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Posted by kasama on May 4, 2012
FBI provocateur Shaquille Azir.
This piece (from Raw Story) gathers information on the police informant who gained the confidence of the activists, and then set them up for serious charges.
Raw Story focused on the fact that the FBI snitch, Shaquille Azir, had a “criminal past.” And it is worth knowing that career criminals often “get themselves in a bind” with police — and are convinced to perform work as informants.
The large and growing networks of FBI (and JTTF) operatives are not simply off-duty cops or formal FBI agents — the government can exploit and squeeze many kinds of people (including people who are facing charges, who are mentally damaged, who desperately need money etc.).
There are no simple profiles of “who is a likely informant.” (Some people mistakenly think “He smoked pot with others, he can’t be an informant.” Or “She seems seriously mentally confused, she can’t be with the FBI.” Or, “He just drifts in and out of meetings, and doesn’t seem that engaged.” Or “She is highly sophisticated in political and academic theory, she can’t be an agent.” Or whatever.)
There are, however, profiles of behavior — and politically active people should be aware of which behaviors should set off their “red flags.”
But there is more to draw out here.
First, even the media’s word “informant” may be too soft. Did Azir merely pass on “information” to the FBI, or was he manipulating his victims, inducing them to shift their plans, creating the very plan that they may now go to prison for?
If (alleged) plans went from home-made smoke devices to military-grade C-4 (and from fantasy to increasingly serious), and if this FBI operative was the one providing the C-4 (as is alleged) — then this is not simply a snitch (or an “informant”).
If this proves true, then Azir is an agent provocateur using classic (and increasingly common) FBI techniques of entrapment — to fabricate alleged crimes where none might have materialized, and ensnare the unwary and susceptible, all for larger quite-sinister purposes of the state.
These people are now charged with “attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction” because they (supposedly) agreed to help use c-4 explosives (they had never seen or touched) that was in the possession of Azir (who was both their employer and an operative of the FBI.)
Note: This article points out that Aziz employed the young men who were arrested. And that one of them allegedly did not want to participate, but ” still sought to retain his employment with Azir.” It raises the question: How much did these young men feel pressured to “go along” with talk of this conspiracy to appease their employer — who was setting them up in the process?
It is still very early in this case. The information leaking out may prove unreliable.
We urge our readers to take it all skeptically. And we expect to make more information available — as it emerges, and as it becomes confirmed. (If you come across information, please send it to us.)
And we urge everyone to be aware of the now common use of agent provocateurs by the FBI (especially in this post-911 period): Discard naive ideas of what an agent “must be like,” and guard against being draw in by such government entrapment.
FBI informant in Ohio bomb plot had criminal past
By Stephen C. WebsterThe FBI’s key informant in the recent Ohio bomb plot had a long criminal history and faced multiple indictments even as he cooperated with authorities, court documents revealed this week.
Shaquille Azir, 39, was indicted twice for writing bad checks in July and December 2011, and he’d previously faced that same charge on a number of occasions, according to documents obtained by The Smoking Gun.
He’d also faced charges of robbery, possessing stolen property and probation violation, and has filed nine bankruptcy petitions in just the last 12 years, the site noted.
As owner of the Desdy Property Group, a building contracting company, Azir allegedly employed some of the plotters and said he wanted to keep the explosives in one of his facilities. He later obtained phony C4 from an undercover FBI agent, then told his co-conspirators that he’d fronted the money to buy it.
Of the men arrested, Douglas Wright, 26, Joshua Stafford, 23, Brandon Baxter, 20, and Anthony Hayne, 35, were reportedly regulars at “Occupy Cleveland” meetings and had identified themselves as part of the group on Facebook. The fifth suspect, Connor Stevens, 20, had no apparent affiliation to the protest group.
Court documents (PDF) noted that Stevens said just days before the plot was to be carried out that he wanted nothing to do with it, but still sought to retain his employment with Azir.
The record also indicates that they group discussed bombing a Ku Klux Klan headquarters and a Federal Reserve bank before targeting the bridge. They also considered targeting a jail, but opted against the attack to avoid harming the inmates. They allegedly wanted to stage an attack on “corporate America and the financial system,” but it’s unclear how blowing up a bridge would have accomplished those ends.
The five men, who never actually obtained any explosives but believed they had, are now charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction — meaning they could all face life in prison. Other charges include criminal conspiracy and attempted use of an explosive device. The next court hearing in the case has been set for Monday in Cleveland.
Photo via Azir’s MySpace page.
