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[body microphone scratching]

[scratching continues]

Check. Check. Check. Check.

Switch on.

♪♪

Okay.[camerawoman] You're good? Okay.

Um...

I must have been 16.

And I remember like, waking up at 3:00 a.m.

and seeing a light outside.

I got up and I looked outside,

and there were two men on the telephone pole.

And they were doing something on the wires,

and there were lights shining on them.

And it was really strange to see it at 3:00 a.m.

So I freaked out, I went across the hall

to my mom's room.

And I woke her up, and I-- and I was like,

"Mom, there are these two guys outside on the wire

"and they're putting something--

"they're installing something at 3:00 a.m.,

and maybe we should call the police."

I was really upset and disturbed,

and my mom was like, "Girl, you know, it's okay.

"Calm down, it's not a big deal.

It's probably just the FBI, go back to sleep."

♪♪

[indistinct radio chatter]

♪♪

[kids chattering]

So just, you know, don't m-- don't--

don't pat it too much.

[Assia] Can you tell me about that time

the FBI came to the door in 1999?

Was in...

like, few months after your dad pass away.

And someone came running,

said that someone is here asking for you.

I went to the door, I found already

people inside my house by the door.

[Assia] Who? Two-- two--

it was like three-- three, I think.

It was three men with the black suit.

I recognize them, it was FBI, of course.

You said they sat here for one hour.

What did you talk about for one hour?

You know, you don't know them.

How they-- the same question,

you don't answer, they will say another one,

and they enter the oth-- the third one, the fou--

they make you-- they make you-- they make you confused.

You start just saying stuff, oh, they will pick.

"How about this name?"

"This one, he was my-- my husband's friend."

"How is your relation with them? Ah, talk about him."

You know that, what they call it,

they put like, a micropho-- or how would you call it?

Bug.Bug, exactly.

Each morning, I would come and look under my table.

The next day, I would say, "Maybe I didn't see it.

I have to check again."

I would just look, said "no."

And the kids start, "Mom, stop do--"

I said, "No, I think

it's so small that I couldn't see it."

How did you know the times where maybe

you were just being paranoid

and the times where really something wa--

No, excuse me, because everyone in the community was saying,

"They came, they came, they came, they came."

So if we wanna go and talk to some people...Mm-hmm.

...in the neighborhood who have stories,

who should we go to?Many, honey.

Maybe these neighbors.

All of them, they received these people.

So...

Everyone has... Yeah, yeah.

[chuckling] All right, here we go.

My least favorite thing about journalism was...

like, an MOS, "man on street,"

where you just have to like, find people and ask the--

like, I would dread doing that,

and this feels a lot like that.

[Assia] Bridgeview is a really tight-knit neighborhood.

Everybody knows everybody else.

All of our dads are friends from the mosque,

and all the moms are always looking out

for each others' kids.

...so we decided we need to d--

[man] No, she's not.

Oh, okay. Well, we're doing a documentary

about the neighborhood and all the surveillance

that's happened here, asking people about

things that they saw and things that they witnessed

over the years, and so...

[Assia] A lot of people in my neighborhood

have stories about being watched.

But most of them are afraid to talk out loud about it,

especially when there's a camera around.

We got some bread. [chuckling]

But no interview.

Well, there are two cars in the driveway.

Kinda feel like it's another way of saying "no."

[conversing in Arabic]

[woman] Come this way.

If you can get an angle.

A little bit more. Little bit more.

Yeah, right there.

And that damn car is always just parked right there.

[woman] It's like how you see in the movies.

Like those pizza vans that are just sitting,

staked out in front of your house.

When you pass the van by, like, they'd pull up...

[Assia] Newspaper....a book or a magazine,

or act like they're not in the car.

Like, we can see you.

They put a camera at the corner.

So they watch all the area.

I saw a car stop right next to garbage container,

and they're going through it.

Now I said to her, "Maybe they are homeless."

But darn, homeless doesn't

drive good Dodge van, no spot on it.

♪♪

[woman] First time we saw a car parked

was the fall of 1990.

Every time I went for the groceries, I saw the car.

I went and drop off the kids, I saw the car.

And we kind of thought that our house was bugged too,

that somebody was looking into our house all the time.

[woman] When my kids were small,

you know, they said, "Oh, it was the bomb."

You know? Like that was the really cool thing.

That was like the big word, and we couldn't use it.

And I had to tell my kids "no."

Almost like a swear word, "you don't say that."

[indistinct radio chatter]

[woman] You feel like someone's

just invading your life, you know?

I have a feeling that there is a camera,

there is something watching.

And you don't feel free, you don't feel safe.

I don't remember how it felt

to just know that I'm free in my home.

"This is my home, it's just ours."

I don't have that feeling.

It's become to the point where I would call

the neighbor across the street if a car's parked over there

and you say, "Do you have a visitor

that owns a car like that?"Mm-hmm.

Isn't that terrible?

It's crazy.

Do you think you're paranoid?

No, no, no.

No, I'm not. I'm not, not at all.

No, I just think e-- everything is--

it's happening, it's going on

and it's-- it's real life.

It's not an imagination, it's not paranoia.

Mm-mm.

[Assia] You should know that I'm a journalist.

I have a master's degree and years of experience

working in public radio.

Like my neighbors, I too have seen the cars

parked down the street.

I have censored myself on the phone

and whispered things in public places.

It all started in '97 when I was 12.

♪♪

I had two best friends, Dee and Emma.

Our fathers were really close, and we spent our childhood

going to picnics, listening to R&B,

and riding our bikes after school.

