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Informant Page #5
or else you're complicit in it.
Interviewer:
Let's talk about when youfirst came in contact with the FBI.
I had met a man named Riad Hammad...
a local teacher.
And he was the guy at the protests who
always held up a Palestinian flag.
Represented for
the Palestinian people.
He had devised a plan that,
you know,
open a fake business account...
a fake business, get a DBA,
and open the account,
and then he could put money
into the account,
and then he would be able
to send a debit card to Israel.
And he was pretty clear with me
what he wanted to do with that.
And he did talk about Hamas
and he did talk about Hezbollah.
And he talked about
the struggle in Israel
and he talked about
the fact that money
that the organization
was sending can't get to people,
and he said
'cause we were pretty close.
And I just told him,
I was like, you know, umm-mmm,
I'm not doing that man.
And I said, "Hey man I have a real problem.
This is what's going on."
And a lot of people said,
just stay away from the person.
No one said turn the person in,
or stop it.
It was just stay away
from the person.
But then other people who I knew
began to approach me and say "Hey"...
they were younger people...
and say, "Hey, this man
approached me with this, too."
With me it's one thing,
you're gonna ask me to do this
don't know what it's even for.
You know they're gonna
get their house...
their door kicked in by federal agents
at some point for funding terrorism,
I find it hard to believe that Riad
was doing anything of this kind...
providing material support.
He was too smart for that.
This isn't something that I just
said, "Hey, I'm not doing it"
and he got scared
and backed away from.
It was something that he was
gonna go ahead with.
This guy wasn't the most militant
person I ever met in my life,
he didn't even
talk militantly.
He wanted,
he wanted a free Palestine,
but welcome to the world.
I remember watching the news and
there was a suicide bombing in Israel
and I remember thinking,
"If I don't say something about this,
I'm gonna have some responsibility
for that happening."
You know? And so I decided
I was gonna say something.
I did get a call from Brandon and
he told me about the situation,
and I stopped him in the middle
of the conversation.
I said stop Brandon,
let me hook you up with a handler.
I reached out to law enforcement,
and I told on him.
And when I told on him
I did so very tearfully.
Regardless of how right I felt
like that was to do,
My entire adult life, it had been so
foreign to talk to the FBI, you know?
That was such
That's when I first
met my handler.
And he just said okay,
"In this situation,
we have a very hard time getting
anyone in this person's life.
Something needed to be done."
I just told him what was said.
And that was it.
As much as it seems crazy that a revolutionary
would work with the FBI at some point,
under the particular
circumstances,
I don't think it's that crazy.
I felt really strange
when I left that.
a body was found...
in Town Lake,
in Austin.
And it was just like,
oh no.
Newsman:
Developing newscoming out of East Austin
where a body bound
with duct tape...
Newswoman:
...bound with duct tapeand his arms appeared to be tied
Detectives with the Austin Police
Department are investigating...
and took documents.
Riad did something
quite extreme.
Went down to the lake,
took a roll of duct tape,
wrapped it around his ankles,
and then around his mouth
and head,
then threw himself in the lake.
The agencies
putting pressure on him
caused him to feel
that he had no choice
but to relieve his family.
I do think that these agencies
are responsible,
even if they didn't
directly intend his death.
In that sense
it's homicide,
and they bear
responsibility for it.
At the time I really felt
like I played a role in that.
You know, I really did.
And it was really upsetting.
And the thing that was really,
really difficult
was that I couldn't talk
about it, you know?
And I just felt,
it was just such a bad feeling.
And you feel for his family...
I mean you just can't talk
about any of it, you know?
The only one I could talk
to about it
was the guy from the FBI,
you know?
And I did every day,
cause I cried. I was upset.
By the time the Republican
National Convention came up
came up I felt very bonded
with my handler.
So that played a part,
in my decision to go undercover.
You know?
But then it's just this realization
like, wow, you know,
I'm privy to information,
and there are people,
regardless of how much
and what I like
I'm privy to information,
about people and communities
who are openly expressing,
and some privately expressing,
which is even scarier,
that they are gonna hurt people.
And I need to do something about it.
I need to do
something about that.
That's a moral obligation.
And the way I decided to do it
was to work undercover.
Interviewer:
Can you talk about, in 2008,
when they asked you to start
following the group
that was going to the Republican
National Convention?
All right.
Well...
I was contacted by the FBI.
They said, "Hey you know
for a group called
We've had some reports that they've
said some frightening stuff.
And so we need to send someone
who's trusted to go hear it,
and see what's going on."
I don't know that I wanna get
involved in that, man."
And they're like,
"We really need you to."
Kinda wondered at the time initially
like why are you asking me
to go to a meeting
at a bookstore.
Once it was clear to me
what was being said,
I thought it was
important to do.
Two people came from Minnesota.
for the Republican
National Convention.
They said they would use
a diversity of tactics.
Well, okay,
a diversity of tactics.
That's the word that the Earth
Liberation Front uses for arson.
That's the word that the Animal
Liberation Front uses for arson.
They went as far as to show videos of
people throwing Molotov cocktails.
Even though it was done in
somewhat of a theatrical sense.
It was clearly a satire.
So it's very, very open
to interpretation.
(Blondie's "One Way
or Another" plays)
It's set to the Blondie song,
"One Way or Another."
It's kind of a wink-wink spoof
on the black bloc,
the most radical activists.
There is a scene in it that
involves a Molotov cocktail.
A guy throws a Molotov cocktail
into a barbecue.
I don't think that you needed
to infiltrate these people.
There's a side of Brandon
that's just very dramatic
and conspiratorial
and a little bit paranoid.
Brandon:
I thought
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"Informant" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Aug. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/informant_10825>.
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