755: The Convert
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From WBEZChicago, it's this American life. I'm out of glass. So back in 2012, we ran this completely outrageous story about some stuff that the FBI did about an undercover informant who spied on American Muslims for over a year. And it went badly, like spectacularly badly. And some of those people who were spied on, some of the people in the story sued the US government because of it. It's taken years to wind through the courts. But just last month, it was argued before the US Supreme Court. So today, I want to play you the story and also talk about the court case a little. Some context for the story before we start. It's about FBI surveillance of Muslims. Ever since 9/11, there's been a ton of that. And just to give a sense of what that means, our original episode opened in Queens, New York City, one Saturday night at a community center. Three dozen people show up. The kids run around before it starts, coffee in the back. It's a workshop, run by two lawyers, Ramsey Qasem and Diela Shemas, who are with a project called Clear from the City University of New York Law School. That gives free legal aid to Muslims who get caught up in counterterrorism surveillance investigations. So what we want to do today is nothing controversial. We just want to arm you with the knowledge of your rights so that you know how to respond when you find yourself-- if you find yourself-- la sama hala-- in that really uncomfortable situation where you have an FBI agent at your door or an NYPD detective at your workplace asking to talk to you. This is so common. It happens so often. Qasem and Shemas told me that sometimes they ask for a show of hands at these workshops. And they learn that every single person in the room has either been visited by law enforcement like this or know somebody who has. The two attorneys start with a demonstration of what happens in one of those encounters. Diela Shemas plays the plain clothes FBI agent who comes to the door. Ramsey Qasem plays the guy at home. And we're first going to do it the wrong way. This is how this interaction should not happen. Knock, knock.
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