At the same time, Dee and Emma's dads

were being investigated by the FBI.

The government accused their fathers

of supporting terrorist activity.

In court, all of the terrorism charges

were dismissed, but they were convicted

of white-collar crimes.

Emma's dad took a plea to lobbying without a license

and spent five years under house arrest,

and Dee's dad was convicted of mail fraud

and spent four years in prison.

After serving their time, they both continued

to get visits from the FBI.

Their families were regularly interrogated while traveling,

and eventually tired of living

with this constant harassment and fear.

Both fathers moved out of the country

and their families were split up.

Stories like this were not uncommon in my neighborhood.

And even though not a single person

in my community has ever been convicted

of anything related to terrorism,

we still feel like we're being watched.

My best friends' lives were turned inside out

by what happened to them.

And since then, I have lived in fear

of the day we would be next.

That they would come for me, for my family.

I need to understand why the FBI

was targeting my community, and try to figure out

whether it's still happening today.

♪♪

[film flapping]

Wrong way.

[whirring]

[gasps] There it is.

"Bridgeview mosque leaders

"have been under surveillance for years;

indictments may be forthcoming."

"The FBI has had problems going into the mosque.

"During the week, they have people out on the corners

"doing counter-surveillance.

It's a very insular community."

♪♪

"A decade-old federal investigation..."

Wow, so since '93.

♪♪

[indistinct chatter]

"Federal authorities are investigating

"the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview and its leaders

"for possible involvement in terror-related money laundering.

"The house of worship, one of the largest

"Islamic centers in Chicago,

has been under FBI surveillance for years."

Um, when we found this article,

it was one of the first confirmations

for me, at least, that there was

this surveillance that was going on pre-9/11.

How did you know that the neighborhood

was under FBI surveillance for years?

These were people who spoke on condition of anonymity

who were-- at least confirmed

that the surveillance was real, that it was official,

that it was-- that it had been

taking place for quite some time.

Wow, so feder-- like, federal agents?

Well, authorities, let's say.

Authorities.Autho-- authorities, yes.

Okay, wow.

You know, nobody thought anyone was bui--

I-I never heard that anybody

was building bombs in the basement,

but what they did think was that there was

money being funneled through supposedly

legitimate charities to Hamas.Mmm.

To Hezbollah. So we wanted to know,

what is making you investigate people?

You know, what do you-- what do you have?

Yeah.Do you have bank statements?

Do you have, you know, "this person bought

something from this person who paid this person"?

What do you-- what ties are there?

What connections?Sure.

I mean, for the most part,

almost all of these investigations

ended without any indictments.

And the ones that did result in indictments

were for things like tax fraud.Yeah.

For things like, you know, failure to report income.

So you were hitting a lot of walls when you were trying to get--

Yes.Because obviously, as a journalist,

you wanna know, "Okay, well, they're saying these things.

Well, then why? What is it based on?" Right.

Why? What is it based on?

And time and again, the actual legal argument

that was presented was to even discuss the reasons

for doing what we are doing would violate national security.

Wow.You know, our grandchildren

will be filing the FOIA requests

that will eventually bring all of this out.

But we will not ever in our lifetimes

be able to know what happened.

[keyboard clicking]

♪♪

[Robert Wright] Since August of 1999,

I've been working to legally expose

the very real and foreseeable

Middle Eastern terrorist threats

to American citizens at home and abroad.

The successful investigation,

which was code-named Vulgar Betrayal--

V-U-L-G-A-R Betrayal,

led to the June 1998 seizure of $1.4 million

of Middle Eastern terrorist funding.

[keyboard clicking]

♪♪

[indistinct radio chatter]

[printer whirring]

That's the very first document in the whole series.

July 11, 1996.

All we know about why they opened

this investigation is all here.

It's about an organization called

the North American Islamic Trust,

which is an umbrella organization that

has most mosques in this country under its umbrella.

Uh, the weird thing about this is that--

so the ti-- this title here usually tells you

what kind of crime they're looking for.

And in the very first ones, it's all "white-collar crimes."

Look, they have this "IT," international terrorism.

So they-- they're looking for white-collar crimes

but they're saying it's a terrorism investigation.

So that's the first

kind of question mark that comes up.

And the list is here.

And these are the major Muslim organizations

in America today.

So basically, they thought all of these

mosques and charities were just one big front,

cover for terrorism.

I mean, what's the justification for this?

This is the order saying, "In June of '98,

"we're gonna seize the assets

of an organization and a person."

And one of the things they seized

was the house I lived in,

so that's what's whited out here.

Our upstairs neighbor was the first American citizen

ever designated a terrorist.

And we were the neighbors

living downstairs from him at the time.

[static]

[reporter] In a middle-class suburb

of Chicago, living in this house,

a man the U.S. government calls

a designated global terrorist.

His name, Muhammad Salah.

"NBC News" caught him peering

out the window this weekend.

[Assia] That guy peering out the window of his own house,

that's Abu Ahmad.

He's publicly known as the first American citizen

ever put on the terrorist watch list.

But I knew him best as Ahmed's dad,

my bighearted upstairs neighbor.

Abu Ahmad was a trusted man in our community.

When there was a humanitarian crisis in Palestine in the '90s,

our mosque sent him to the West Bank

with thousands of dollars in donations.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank today,

two American citizens of Palestinian descent

are being held without charge

in an Israeli military prison.

While the government here describes the two Chicagoans

as "agents" for the fundamentalist group Hamas,

they have not been charged with a crime,

nor have they been allowed to see an attorney.

