It has been long know that the world of police informants is filled with shady characters, and questionable motives. It is common practice to hold some trivial mishap against the informant to force them to act as one. In other cases, the informants are people with limited skills and/or motivation, or ex-criminals who find this line of work a way to earn income. A series of recent arrests and convictions reveal that more often than not, informants were motivated by money and in effect "create" terrorists from gullible suspects.An example is Osama Eldawoody who helped convict Matin Siraj for the charge of conspiracy to bomb Manhattan subway station. This article in the Washington Post details his case, and also lists a lot of similar cases.Another case in Canada is the arrest of 18 people, mostly youth, in Toronto for an alleged plot to bomb several places. One informant, Mubin Shaikh has come forward and said that Canadian government owes him $300,000 for his efforts. Another unnamed informant in the same case has also cashed in big.The sad part in all this, is whether the troubled youth involved would have started the criminal activities on their own, without the nudging and urging of the informants. This is a form of entrapment, and whether it is a petty fraud case, or sensational istic terrorism, it is not a good thing to do.
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Comments
Mubin Shaikh (not verified)
Informants creating terror
Thu, 2007/05/31 - 16:26How nice of you to immediately think I did this for money. Where was the money for me when since I was 19 years old, I was being taunted and insulted for being openly Muslim? Where was the money when I had to forgeo so many jobs because of how I looked? Where was the money when I was helping young Muslim kids with legal issues, through the Masjid?
Planning terrorist activity is not a part-time job. I took the money because I provided a service to Islam and Canada. Maybe one day you will write articles on how terrorists create Islamophobia and how sympathy from Muslims only makes it worse.
Mubin Shaikh
Khalid
The real Mubin Shaikh?
Thu, 2007/05/31 - 16:50Well, I don't know if you are the real Mubin Shaikh or someone pretending, but I will reply anyway. All I can say is that the IP address resolves back to Toronto, and the link is from a Canada Yahoo mail box. What your motive(s) are can only be known to you, and no one else. I am stating a fact reported by the media, as far as money is concerned. Everyone can draw their own conclusions. What I observe, in this case, as well as the cases listed in the linked article about Eldawoody, is a disturbing pattern of entrapment, where gullible, vocal and vulnerable youth are coaxed into starting things they most probably have not started on their own. Even the Miami "Seas of David" are not even Muslims, but that did not stop the informant or FBI to go after them. The same is true in terrorism cases as well as in other crimes. The whole "informant becoming crime mentor" thing is wrong and has to stop. My stance on terrorism is clear, and you can read it for yourself. The root causes have to be addressed not a few gullible lost souls. I have no sympathy for terrorists at all. Alleged terrorists is a different matter: innocent until proven guilty. On the other hand, if you really stopped a terror incident, then thank you for that. -- Khalid Baheyeldin
Khalid
Mubin Shaikh says some suspects innocent
Sun, 2007/07/08 - 21:29Mubin Shaikh, a key informant in the Toronto bombing plot case, says that some suspects are innocent.
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Khalid Baheyeldin
Anonymous (not verified)
may Allah forgive Mubin for
Tue, 2008/03/25 - 19:25may Allah forgive Mubin for selling out and let him be judged for his actions on the Day of Judgement, he is a coward who sold out, my prayers go out to innocent men and there families
Anonymous (not verified)
The leader in the bomb plot,
Fri, 2009/10/09 - 13:45The leader in the bomb plot, Zakaria Amara has plead guilty to his role. so far that's four adults in that plot to have admitted their role. Innocents you say? which one's would they be?
Khalid
Correct
Fri, 2009/10/09 - 14:39I have added a comment here yesterday about the very fact that Zakaria Amara plead guilty.
Remember there were 18 arrested in total. A significant portion of them had the charges stayed, and hence were falsely accused. See the comments in the article linked in the previous paragraph for details.
The other issue here is whether they would have went ahead with such a plan without the informants egging them on. There are many disaffected people in every society, and it is well known that many fall into entrapment. If they were left alone, they would have not put their thoughts into action.
So, if Mubin Shaikh and other informants did protect us from an attack, then they have all my thanks. If they caused some bumbling youth to try to put into action something they have been merely talking about, then it is another matter.
Reporters (not verified)
The full story of Toronto case - complete with court evidence
Sat, 2010/06/26 - 14:05http://www3.thestar.com/static/toronto18/index.6.html
A comprehensive online coverage of the case, including court exhibits, videos and interviews.
Khalid
TVO deradicalization documentary
Thu, 2017/10/26 - 22:25Ten years later ...
Mubin Shaikh now has a very difficult, yet very worthy mission. He is trying to understand potential extremists, and deradicalize them before they are fully brainwashed by Al-Qaeda or ISIS recruiters. In a documentary aired on TVO, he researches deradicalization efforts in Canada, and around the world. Some of them work well, others are struggling.
One effort that was not covered in the documentary, and perhaps should have been, is Denmark's Aarhus Model, also covered in BBC: How I was radicalized, and Denmark's radical Islamic extremism - The Aarhus Model.
I wish Mubin all the success in this effort, which is very appropriate these days, specially after ISIS has lost so much territory, and hardline militants fleeing Iraq and Syria may take their fight to their home countries.