FBI as extortion racket?

In November of last year, 24-year-old Yassine Ouassif, a Moroccan-born legal U.S. resident, was given an ultimatum by the FBI: become a federal informant within his Muslim community in San Francisco, or else. According to the July 11 Wall Street Journal, FBI counterterrorism agent Daniel Fliflet told Ouassif that if the young Moroccan refused to become an informant, "I will work hard to deport you to Morocco as soon as possible."

"I want to tell you something important," continued Special Agent Fliflet. "America is just like a bus, and you have a choice to make: Either you board the bus or you leave."

Ouassif won a green card in a State Department lottery in 2001. Last September he flew back to Morocco to visit family. For no apparent reason apart from the FBI's desire to blackmail him into becoming an informant, Ouassif's name was put on a "no-fly list." As a result, an airliner he boarded in Paris was turned around in mid-flight so that he could be detained and interrogated by authorities, including Moroccan officials who told him he may "never see the light of day again."

Eventually the young man was released and allowed to fly to Montreal. He tried to enter the United States by bus, but was intercepted at the border, handcuffed, and held in a cell for several hours. His green card was seized, and he was told that once he returned to the Bay Area, he should look up Special Agent Fliflet. On meeting the FBI agent, Ouassif was accused of having "jihadi" beliefs and presented with the ultimatum, which could have led to his being sent back to Morocco to face imprisonment--or worse.

Ouassif was treated this way despite the fact that he had broken no laws, had no history of criminal or radical behavior, and threatened no one.