If he refused? asked Mr. Ouassif. "I will work hard to deport you to Morocco as soon as possible," Mr. Fliflet responded, according to an account written by Mr. Ouassif soon after the meeting. "I want you to know something important," the FBI agent added, according to Mr. Ouassif. "America is just like a bus, and you have a choice to make: Either you board the bus or you leave."
DOJ isn't too happy with what happened in Ouassif's case:
Another federal official familiar with Mr. Ouassif's case says government lawyers have become much more discerning about the treatment of Muslim immigrants since the years immediately following 9/11. "We know the FBI is desperate for human assets, for feet on the ground, but the worst thing we could possibly do is threaten and blackmail people and treat them with disrespect," this official says.
The FBI claims to be learning from its mistakes. As for Ouassif, who has been vindicated and is now working as a security guard at electrical power plants in California, he says:
It's OK to ask me or anyone else, 'If you see a dangerous person, an extremist, will you call us?' " he says. "Of course I will. But I don't want to live a secret life."
The article is long, and Ouassif's case is fascinating. Here's one more nugget:
Mr. Fliflet gave Mr. Ouassif one week to consider the FBI's offer to become an informant in exchange for his green card, according to Mr. Ouassif. If he didn't hear from him, the FBI agent said, he'd assume Mr. Ouassif "prefers to help extremists" instead of America, according to Mr. Ouassif. Mr. Fliflet warned him the FBI had ample evidence to prove he was an extremist, Mr. Ouassif says. Mr. Fliflet told him not to tell anyone about their meeting, including any lawyer.
Accepting the offer, says Mr. Ouassif, would have fulfilled his dream to bring his wife to America. But he feared that doing so would be sinful. According to the Quran, he says, the lowest depths of hell are reserved for munafiqun -- hypocrites who act as Muslims while plotting against them. Mr. Ouassif says he also worried that working with the FBI was a lifelong commitment -- easy to start, impossible to stop.
I am not arguing that the FBI should not use informants to weed out terror cells. But forcing them to do so by threatening them with criminal charges or deportation when they haven't done anything wrong and when it violates their moral and religious code is just wrong. Not to mention, the warrantless electronic surveillance of American mosques is wrong.
As Walid Mustafa, another Muslim who underwent a similar experience said,
"As Muslims, we're obligated to protect this country. We don't need to get paid. I told him, 'You're not going to solve the problem by hiring snitches in mosques. Get involved. Get to know people. Become part of the community.' "
As an aside, the Wall St. Journal is the only newspaper besides the Denver Post I pay to subscribe to, and it's not for financial information, it's for their coverage of war, politics, crime and injustices to the accused. It always amazes me that their news articles can be so great while their editorials and commentary are so bad. I love the way so many of their articles start out not with the j-school stock in trade "who, what, when, where and why" but with a personal story that grabs you and then leads into the j-school stuff.