[Assia] When he was arrested by the Israelis,

accused of collecting money for terrorism,

our community took to the streets

to protest his arrest.

While in Israeli detention, Abu Ahmad was tortured

and forced to sign a confession in Hebrew,

a language he didn't speak.

The information collected by Israeli agents

during interrogation was sent to FBI agents in Chicago

and became one of the foundations

for the Vulgar Betrayal investigation.

[reporter] Salah, a naturalized U.S. citizen,

was convicted in Israel.

But after five years in prison there,

he was allowed to return to the U.S.

despite protests from the lead FBI agent on the case

who says Salah remains a threat.

He and a number of others

should've been arrested, should've been behind bars,

should've had their citizenship stripped,

should've been evicted from this country.

[reporter] Carrying his eight-year-old son

on his shoulders, Muhammad Salah reacts

to a not guilty verdict

of aiding and funding a terrorist organization.

I have to thank my community

and the larger community.

[Assia] It didn't matter that Abu Ahmad

was found not guilty in court.

It didn't matter that the government

eventually removed his name from the terrorist watch list.

Once you're labeled a terrorist,

that red paint never really comes off.

[Assia] Come on, Usama.

It's really hard to get all of you together.

[overlapping chatter]

The Gummy Worms will be here

to lure you to the table.

What's this?These are FBI documents.

So I found 1,000 pages

of declassified FBI documents... Mmm.

...about an investigation they were doing in Chicago

in the '90s called Operation Vulgar Betrayal.

Um, one of the most interesting documents,

"Request for surveillance

"to verify home addresses and employment.

"The agent anticipates the interviews

"of approximately 500 individuals and leaders

"of many nonprofit organizations

"throughout the United States.

"Individuals who have invested, contributed,

"and/or d-- donated money

"to the North American Islamic Trust,

"ISNA, IARA, MAS,

or the Cultural Society will be interviewed."

Literally any Muslim American who's involved in a community.

Here's the list of the people

that are gonna be interviewed.

If there's an individual's name, it's whited out.

There's our school.Straight up.

Our school is at the top of the list.

So the next document--

and this I'm gonna need Mama's help with.

"On June 9, 1998, the assets of 'blank'

"were seized pursuant to warrants based on

"civil forfeiture complaint filed

in the United States court, northern district of Illinois."

So on June 9, 1998, we lived in that house

that was seized by the FBI, right? Yeah.

So, Mama, go ahead, tell your story.

Uh, we were, I think, shopping, something like this.

W-- we came,

and we-- we saw these bunch of women and men in suits--

Were we in the car with you?

[Rabia] I think, yeah.

I was, "What's going on?"

Like, I wasn't aware. I was just say--

Your father's over there.

"FBI, FBI."

They were just forcing the door,

something like this...The door of our apartment?

Of the building. I was-- said,

"What they are doing?" He said, "I think

they are taking over the-- the building."

Your father told me, he said...

Without... Homeless.

Without-- homeless.

So we have to think about having another apartment.

[Assia] So this event, which is documented

in these FBI documents, basically led

to us living in this house.

♪♪

It's been weird to find things

that directly relate to our lives...Yeah.

...in these very bureaucratic and administrative documents.

Look at that.That's so creepy.

That's so creepy. [man] What?

Blank.It's just like,

"'blank' has been surveilled."

I wanna find out everywhere that our name is on a list.

And there's way to do that.

You can sign this privacy waiver,

and I can submit it to the FBI and tell them

anywhere your names exist to release them.

[woman] All right, let's eat.

Yeah, let's eat.Yes!

So Mama was saying that last, what,

a couple weeks ago, she started seeing

a bunch of... cars.Bunch of what?

No, each time there is something happening,

like a terrorist attack or something?

[overlapping chatter]You see-- you see these people.

Yeah. Yeah.

What, do they come and knock on the doors

and interview people?No, no, no, no.

I see them in the car.

[overlapping chatter]

Wait, you're-- your doubtful?

You think she's paranoid?

Does he have a hat that says "FBI surveillance"?

No, no. Usama-- Come on, guys.

[Assia] What do you mean, "come on, guys"?

What do you mean? After everything

I just showed you right now,

you're skeptical that the FBI--

That was years ago.

No, that was a month ago.

You think it ended?It's worse now, it's open-ended.

How is it gonna end when every other day--

do you read the news?

No.That's unconstitutional.

♪♪

[Rabia] He gave his name as Mr. Rose.

Several times, he came.

And he-- he said that, "I'm an FBI agent."

[Usama] We don't think that there's anything wrong.

So I feel fine. I don't really worry

about being scared or whatever.

[Rabia] I start seeing, you know,

cars with no plate numbers.

No plate number.

[overlapping voices]

Bed. Bed.

Bed.

Good boy.

That's not your bed.

[laughing] Where you going?

Oh, you're so bad.

You're so bad.

Back to the FBI.

So I want to request information about my family.

♪♪

[computer beeping]

I'm kinda nervous about giving the FBI my e-mail.

I am making this request on behalf of myself, right?

Okay, so I'm gonna...

ask them to give me everything they have

on Vulgar Betrayal.

"All photographic, video, and audio media

associated with this investigation."

Invest-i-ga-tion.

All right, first FOIA submitted.

Now for the rest.

[kids chattering]

[water running in sink]

There's Mosque Foundation Bridgeview days.

Really?

[Assia] Wow.

[Rabia] One year and three months.

How did you know about the mosque?

Your dad was here before me.

Al--He came when he was young.

Yeah. Like it was a temporary thing?

