Posted on 11/21/2004 2:35:50 AM PST by crushelits
Mohamed Alanssi slid the photos of his once-happy life across the table of a Union Station restaurant. The portrait of his wife with two of his six children. The picture showing the living room of the $1 million home he built in his native Yemen when he was a prosperous businessman. The 1970s snapshot of him as a low-level employee at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, shaking hands with the U.S. ambassador.
But that happiness ended after he made the mistake of becoming an FBI terrorism informant, Alanssi said tearfully in an interview three weeks ago. His cooperation had been leaked, and his family in Yemen was angry with him. Some of them called him a traitor. His wife was dying of cancer, he was penniless, and the U.S. residency papers the FBI had promised him had not materialized, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It would be simple to say that the FBI should have taken better care of him and of his family.
Yet this fellow appears to be a shady operator and if he were concerned about his family would probably not talk to the newspapers about them. If your family were in danger woould you pull a publicity stunt outside the White House?
The people agents sometimes have to recruit are not very stable. They have unsavory pasts but because of this they do know the bad guys.
It appears to me that this guy was probably not badly treated but that he is trying to extort the FBI.
Hard to know of course.
Still it looks like the FBI could have handled the situation better. The article states they froze or confiscated over $1 million. They should have been able to make him happy with this cash without too much trouble.
There is also and underlying factor that is not being addressed. Lately I have noticed alot of stories and information being "leaked" to the press or to politicians who then "leak" it to the press. The WP admits using his name in a previous story knowing full well he was an FBI informant. A confidential informant is just that confidential! All to often names and details are being "leaked" to the press for purely political or self serving adjendas. This needs to stop. It is high time our security personel and our politicians to stop "leaking" confidential information.
This is war damn it!
Try keeping your mouths shut for the greater good of the country and stop looking at juicy information as a stepping stone for your own self-serving grandstanding. We need to inact a law that would make these people just as guilty as the terrorist we sre trying to foil. Leaking confidential information is an act of treason. We need to prosecute it as such.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.