Informant Page #5

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or else you're complicit in it.

Interviewer:
Let's talk about when you

first 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,

as a white American I could

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

all these things to me,

'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

But with these people they

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

a taboo thing to do.

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.

And shortly after that,

a body was found...

in Town Lake,

in Austin.

And it was just like,

oh no.

Newsman:
Developing news

coming out of East Austin

where a body bound

with duct tape...

Newswoman:
...bound with duct tape

and his arms appeared to be tied

Detectives with the Austin Police

Department are investigating...

the IRS and the FBI showed up

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

I can see their human side

and what I like

or dislike about them,

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

there's a meeting coming up

for a group called

the RNC Welcoming Committee.

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.

They showed videos and talked

about what their hopes were

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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