An incredible story has unfolded in which the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested an American teenager in a truly unethical manner. Is it morally correct, under the guise of national security, to use fake websites to trap would-be terrorists? But perhaps the question cannot describe the true dimension of the event. Let's see what happened.
Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, 18, appeared in federal court Tuesday after being arrested last week at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport before boarding a plane to Turkey. He was arrested in an FBI sting operation that used a website to contact potential jihadist fighters, tricking them into believing they were recruiting for a terrorist group.
The page, titled A Call for Jihad in Syria, featured photos of armed Islamists, according to the Associated Press. The page's slogan was: "Come join your lion brothers ... who fight under the banner of true Islam."
Tounisi is accused of attempting to provide material support to foreign terrorists, an offense punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.
The court heard conversations between Tounisi and the FBI, who thought he was a terrorist group and wanted to recruit him.
“As for my fighting skills, to be honest, I have none. I am very small… physically, but I pray to Allah that He will make me effective,” he allegedly wrote, and an FBI agent replied to him by saying, “We trust in Allah.”.
It's starting to get better here..
FBI agents ordered Tounisi to leave for Turkey to travel to Syria and join a radical Islamic group. Prosecutors now must convict Tounisi for the flight he didn’t take, which they say is evidence of his deadly intentions, along with an email stating he was “willing to die.”
“These websites create criminals,” said Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor who is the defense attorney. “Real terrorists don’t have to go to a website to find connections. They have real contacts.