Yeah.

I was happy because I was close to the mosque.

And, you know, I have a lot of community around me.

Yeah. Each family when they come,

we have to go and welcome them and...

That's how it was? Yeah.

If a lady, she's sick or she had her babies,

we used to organize ourself...

to cook for her, to help her in the house.

Wow. Yeah, because

they don't have a family here.

So we are the family.

[swings creaking]

♪♪

[Assia] In 1998, when my little brother

and the fifth kid in our family was born,

my father decided that we should move

to a bigger house in Bridgeview.

While the new house was being built,

my dad was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer.

And a few months after we moved in, he was gone.

[blubbering]

I remember for weeks after he died,

my house was full of family friends and neighbors

cooking, and cleaning, and keeping my mother company.

At my father's funeral, hundreds of people

from around Chicago came to the mosque.

The imam asked the community

to make a donation in memory of my father

to help pay off the remainder of our mortgage.

In less than an hour, the community donated

more than $200,000.

We paid off our home.

And 19 years later, we're still here.

It's really easy for me to talk about

my family, my community,

but it's a lot harder to talk about myself.

I feel like I can't even begin to tell you who I am

without getting into who I'm not.

I was ten years old when I became aware

that everyone looks at us

like we're all a bunch of terrorists.

It started with cartoons,

all the bad guys in the movies

had accents like my parents.

I had to slit a few throats, but I got it.

We kids were constantly bombarded with images

of Arabs and Muslims as radical,

backwards, violent villains.

Money is power.

And so I became aware of how others see me,

and I learned how not to come off to people.

Not a terrorist, not an alien,

not a traitor.

Don't talk too loud in Arabic at the mall,

don't argue with your parents in public,

don't talk with an accent,

don't fail in school,

don't ever break the rules,

don't look un-American.

I am constantly juggling within me two conflicting gazes.

How I see myself,

and how I see myself through the eyes of others.

Through the eyes of a world that views me

with suspicion and fear.

Some very exciting mail

arrived from the U.S. Department of Justice,

Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Three letters, to be exact.

I've been itching to open them.

Anyway...

Oh, this is the FOIA for Operation Vulgar Betrayal.

"You have not provided a compelling argument

"explaining why the public needs information

"on this subject matter immediately.

Therefore, your request is denied."

Okay, letter number two.

You see, the thin letters are never good news.

It's like, you know, when you apply to college.

When your app-- when you get the big package,

you know you got into the school.

When you get a little letter, you know it's a rejection.

"This is in response to your FOIA request--"

for my mom.

"In accordance with FBI practice,

"this response neither confirms nor denies

the existence of your subjects name on any watch lists."

Okay.

This is really crazy.

So this is for my mom, who was visited

on two separate occasions by the FBI.

They came to the house, they interviewed her,

they took notes, and they left.

So... that is definitely a record.

♪♪

"Dear Miss Boundaoui, this is in response

"to your Freedom of Information Act request.

"Based on the information you provided,

"we conducted a search of the records system.

"We were unable to identify main file records

responsive to the FOIA."

"The mere acknowledgement of such records

"existence or nonexistence would, in and of itself,

"trigger harm to national security.

"Please be advised that unusual circumstances

applied to the processing of your request.

"We were advised that the records

"were not in their expected location,

"and could not be located after a reasonable search.

Therefore, we are closing your request administratively."

It's amazing how many different ways

they have sent me rejection letters,

that they don't have things that I know exist,

that I know are there.

[busy signal]

♪♪

So two days ago,

I got a letter from the FBI.

You know, like these letters that we've been getting lately.

"Dear Miss Boundaoui, This is in reference

"to your Freedom of Information Act request

"on Operation Vulgar Betrayal.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation

has located approximately 33,120 pages of records."

[chuckling]

33,120 pages of records.

Just the amount of information you have to collect about people

to get to 33,000 is enormous.

And knowing like, the end result.

Knowing that these 33,000 pages of records

never resulted in convicting anyone of terrorism?

It's shocking, just the number.

I can't imagine what's in this.

[reporter] It's Election Day.

Millions of Americans have voted already,

and millions more are at the polls today.

[reporter 2] An estimated 45 to 50 million across the U.S.,

with 37 states and the District of Columbia...

[reporter 3] The end is finally in sight

to this especially long and contentious

presidential election.

Mama, could I take a selfie of us?

We just voted.Yeah.

[camera clicking]

Ugh, I don't want to see your face,

you... you...

Who are you ta--I don't want to.

Who are you talking to?Trump.

We want to defeat you.[laughing]

This is crazy.

"You come to this country,

"you abide by our laws and our beliefs,

or you can go back where you came from."

"Yep, and I plan on stocking pork-coated ammo

"if any refugees come near my state.

Not repeating Europe here!"

Oh, my God...You know what? All of them--

Pork-coated...

They said they wanna dip bullets in pork blood

and come kill us.

That's what they said.

No, I'm not responding to them at all.

Yeah, because they are just...

monster...Yeah, exactly.

Zero.You know what I was saying?

What they're all attacking me for saying?

Let me show you, it's so funny.

I wrote, "My Muslim vote."

That's the hashtag everybody is using

if you're gonna vo-- "My Muslim vote

"is for empowerment and taking a stand

"with fellow communities of color to say we matter

and we will make change."Yeah.

Okay...

They're going crazy.

They said leave if you don't like our laws.

Leave, go back where you came from.

Oh, yeah, you go back to...

you go back.

Are you native?Yeah, exactly.

If you are native, you stay. Yeah.

You have the right to stay.

