FBI's Abuse of Power and Open Hostility Towards Boston Minorities

The targeted recent campaigns by federal prosecutors on two local politicians, Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner and State Senator Dianne Wilkerson show that the FBI is an organization that is hostile towards Boston’s and Massachusetts’s minority citizens and is able and willing to use their resources to target the elected officials and representatives of those communities and effectively silence them. Both of these politicians have long been known as ones that constantly challenged the status quo and were constant voices of dissent in support of minority communities.

Why were these politicians chosen? Don’t all politicians take money? They just have to make sure it goes through legal channels. Correct? From the FBI’s own admission paid FBI informants and “undercover agents” took money from the FBI and put it into our elected officials’ hands; the FBI documents it with their endless resources technological and otherwise, and very easily makes the officials look like bad guys to the public and effectively removes them from office... Silencing the people and communities that they have represented. These were two of the VERY few representatives elected by citizens to represent communities that were largely composed of minorities. The FBI has the tools to do this to ANYONE.

So once again we have the FBI targeting the leadership and representatives of minority communities. All of these cases rely heavily on paid or compensated FBI informants. This is not new in American history. In fact this is more evidence of the disgusting and long legacy of abuse that the FBI has engaged in since the beginning of the civil rights era.

What is the interest of these informants? What do they receive for their cooperation? Did the FBI attempt to do the same to our other elected officials from Massachusetts and Boston? If not then why?

How is it that these sophisticated and well-resourced investigations were performed on these two politicians and no others?

How are these communities supposed to react to the fact that these investigations targeted their representatives and their representatives alone?? How can this not be seen as attack on the minority communities of Boston and Massachusetts???

Tarek Mehanna is a young Muslim- American. He was a leader in his community. He has expressed very unpopular views. He has spent the majority of the last two years in jail and has been accused of lying to the FBI and aiding a terrorist organization by expressing his controversial views on the internet. He is being accused of this only after the FBI told media outlets that he was plotting to take over a mall with machine guns and go on a mass murder spree. Their case relies heavily on criminal informants. They neglected to tell the media that they had been trying to get Mehanna to be an informant for years but were unsuccessful. Only after he continued to deny them did they come out with their image of a violent terrorist. The FBI now openly admits that Mehanna was never a real physical threat to the public.

Recent revelations of another “homegrown terrorist” were recently reported by federal agencies regarding a ridiculous plot to fly a radio controlled plane into the Pentagon with 25 lbs. of explosives. This scenario has been universally ridiculed by radio controlled enthusiasts and experts as simply unrealistic. The accused person in that case is also a young Muslim male, who is an American citizen and a college graduate with an engineering degree. FBI has admitted to a long relationship with this individual just as they have had a long relationship with Tarek Mehanna. They provided the same individual with guns and explosives. Another recently exposed plot says that an American citizen approached a Mexican drug cartel member to assassinate a foreign diplomat. The cartel member it turns out is an FBI informant.

Being accused of being a terrorist today means you are not afforded the same rights that all Americans expect and are supposed to receive under the U.S. Constitution. Because the government uses many secretive and often illegal ways of obtaining information, that would undoubtedly raise alarm with citizens, they do not release this information publicly. The Patriot Act and other post 9/11 laws and regulations have allowed law enforcement a tremendous amount of secret power, leeway and trust, to do as they please with American citizens if they decide to accuse them of anything terrorism related. You do not have the right to see the evidence against you? Disgusting.

The behavior of the FBI and federal prosecutors has become increasingly oppressive and is clearly out of line with the Constitution and what is acceptable to American citizens. The story that unfolds with Tarek Mehanna is that of a young Muslim American, having a negative but legal personal reaction to public policy and culture regarding his community; and then an FBI that is drunk on power threatening him to play ball or else. Naturally when he refuses to play ball after years of intimidation the FBI decides to send a message to him and others.

It doesn’t matter if you are an American, if you dissent, if you go against the program, we will use our unlimited power to make the public believe you are a threat and lock you up forever. It is very easy to do now with our ability to use the media and control informants. You do not have to even really do anything illegal. We only have to show the public that you are not one of us.

The more that reasonable and rational Americans look into the claims of the FBI and their routine practice of being dishonest and misleading with the public, the less merit these cases have. The proven FBI misconduct in the Bulger fiasco resulted in at least one murder, for which the government was forced to pay compensation to at least one party. (I am not well versed in the Bulger case but it has all been documented and is common knowledge in New England) Why should we trust the outlandish claims of this agency?

The FBI’s claims are highly suspect, not just in the Mehanna case but in every case where they rely on an informant or undercover agent.
I encourage the media to practice real investigative journalism in this and all cases where the FBI relies on informants or “undercover agents”. If this is not done then the media is simply another pawn for an out of control FBI that is abusing American citizen’s rights.
You can start by asking some of the following questions…

In regards to Tarek Mehanna…

Has the prosecutor in this case ever made false statements to a judge? Under oath? Or withheld evidence?

How many times has the FBI spoke to Tarek Mehanna before accusing him of this activity?

Did he refuse to be an informant or cooperate with the FBI? Has the American public ever been in any physical danger from Tarek Mehanna?
If Mehanna can be prosecuted for allegedly supporting terror talk online then doesn’t that mean that all racist sympathizers, members of the KKK, neo Nazi’s and other right wing racists that preach violent racial war and hatred, should be swiftly rounded up and prosecuted? The KKK has been terrorizing Americans for 150 years.

In regards to the local politicians…a city councilor and a state senator? Two representatives of two different bodies of two different governments representing the same minority communities? The City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Why were our elected officials targeted? How much was the informant paid in the case of Chuck Turner (reports have been that the informant received close to $30,000? Turner was accused of taking $1000 an amount so small it’s as if it’s meant to ridicule at the same time that it condemns him)? Is this how the community wants you to spend your time and resources?
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Humor me with the following scenario please. Let’s say the FBI decides to speak with someone and in the course of a non-confrontational conversation asks them, where were you yesterday?

Here at the house.

What time is it?

4pm.

How often do you purchase gasoline?

Once a month.

It is terribly easy for them to make the claim that you were dishonest or not forthcoming. This is of course a federal crime. You stepped out yesterday to go have sex with your neighbor and pickup diarrhea medicine. It wasn’t 4pm it was 3:37pm and your credit card charges show that you buy gasoline every week because your girlfriend uses it.

Now most people would say Oh but they would never do anything so petty and obviously unjust! But if you are someone that the FBI is upset with because you have extreme views and/or you will not agree to work with them when they are convinced that with your help they could , “take down” a terrorist cell…

Well now the FBI would get aggressive, intimidate you, “take the gloves off”, and they absolutely would build a case against you, throw you in jail, and convince the public that you are a bad guy. For proof they can get your internet records, have the FBI agent testify how you lied, had a bad attitude, and purposefully misled them on numerous occasions, and have a paid informant say any inflammatory thing they want.

You will spend over a year in jail before anyone is presented with any evidence of your alleged crimes. You are already effectively guilty as far as the media and so-called American justice system are concerned. Only if you had a guardian angel on your side, in the FBI, directly working on your case, would you have a fighting chance. I imagine those are getting extremely rare.

Who would stick their neck out for an accused terrorist? Especially if they work for a government security agency? No! If the FBI says he is a terrorist. He is a terrorist. And that’s all there is to it nowadays.

This is how law enforcement works. Threats, harassment, and intimidation are all too often business as usual, as well as the use of ridiculously unreliable information from informants.