Source: The New York Times Magazine
The ‘Herald Square Bomber’ Who Wasn’t
By Rozina Ali
After the September 11 attacks, sweeping legislation and policy changes cleared the way for the authorities to surveil whole communities, monitoring even those who had no connection to terrorism. Shahawar Matin Siraj was arrested in 2004 and convicted of terrorism based on the testimony of a paid FBI informant, one of thousands recruited by the police and the F.B.I. after the Sept. 11 attacks, most of whom remain anonymous. This drawing by Siraj is of his cell in the Communications Management Unit in Terre Haute, IN
Authorities have used informants to convict hundreds of people of crimes related to international terrorism. Did the informants help create plots where none had existed? For the past two years, the Coalition for Civil Freedoms, a nonprofit group campaigning for the rights of those caught up in the counterterrorism dragnet, has sought support for the EGO Relief Act, a bill that would narrow the material-support statute and impose restrictions on law enforcement’s ability to use informants. The coalition met with staff members for nearly 60 representatives and senators, one of whom commented “This happens in America?” Read more here.