If you are not native, you are immigrant.

♪♪

[singing in Arabic]

[crowd] ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday, dear Nohah ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪♪

[whooping]

[traffic noise]

Can you talk to me a little bit about

the investigation, um, that you worked on, the very large one?

The name of the investigation

was called Vulgar Betrayal, do you remember that?

Of course, how can I forget?

And, um...It's a curious name.

It was a curious name. FBI always comes up

with very curious nicknames.

I don't know w-- they have a whole department

of people in DC that do that.

[chuckling]Pretty dramatic, right?

But it was-- it was an investigation

into how, um, money was being laundered

through the United States to support terrorist activity

in the Middle East.

And, um, there was...

an individual who was targeted,

Muhammad Salah.

And he was ultimately convicted of--

very, very minor offenses.

And I didn't try that case, 'cause I'd already left--

That's right, you left in 2000.Yeah, yeah.

Okay, do you think that

this long investigation was justified?

If there had been crimes uncovered...

uh, or crimes prosecuted, that would have been justified.

Um, if the reason

nothing ever came of the investigation

because there was indeed nothing there, then--

I mean, it's not a matter of being justified.

The FBI...

declines cases all the time--

or the U.S. Attorney's Office declines cases all the time

'cause there's just not enough evidence.

Um, but if your...

I think your question is probably wanting

to go deeper in that.

A-- are you trying to say,

"Do you think the investigation,

you know, was as a result of Islamic phobia or prejudice?"

Excuse me. I-I do not.

That certainly was not my worldview,

c-- certainly is not.

Um, and had I ever thought

that that was what was happening,

I would've not been part of it

'cause that is not, obviously, who I am.

Maybe not so obvious, but it isn't who I am.

I mean, if it's a bigger question...

Yeah. ...which is there--

is there Islamic phobia in this country?

Of course there is. I mean, there i--

In the FBI?

Well, I can't say that.

It wasn't the first time that he's thought about

whether or not it was justified.

Clearly he's thought about that before.

And in fact, he gave such--

kind of a dismissive answer to it,

I feel like he knows more than he was saying.

[train passing]

You know what is my problem?

I'm like, "I'm gonna go in there

and I'm gonna be tough and I'm gonna call this guy out."

But I'm really nice, and it annoys me.

Maybe not too nice, but too reserved.

Like you don't wanna come off too strong.

Because I wanna be liked, that's it.

I want them to like me, I want them to be like,

"Oh, look at this nice Muslim girl.

She speaks good English, and she seems normal."

Like, honestly, that's a part of it, too.

I kinda want them to like me.

[sighing]

♪♪

[music continues over dialogue]

To the families and victims...

of September 11th,

on behalf of John Vincent,

Barry Carnaby, and myself,

we're sorry.

♪♪

[Gamal] I heard that there's a big case

called Vulgar Betrayal in Chicago.

Just based on the little bit that I know,

I'm sure there was a legitimate reason

to start the case.

The expansion was very questionable.

To expand to too many other organizations--

anything with the name "Islam" or "Muslims"

or "Islamic" to be under it

was very questionable.

[Assia] Who was Robert Wright

and how did he see the world

from your encounters with him?

Well, he-- he saw himself

as a hero and a bigger figure.

Was it...

who he was or more?

I don't know.

He-- he thought that

all the Palestinians were part of Hamas,

and they're all against Israel.

And...

he-- he went on that premise, okay?

He continued on this path

without vetting what he's getting.

[phone trilling]

Hi, my name is Assia Boundaoui.

I'm just calling back, somebody from your offices

just gave me a call about my FOIA request.

Um, he informed me that the processing

for this FOIA will be, um, over two years?

Can you-- can you send that to me in a letter, please?

Because the letter--

Oh, my God.

This is weird,

they've never called me before.

I'm like, "Can you e-mail me this, please--"

Okay."That it's gonna take three years."

He said "no."

I'm like, "I need it in writing.

Can you put it in a letter?" And he said "no."

That's strange, right?A little bit.

Well, not just a little bit. [chuckling]

It's pretty strange.

This feels, to me, just like

slowing the whole process down as is.

Yeah, I mean, this is how bureaucracy

tends to be used to kind of mitigate

against exposure. Yeah.

That's what the federal courts are there for at this point.

I think we need to go ahead and sue them.

Okay. We need to file the lawsuit.

Okay. I mean, the complaint's ready, so...

Okay.

Fuck.

♪♪

[Assia] A week after I moved into this apartment

a few miles away from my mom's house,

the City of Chicago put up a speed bump

right in front of my door.

Right away, I suspected it had

something to do with surveillance.

You know, so cars could have an excuse

to slow down just as they passed my living room windows.

I'm aware that this sounds crazy.

When I was a teenager, one of my good friends

started talking about being followed around

all the time by men in cars.

Of course we all believed her,

because it was happening all around us.

A couple of years later, she had a psychotic break

and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

It has weighed on me for years

that we were all so paranoid

we couldn't even see that she was sick,

that this was madness.

The line between what's real and what's not

is really blurry in the place that I grew up.

And that gray area between paranoia and the truth

is a dangerous place.

Department of Justice basically confirmed

that there are 500 files on individual people

in these 33,000 documents.

And that I can't have access to them...

You can't--Unless I have people sign privacy waivers.

I wanna join forces to get as many people as possible

to sign privacy waivers

so we can flood the courts with these waivers and say,

"Ha, anywhere that you see such-and-such person's name,

"we want their file and we want

their name unredacted in the documents."

[Bassem] It's a tough conversation.

