FBI Agent on Synagogue Case Has Questionable Record (Rayman | Village Voice)

[struggle4progress]

By Graham Rayman
Thursday, May. 21 2009 @ 3:22PM

... Special Agent Robert Fuller, whose name appears at the top of the federal criminal complaint in the case, had a hand in the FBI's failure to nab two of the 9/11 hijackers, had one of his informants set himself on fire in front of the White House, and was involved in misidentifying a Canadian man as a terrorist leading to his secret arrest and torture -- a case that is now the subject of a major lawsuit ...

Fuller was involved in the earlier Canadian case as the man who interrogated a wounded Afghani teenager named Omar Khadr ... Under Fuller's interrogation, Khadr dubiously identified a Canadian citizen named Maher Arar as someone he had seen in Afghanistan. Arar was then shipped to Syria where he was imprisoned and tortured for a year. It's now been proven that Arar could not have been in Afghanistan when Khadr, under intense pressure from Fuller, said he saw him there.

In January, Fuller took the witness stand in Khadr's trial at Guantanamo Bay. He testified that during the interrogation at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, Khadr identified Arar from a photo and said he had seen him in Afghanistan.

Under cross examination, though, Fuller disclosed that Khadr didn't actually identify Arar. Instead, he first said Arar "looked familiar," and then "in time" he felt he recognized the man in the photo, according to Fuller's testimony ...

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/05/the_fbi_agent_w.php

[aquart]

1. Oh, why am I not surprised?

Are we supposed to cringe in terror from this penny ante cock up?

[struggle4progress]

2. The one real lesson I've learned from DU: "Wait a day -- the story will get better"

[Ian David]

3. Wow. Look at all the things Special Agent Fuller fucked-up DURING THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION! n/t

[Aragorn]

4. entrapment?

From what little has been released so far it looks that way. (Dirty bombers - Same thing?)

[Heidi]

5. Kick. (nt)

[suffragette]

6. This needs much more attention

So, Fuller makes this arrest at this juncture in time, when issues from the possible closure of Guantanamo and possible pursuit of prosecution for torture are being debated.

Looks to me like Fuller himself might have a lot to lose if more investigation is done in these areas.

Given his sordid track record, what is he still doing in the FBI?

[Judi Lynn]

7. Found a courtroom sketch of this guy on the witness stand:

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/08Ukdv9c6j1yW/610x.jpg

AP Photo 4 months ago

In this photo of a sketch by courtroom artist Janet Hamlin, reviewed by the U.S. Military, FBI agent Robert Fuller sits in the witness stand during a hearing for Canadian defendant Omar Khadr, at the U.S. Military Commissions court for war crimes, at the U.S. Naval Base, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. Fuller questioned Khadr years earlier in Afghanistan. Khadr is accused of killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade during a battle in 2002, when the Toronto native was 15.

http://www.daylife.com/photo/08Ukdv9c6j1yW

[DRoseDARs]

8. I can't quite put my finger on it, but he looks like a puppy-eating child rapist I may have seen...

Someone should let the FBI know.

[KoKo]

9. K&R...this is an interesting read....

:kick:

[havocmom]

11. Woops, didn't see you here kicking this one when I kicked

Good stuff, no?

[KoKo]

12. Very good stuff...and worthy of BIG KICK...n/t

I was in and out all day...and it was hard keeping up...

[havocmom]

10. Kick for more exposure of 'Special Agent' Fuller

Who seems to be of a similar mind re intense interrogation to get what you want to hear as the dickster.

[Coleen Rowley]

13. Don't just blog about it, COMPLAIN to DOJ-IG

The issue of Bush “pre-emption” doctrine being employed, not only internationally to launch unjustified wars on other countries but, more and more, to push FBI agents to target people in the “domestic war on terrorism” who are not predisposed to commit acts of terrorism; the recent (Dec. 2008) erasing of all the prior (reasonable) restrictions that existed in Attorney General Guidelines, which as a result of the abuses revealed by the Church Committee, required some factual predication in order to target groups (or as in the Newburgh case, to “troll the mosques” for petty criminals and losers); and the blurring of dissent and non-violent civil disobedience with terrorism all combine to create a “perfect storm,” if you will, which explains the series of fiascos that FBI agents like the “Newburgh 4” case agent Robert Fuller have apparently been involved in. See “FBI Agent on Synogogue Case Has Questionable Record” http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/05/the_fbi_agent_w.php

Everyone who is concerned about this problem, which will only grow worse, if not addressed, should write to the Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine who actually has a good track record of independent oversight and investigation of the FBI’s various post 9-11 screw-ups, including their misguided post 9-11 round up of 1000 immigrants, none of whom turned out to be terrorists; the FBI’s reckless serving of 200,000 “national security letters” for Americans’ bank, credit, phone, computer, and travel records; and most importantly, the Inspector General’s 2005 investigation of the FBI’s informant program which found the FBI failed to comply with its own informant policies 87% of the time.

Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Complaints
Office of the Inspector General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Room 4706
Washington, D.C. 20530