Thirumalai 1

Roshini Thirumalai
Wilson
HELA 4
28 April 2016

The Use of Informants in Society

In 2011, privacy rights gained a victory. This victory was in the form of the Sensitive
Operations Review Committee, which regulated FBI searches under a strict warrant policy.
However, the FBI found a loophole and has neglected to officially recognize informants as
employees of the FBI, which allows for these human rights abusers to spy on the American
public without warrants. The time has come in which we need to remove this outdated policy.
The United States federal government should outlaw the use of Muslim informants because of its
inefficiency and invasion of religious freedom.
The current method of terrorist discovery is inefficient due to its complicated and faulty
nature. Todays terrorists in the United States are nothing more than FBI creations.
Impressionable men living on the edges of society become bomb triggering would-be killers only
because of the actions of FBI informants. The FBI creates fake terror plots and stops those; the
terrorism they stop is the same terrorism they cause. This is otherwise known as entrapment, i.e.
when an undercover FBI officer creates a fake terror plot in order to trap potential terrorists.
Not only is it considered to be offensive and racially unsound, it also renders the entire operation

Thirumalai 2
inefficient, as no real threats are discovered or stopped. The FBI and the Justice Department
then cite these sting cases as proof that the government is stopping terrorists before they strike.
But the evidence available for review in these cases shows that these terrorists never had the
capability to launch an attack themselves. Most of the targets in these stings were poor,
uneducated, and easily manipulated. In many cases, its likely that they wouldnt have come up
with the idea at all without the prodding by one of the FBIs 15,000 registered informants,
(Human Rights Watch). If no real threats are found and these informants only manipulate the
poor and uneducated, there isnt a real purpose for them.
As it is, religious freedom is fundamental for democracy and other important rights, yet is
constantly being invaded through the use of informants in todays society. The National
Security Agency and the FBI have reportedly been overzealous trying to prevent terrorist attacks
to the point that anti-Islamic racism in those agencies led to the surveillance of prominent
Muslim-Americans, revealing a culture of racial profiling and broad latitude for spying on U.S.
citizens,(Risen). This is an example of religious freedom being impeded on as being a certain
race and religion is seen as means enough to increase the amount of surveillance on them.
Religious freedom is the sine qua non of living freely. One may be allowed to vote, own
property, and associate freely in every other way. But if he is not permitted to speak and act on
those beliefs and question the ultimate reality of the world, then other freedoms mean very little.
All human freedoms depend on the freedom of religion, (Harris). By using undercover
discriminatory informants, the chances for a strong and unified democratic government is
dwindling.
It can be argued that surveillance can reduce the fear of crime directly, similar to the
argument from Theo Lorenc in the London School of Hygiene, Surveillance crime prevention

Thirumalai 2
through environmental design theory predicts the Natural Surveillance-the sense that a
locations is visible to others-will tend to reduce fear, (Lorenc). Although this argument is made,
there is no evidence clearly stating that its the use of informants that is directly reducing the fear
of crime.
In a nation that has often been a global beacon for other countries to model, it is an
absolute shame that an abusive and unwarranted informant be a dark spot. Informants are too
problematic to be able to justify for their existence. The United States Federal government
should outlaw the use of informants.

Thirumalai 2

"Annual-report-chapter-2c;hr." Human Rights Documents Online (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

"Contributors." London Business School Review 26.3 (2015): 59. Web.
Harris, Paul. "The Ex-FBI Informant with a Change of Heart: 'There Is No Real Hunt. It's Fixed'"
The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.
"NSA Profiling." US News. U.S. News & World Report, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2016.