To approach community members who are not active...

Mm-hmm. ...who are not in this field,

who don't have like, a clear understanding...Yeah, yeah.

...and are conscious of FBI surveillance

and repression. Yeah.

It's gonna be a hard conversation.

I mean-- But let's not forget

that these visits did not stop.

No, they haven't. They haven't.

The last time--I told you the other day, I was visited.

Another prominent person in the community was visited.

An organizer. When? When?

I would say about two months ago.

They knocked on your door?

They knocked on my family's door.

At home? Yeah.

And they asked for you by name?

Yeah, and they had pictures.

Oh, wow.And what did they ask you?

I mean, they-- they spoke to my mother.

But my mother knows what to do.

Mm-hmm.She goes, "I'm sorry, I can't talk to you.

"Leave your card, leave your name.

His lawyer will call you."

I think the community, believe it or not,

is ready to come out there. The younger generation...

Yeah, I think so too....Arab Americans are ready

to come out and say stop this terror,

stop this violation, stop this hate.

I mean, correct me if I'm wrong.

But I don't know, I feel like my age--

our age generation is stronger than our parents'.

Yeah. I think like, we've been ready

since day one, but now like,

with Sessions' Department of Justice.Yeah.

With Trump in the White House.Yeah.

Like, that has an impact on the community

whether we like it or not.Oh, absolutely.

Our community's living in fear. Yeah, yeah.

So i-- it's a very sensitive topic,

but I think it could be done.

All right, let's do this.

♪♪

I am suing the FBI for information

about surveillance, about Bridgeview.

And I need as many people as possible to sign

privacy waivers so if the FBI has a file on them,

they will release it.

[train passing]

So we're going door-to-door

trying to get people to sign these forms.

♪♪

Basically, the FBI told us

they have 500 individual records

on people in our community.

♪♪

So we have a law firm

representing us for the lawsuit.

One of the biggest law firms in New York

that took on this case because they believe

our community has a right to know.

♪♪

I tried to explain this to my mom yesterday.

And she was just like--Confused.

"We left Algeria because of the police,

now we're gonna come here 'cause of the police."

Yeah, exactly.She's like, "Don't get involved."

Oh, that's so funny. Yeah.

So it's like a cultural mentality

that we're really trying to change,

'cause that's a lot of people's mind-set

is that like, "Don't get involved,

keep your head ducked down, and that will keep you safe."

But we know staying quiet actually hasn't

kept anyone safe in this community.

[Assia] Hi!

[Alexa Poletto] Good to see you.

Good to see you.

Give me a hug.How're you doing?

Really nervous.No, don't be nervous.

This'll actually be really straightforward, I think.

Okay, cool.I think the judge is gonna kind of say,

you know, "Have you come to any agreement?"

And we're gonna say "no,

and this is what's happened."Yeah.

And it'll be nice to meet him, and it's good for him

to kind of... see you.Okay, yeah, cool.

[laughing]

Yeah, it'll be good.Yeah, so--

A few people will come.

It's a status hearing, so they know it'll be short.

Yeah. But maybe a handful of people

from the community will show up?

So we'll see, yeah.Great, great. That's excellent.

♪♪

Good morning, Your Honor. This is Alexa Poletto

for Assia Boundaoui, the plaintiff.

One year ago, my client, who is a journalist,

submitted this FOIA request to the government

asking for information which is very much

in the public interest.

This request was denied by the government.

One year later, we don't have a document in hand.

The FBI currently has the Russian investigation,

James Comey, other things that are headline news.

[Judge] "Headlines" doesn't cut it for me

as being more important than a request

from a citizen for documents.

[Alexa] Today, my real interest

is having the government compelled to a schedule

to produce documents.

The standard the FBI uses

is review 500 pages,

and processing them on a monthly basis.

[Judge] I don't think 500 pages per month

is going to be acceptable in this case

for a FOIA request that's been pending

since September of last year.

Absent something telling me I can't do it,

I'm going to order processing

at a faster rate than has occurred.

I don't think we need to discuss this more.

I'll have you back next week.[gavel pounds]

[man] I think Muslim Americans

are aware of the threat of increased...

[reporter] As racist groups of the past

have gotten new life, like it or not, from Trump.

[reporter 2] An Islamic center in Houston, Texas

burns down in a fire still under investigation.

[man 2] You have individuals

who are driven to act on their prejudices

and take it out on women

who visibly appear to be Muslim.

[Muslim prayer over loudspeaker]

[crowd chattering]

[prayer continues]

[indistinct chatter]

♪♪

[indistinct chatter, laughter]

[radio static]

Wow. Look.

"Google may have detected

government-backed attackers trying to steal your password."

I clicked on the "Learn More,"

and this popped up.

That's really frightening.

This is all-- all of it is hard.

Suddenly it becomes hard to communicate.

It's interesting. Once you're under investigation,

it's not that you're-- you stop talking to people

because you don't trust them, it's because you're afraid

that any f-- like, medium of communication is being watched.

And so nothing is secure anymore,

and so you keep to yours-- I mean, the idea--

like, you become alienated, you can't talk to people

about what the fuck is going on.

You can't even get the help that you need

because you're afraid.

So one thing I did that was proactive

other than freaking out

was I e-mailed that woman

at the Freedom of the Press Foundation,

Harlo, and I took screenshots of all those things.

And I was like...

"Is this legit? Because the URL looks legit.

Is it legit? And if it is, like, what should I do?"

And she responded this morning and she said,

"Google has methods of detecting

"this type of attacks on people's accounts.

