a quest for potential
terrorists....But the FBI's approach has come under fire from some Muslims,"
especially after its agents entrapped Portland, OR teenager Mohamed Osman
Mohamud to allegedly attempt detonation of an inert bomb at a Christmas
tree lighting ceremony, inciting him about something he otherwise might
never have conceived.
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- "In the Irvine case, Monteilh's mission....backfired.
Muslims were so alarmed by his talk of violent jihad that they obtained
a restraining order against him," even reporting him to the same FBI
office that enlisted him.
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- "He helped build a terrorism-related case against
a mosque member, but (it) collapsed. The Justice Department (caught with
egg on its face) took the extraordinary step of dropping charges against
the worshipper, who Monteilh had caught on tape (allegedly) agreeing to
blow up buildings, law enforcement officials said. Prosecutors had portrayed
the man as a dire threat."
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- They lied like they always do, hyping non-existant threats
to create media hysteria, public fear, and justification for the war on
terror and imperial adventurism, America's global game against peace, security,
and democratic freedoms.
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- This time, Monteilh went public, revealing secret FBI
tactics, saying his "handlers" trained him to entrap Muslims
in mosques, their homes and businesses. He's now suing the FBI. Officials
declined comment, but confirmed that he was a paid informant. Well-paid,
in fact, court records and other documents showing he got $177,000 tax
free in 15 months.
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- Southern California Muslims are incensed, citing a pattern
of pervasive surveillance and covert entrapment, snaring innocent victims
for alleged crimes. Islamic Shura Council of Southern California Executive
Director Shakeel Syed said:
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- "The community feels betrayed. They got a guy, a
bona fide criminal (just out of prison for grand theft), and obviously
trained him and sent him to infiltrate mosques. And when things went sour,
they ditched him and he got mad. It's like a (sick) soap opera, for God's
sake."
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- Key is that the pattern repeats nationally, screaming
headlines revealing another entrapped victim portrayed as a threat to national
security. They're all innocent, violated by Obama administration lawlessness,
using Muslims as targets of convenience, not for alleged crimes or conspiracy
to commit them. It's part of America's war on Islam for political advantage.
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- Yet FBI Los Angeles head, J. Stephen Tidwell said:
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- "If we're going to mosques to come to services,
we will tell you....for the very reason that we don't want you to think
you're being monitored."
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- Two months later, Monteilh arrived at the same mosque,
his mission to infiltrate, monitor, incite, and enlist willing members
for crimes they'd never imagine committing. Worshipers said he became almost
"manic in his devotion, attending prayers five times a day,"
and showing up in the parking lot at 5AM. He said he was told to take notes
on who opened up each day, and much more. His mission, of course, was to
entrap.
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- The FBI lied calling his case atypical, saying the bureau
"relies on the support, cooperation and trust of the communities it
serves and protects....under well-defined investigative guidelines and
the law, and in close coordination with" Justice Department officials.
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- In his talk, Holder stressed solidarity with US Muslims,
adding that he "believe(s) that law enforcement has an obligation
to ensure that members of every religious community enjoy the ability to
worship and to practice their faith in peace, free from intimidation, violence
or suspicion."
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- He also made "no apologies for how the FBI handle(s)
their work in executing....operation(s). Those who characterize (its) activities....as
entrapment simply do not have their facts straight - or do they have a
full understanding of the law."
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- Rubbish from him and the FBI. Their global mission is
state terrorism. Their record exposes lawless crimes of war and against
humanity, besides pervasive homeland persecution, targeting innocent Muslims
for political advantage. Hundreds in America's gulag bear testimony to
what Holder won't admit, or that FBI bosses paid Monteilh another $25,000
for a non-disclosure agreement to shut up and say nothing further.
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- What he already said revealed plenty - how FBI agents
operate lawlessly, entrapping innocent victims, paying plants like Monteilh
generously to snare them. Then "treat(ing) me with the utmost treachery,"
when his scheme fell apart, exposing him, the FBI, Justice Department,
and Obama administration bosses as criminals, masquerading as defenders
of justice and democratic freedoms.
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- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached atlendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge
discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour
on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and
Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
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- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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