History’s dark sense of humor has now linked the fate of American Muslims, environmental activists, and MAGA protestors who allege the FBI is abusing them to gin up prosecutions. At the heart of the Supreme Court case Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fazaga is the FBI’s effort to maintain a shroud of secrecy over questionable investigative techniques it uses to develop criminal cases. The FBI laughably claims national security would be put in jeopardy if a court forces the bureau to reveal its motives for targeting otherwise innocent Americans to entice criminal behavior.
The truth—and everyone knows it—is that the FBI wants to avoid public outrage over its dirty tricks.
Fazaga reminds us that FBI abuses follow the winds of politics. As many Americans will recall, the FBI’s focus on American Muslims followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. When fresh cases failed to materialize, the FBI often sent confidential informants to radicalize potential terrorists into future arrestees. The plaintiffs in Fazaga sued the FBI after learning of an FBI informant named Craig Moneilh who allegedly infiltrated an Irvine, California mosque in an effort to radicalize Muslim men and create terrorism cases for the FBI. Among the FBI’s questionable tactics, Moneilh’s FBI handler authorized him to seduce and have sex with Muslim women to surreptitiously create audio recordings of pillow talk for use in the case.
Hellbound and Down 