It landed in my inbox and I have that documentation so we really felt comfortable going to him because the e-mail in essence says, “ Please come talk to me.” Particularly since that e-mail was forwarded to me. So Khalifah’s public pronouncement turned out to be the perfect “in” for you guys to reach out to him? Some colleagues forwarded the e-mail to me. So once Khalifah sent that e-mail we knew that we could access him without interfering with an active investigation. … Ultimately Khalifah sent out a e-mail articulating how he met “Shariff” and that he felt the FBI was trying to target and entrap him. We used to read Khalifah’s public Facebook profile and he started making somewhat ambiguous status that only made sense to us because we were with Saeed. So there was that network I had built through that reporting. Through that reporting I came to be known in activist circles as a journalist who would be sensitive to issues of entrapment…and a lot of activists added me to their listservs…. In doing that I was covering the Newburgh Four case. You saw my Colorlines photo essay so you know I was photographing and, I’m still working on, documenting the family members of folks who’ve been either accused or convicted of national security crimes. Midway through the film and unbeknownst to 20-year FBI informant, Saeed-aka-“Shariff,” you start interviewing his target, Khalifah Al-Akili. Here’s an edited and condensed version of our conversation. Cabral, 32, spoke with Colorlines about a film that’s about the consequences of betrayal including the one leading to Al-Akili’s questionable arrest by the FBI. (T)error” will premiere this month at the TriBeCa Film Festival, which was founded after 9/11 to revitalize Lower Manhattan.
Cabral film him on what’s supposed to be his swan song: “buddying up” to Khalifah Al-Akili, a Pittsburgh-based, white, Muslim 37-year-old husband and father who also happens to praise the Taliban on social media. The result is “(T)error,” the first documentary film to go inside an FBI counter-terrorism sting operation.Īs if watching an FBI freelancer work isn’t already mind-blowing, things really get interesting when, unbeknownst to Torres, Cabral and co-director David Felix Sutcliffe start talking to his target, Al-Akili, too.
In 2011, the 63-year-old let photojournalist (and one-time neighbor) Lyric R. Saeed Torres is a Harlem-born former Black Panther and self-described “revolutionary” who, while imprisoned in the early ’90s, began spying on his Muslim community for the FBI.Īs a freelancer for the FBI Torres says he’s made thousands of dollars and helped to bring in at least five convictions.
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