History tells us that the case posted below is far from unique, nor confined to America, we in this country have recently had the cases of undercover police steering groups in particular directions, leading to arrests. Universal surveillance, covert police, and secret service agents, are all part of the state apparatus, and make it very simple to manufacture terrorists, which in turn leads to a call for more policing, strengthening the state's control over the population. Keeping the population in a constant state of fear of an evil enemy infiltrating the fibre of our society allows for more draconian measures to "protect" the population, in so doing slicing away at the few freedoms we have.
On the Friday before Christmas, “Breaking news alerts” came out on the
24-hour mainstream news cycle that a 26 year old Modesto, CA man was
arrested on a federal charge of providing material support to a foreign
terrorist organization. The alleged plan was a mass casualty attack on
Pier 39, a ranking candidate for San Francisco’s most well-known tourist
trap. Pressed suits full of melodramatic reporters were on hand to
remind everyone to stay safe and vigilant, more aptly to remind everyone
of the set of vague and ill-defined external threats that are
perpetually meant to keep a population, as any victim of abuse, in
anxious compliance. Even the acting mayor of the city assured San
Franciscans that “our way of life,” would not be assuaged, and of course
promised more police.
It’s a story that ties up nicely and advances the ever growing
paternal and nativist narrative about mysterious dangers that the new
regime, in all its clumsiness, is alone equipped to protect us from. I
was sitting in a laundromat just across the water from Pier 39 when the
story broke, and what struck me instantly was how razor thin the shell
game was. Even the highly publicized facts of this case say something
bleak and concerning about the status of contemporary popular ideology,
and the State’s hunger to fuel paranoia and to target anyone who fits,
even in the most tangential way, into a criminalized category.
Lay the order of events out chronologically, add a basic
understanding of FBI counter-surveillance practice, what you have is not
a story of domestic radicalization and terrorism. Rather, what emerges
is a story of surveillance, thought policing, targeting, and media fear
mongering. Our only goal in this short intervention is to expose that
layer of the story that is still in the process of coming to light or
being buried, and to raise important questions that are left
strategically open in the story that is being told.
“The FBI
started watching Jameson in September after becoming aware of social
media activity in which he “liked” or “loved” posts about terror attacks
and ISIS, the affidavit said. Undercover employees of the FBI posed as
supporters of ISIS and contacted Jameson, the affidavit said.”
Here’s an example of a post that the
FBI apparently found concerning. Posts like this were flagged as
terrorist sympathy and made Jameson’s Facebook page the subject of
surveillance, and ultimately made him the target of a months long
entrapment campaign.
What We Know
According to CNN and multiple AP and MSM news outlets, Everitt Aaron Jameson, a 26-year-old Muslim convert from Modesto, California became the subject of FBI interest in September. From CNN:
The affidavit avoids a direct admission of this, but media sources confirm that the FBI initiated contact with Jameson. Agents were posing to be senior members of ISIS. The agent who ultimately met with Jameson in person (the only such meeting) identified himself as an immediate subordinate of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. There was apparently no communication whatsoever between Jameson and any member of any foreign terrorist organization.
Communications between undercover agents and Jameson throughout the Fall were vague at best. Jameson expresses his willingness to use or donate resources for “the cause,” the meaning of which is never expressed in any of the communications in court record. He makes vague references to Western colonialism saying things like, “the kuffar (loosely translated to “unbeliever”) deserve everything and more for the lives they’ve taken. He uses Arabic pejoratives like this against the US.
What is being described as a “terror plot” in the media amounts to some vague suggestions that Jameson made in a single, in-person meeting with an undercover agent. He suggested a strategy in the broadest sense. Concrete plans were not reached. Relevantly however he indicated a willingness to die. We’ll revisit this.
Jameson attempted to back out of the alleged plot on what appear to be moral and conscientious grounds two days before his arrest saying, “I also don’t think I can do this after all. I’ve reconsidered.”
Jameson’s Family Tells a Drastically Different Story
He and his father (a self-identified Pentecostal) would argue amiably about their respective religious beliefs. His father even quotes him as saying, “yeah Dad, we all believe in the same God.”
Jameson’s family, in conversation with the Modesto Bee, tell of Jameson as a distraught young man. He had lost his two young children to Child Protective Services after their mother Ashley was incarcerated. They divorced in 2016, and after a long battle with CPS Jameson once and for all lost custody of their children three months ago. Incidentally around the same time he became the target of a federal investigation.
His father reports that he was frequently suicidal. Authorities also confirmed that he was held on suicide watch when taken into custody. Despite struggling with depression, he maintained a close relationship with his family. He shared his difficulties with his father, and his religious convictions with many in his family. His faith even made him the subject of teasing. Days before his arrest Jameson and his father even attended a Raider game in Oakland.
Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, the veracity of the facts presented in the court affidavit and in the subsequent media storm, brief though it was. Jameson is still far from a picture of a terrorist master mind. At worst a slightly unstable man, he likely saw himself as having little to lose. He was in a position highly vulnerable to the kind of manipulation that we know the FBI to be capable of. We also know that his suggestions of violence were loose, ill formed, and abstract. He assumed guidance and direction from the FBI agents who were the actual architects of the alleged plot. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, when lofty fantasizing about violence started to feel like something real Jameson easily saw that this path was not for him.
No matter how the dots of this story connect, we are forced to recognize the shallow simplicity of seeing this man as a terrorist threat. Consider further how Islam is portrayed in the media. Consider what a white Muslim, with no family history or traditional relationship to the religion, in one of California’s most conservative counties, might come to understand about the meaning of being Muslim. As we alluded above, his family jokingly nicknamed him ISIS. Consider how suggestible such a person might be to the perception of being sought from across the globe for service to his faith.
FBI Entrapment: The Public Strategy
This struck me as an extraordinarily obvious case of FBI entrapment. According to Federal guidelines (Section 645 of the US Attorney’s Manual), entrapment takes place when one is A) induced to commit a crime by state officials, and B) one has no prior disposition to commit such a crime. No doubt Jameson’s prosecutors will cite his hastily crafted suicide note as evidence of his predisposition, however observers must ask what would possibly have motivated him to any kind of fantasies of violence if not the interference of undercover agents. Moreover, and not to sound too conspiratorial or alarmist, speculating about one’s internal attitudes with respect to violence, and punishing those with certain attitudes basically amounts to a case of thought policing.
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