"And for some reason, a lot of alerts

have been going out to people this past week."

So I am going to my mother's house

to sleep over for the night.

And, uh, been having to find a way

to hide all my shit whenever I leave the house

because I'm afraid that someone might

break into the house,

whoever it is that's watching me,

and steal my hard drives for the film.

So every time I leave the house now,

I hide the stuff.

♪♪

[helicopter hovering]

Apparently there was a robbery nearby,

and there's three me-- or two men on the loose.

They already caught one, two more waiting to be caught.

So all of our parents are stuck in the mosques

and they can't get out till the other two are caught.

[sirens wailing]

[indistinct chatter]

[Assia] Your house?

No, no, Assia. Please, please.

Assia, please.

Please...

[helicopter hovering]

[Assia] What are you hearing about what happened?

[Sohib] The lockdown?

I heard that it was an FBI sting

that went wrong.

[toy clattering]Shh.

Warrants.

So let me-- okay, so that's your theory.

Here's what-- we're sitting with

one of our neighbors yesterday, and she was saying that

they told us that this was a sting or bank robbers.

But this was actually a test run...

...to see how Bridgeview reacts?

And she said if it was really people with assault rifles

that were in our neighborhood loose,

why wasn't there a single ambulance?Yeah, exactly.

Why wasn't there a single fire truck?

Don't you have EMTs waiting?

There are three guys loose with assault rifles

in the neighborhood, not a single ambulance.

Also, if there was no coordination,

why exactly when it happened we had

seven police departments' cars here?

How did they show up so quick?

How was there a-- a tank

rolling down in front of the mosque?

Many times.Many times.

The next day in the press,

they said this was not a bank robbery.

So they told us it was a bank robbery on the day of,

and the next day they denied it.

They said there was no bank robbed.

W-- what?

They said, "We refuse to say why."

See? That means this--

what we thought was true.

[child murmuring]

[traffic noise]

[Judge] I received, yesterday,

a motion for an Open America stay

seeking essentially to stay any production

or at least delay it.

The period was some 64 months.

[Alexa] We tried to negotiate with the government

again this week, and were informed immediately

that they would not be entering into any discussions with us.

We discussed it with the FBI

at the highest level, and they felt

that they could not do anything more.

[Judge] It's a fairly extraordinary request,

going from saying it will take three years

and now requesting essentially a five-year timetable.

This is an old criminal investigation,

and there's just no justification for that.

This is a very serious issue

that is very pertinent today to very many Americans.

My client is entitled to expedited processing.

[Judge] Whether the FBI thinks

that it's a nuisance to have to respond to this,

it's still the federal law.

I can't change that, you can't change that,

and you can't ignore the law.

Next Tuesday you'll get a ruling.

[indistinct chatter]

[applause]

My name is Assia Boundaoui.

I'm a researcher and a journalist,

and I actually grew up in this community

just a few blocks away from the mosque here.

I just wanna begin by saying that,

um, I believe strongly that a healthy relationship

between law enforcement, government, and our community

has to be one that's predicated

on trust and transparency.

For the past few years, I've been digging

into the long, wide-reaching investigation

of this Muslim community.

These investigations profiled entire communities

based on ethnicity and religion,

and used a really broad brush to paint

law-abiding American citizens as suspect.

These might have happened in the past,

but people are still living with the effects

of these long-term investigations.

They've caused, um, profound impacts

on our community.

Um, and one of them,

one that aught to be of concern

to government institutions

is the lack of trust in law enforcement.

We did a survey a couple years ago.

40% of residents around this mosque here

have received visits from the FBI.

And so after every terrorist attack

in Paris, in Boston, people get visits around here.

And right before the elections,

many people in this neighborhood

received knocks on their doors,

asked a number of questions about

political affiliations, et cetera.

Say we brought that to you, what would--

what are the steps internally within the FBI

that you would take to address

what we would consider maybe a civil rights concern?

Tha-- that's exactly what happened.

We-- I actually have it documented.

They have-- we have cards,

business cards that they handed out.

I'm telling you it actually happened.

Mm-hmm.

Right before the election, so we--

That was in November.

I mean, these are just like, things that people

in the community have-- have talked about--

If something happens to you and you needed--

the FBI is your champion.

So at one time, he is your savior.

And another time,

he is your Halloween nightmare.

No, I mean, you have to--

that's the kind of education we need to tell people.

It's gonna continue to take education...

♪♪

He is part of the group of community leaders we have

that thinks just saying, you know...

just being "yes men" to the FBI, and law enforcement,

and local politicians is the way to get a seat at the table.

The whole point of having a seat at a table

is to advocate on behalf of the community.

You know? It's to like-- it's to make sure

our community's rights are protected

and our interests are being served.

Otherwise, what the fuck is the point of having

a seat at the table?

♪♪

It's so hard.

The hardest part is dealing with this community

that's not even fighting against the FBI...

What's the point?

They're treating me like I'm their enemy.

Like, I have to fight them to do this.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

[birds chirping]

[phone trilling]

[Rabia] Hello?

[Assia speaking Arabic]

What happened?

Oh, my God.

[speaking Arabic]

You don't ask him, "Who are you"?

Mama!

Okay, I just took a picture.

I'm sending it to your WhatsApp.

Look a-- look at it and tell me if that's him.

I mean, this picture is about

maybe 12 years old.

Oh, my God, I'm so scared!

He's Robert Wright, the FBI agent

who started Vulgar Betrayal.

[phone trilling]

[Assia] Oh...

What's that? Say that again?

I missed that.

Yeah...

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, I usually record all of my phone calls.

Um, but if you opt out of that,

I don't have to do that.

Okay, okay. I cannot record you.

[Assia] I hung up with Bob 20 minutes later.

He talked and talked,

but didn't say very much at all.

The most illuminating part of the conversation

was when he told me he had a job to do,

and me and my neighbors had a job to do.

We're the bad guys doing our bad guy jobs,

and he's the good guy doing his good guy job

of keeping America safe from us.

I thought as a good journalist,

I should try and see if Bob would be a source.

I reached out for an interview,

but when he didn't answer my text

I immediately stopped trying.

There's no way for me here

to separate the personal and the professional.

The truth is I don't want anything to do with this guy,

and I don't care if that makes me a bad journalist.

Can you move it back a little?

[Sohib] That's pretty good, though. We can see the whole walkway.

We can see the cars. Yeah.

But the front door, a little more

of the front door, we wanna be able to see.

Move it back.

Any more of the front door, it'll just be that dark.

Back a little more? That's perfect.

I know...

I don't know. I don't know.

When I called him, he said,

"Did I scare your mom?"

Was that your goal?Were you trying to scare her?

Yeah, is it you-- yeah, is it your goal?

What do you think?[drill whirring]

[Assia] And he laughed.

So what came out of your phone call?

I was trying very hard

to sound very cool, calm, and collected on the phone--

This was all by the phone?Yeah, and not scared.

But I was really shook. I was super shook.

I was really-- I know I have no reason to be afraid,

but I was really afraid.

Like, why is he coming t--

he knows where we live, he knows who my mom is,

he knows what her face is.

[Rabia] Because he had been--

He sauntered into the neighborhood like,

"Oh, yeah, my old stomping grounds."

Like, that makes me so mad.

What's the purpose?Mm-hmm.

[Rabia] Why he's here?

Yeah, well, I still don't have an answer for any of that.

♪♪

[Judge] Before the court is plaintiff's motion

that compel expedited processing of her request

for FBI records concerning

the anti-terrorism operation Vulgar Betrayal.

Plaintiff is informing the public of the FBI's

alleged profiling and surveillance

of communities based on race, religion, and ethnicity.

In particular, the Arab-American community in Bridgeview.

Significant questions about privacy rights

are implicated by the plaintiff's project.

The court finds that the anticipated

five-year timeline for production

is patently unreasonable,

and plaintiff is entitled to expedited processing.

The court orders the defendants to review

3,500 pages per month, and give priority

to the subfiles of individuals for whom plaintiff

provides privacy waivers.

I'm very happy, you guys.

I'm so happy.

We couldn't have expected--

we couldn't have asked for anything better.

Can we do like a, you know,

jumping in the air and the kicking thing now?

[all laughing]

[Assia ululating]

You get arrested...

♪♪

[radio host] Nobody would like to be

the target of a government program

called Operation Vulgar Betrayal.

Assia Boundaoui grew up in Bridgeview,

and she's now uncovering

what happened there in the '90s.

You've been having some interesting encounters

with the government, trying to get files

from the government.

Um, wha-- how did that spiel out?

Because you ended up with

an enormous volume of documents.

[Assia] 3,500 pages a month.

Which is setting a really important FOIA precedent,

in fact, in FOIA litigation

that, you know, that you--

if this is in the public interest

and you can prove this serves a public interest,

that the government has to release.

And so the whole idea of this entire project,

this entire mission, was to shine a light

on something that's been secret for such a long time.

When you won your court case,

did people make a big deal out of that?

Is th-- is that a big--

I mean, 'cause it seems like

it would be almost national news.

I mean, we were very excited.

[laughing]

We were super excited about it.

The community was really excited.

I-I think they were really surprised.

I think they didn't think you go up

against the government and win.

And that's a very interesting thing, by the way.

The FOIA law is very unique to the United States.

You know, that while the government can

conduct this surveillance

and can violate your privacy

and freedom of association, freedom of religion,

you also have the right to know that they do that.

You know? And that's an incredible thing

about this democracy is you have the right to know,

and you can get the records of them violating your rights.

[rain falling]

This is the first batch.

It looks like, in terms of redacting,

like they redacted as much as they--Heavy-handed.

Heavy-handed.Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it's fill in the blanks.So it's gonna be difficult,

but, um, we can-- I think we'll be able

to glean some things out of this. Okay.

♪♪

This paper here says in 1989,

the FBI field office in Indianapolis

opened an investigation on the Islamic Trust,

and then closed it.

I mean, this is really interesting.

I had no idea that there was an investigation

on the same topic before Vulgar Betrayal.

♪♪

Pending questions and answers.

What were the tactics used in Vulgar Betrayal?

Informants. Culling informants

from the community.

Sending FBI agents to people's houses

and places of work.

Use of immigration officers

during FBI interviews.

They monitored phone calls,

and they monitored who you're sending it to.

♪♪

Chicago FBI field office sends out requests

to like 20-some other FBI field offices

asking them, get information on this person,

get information on this organization.

Here's one from Louisiana.

And they're like, "We can't find anything."

"That he doesn't believe there is sufficient evidence

of asset forfeiture."

Again, one from Denver. No response.

[Assia] "In the future, Springfield requests

"that Chicago articulate the reasonable belief

"that each named person is engaged in criminal activity

in support of international terrorism."

The things that they found as suspicious about us

are actually the things that are most important

characteristics of our community. Yeah.

We're very philanthropic,

and we're connected to each other.

♪♪

I always thought that paranoia is an effect

of the investigative tactics that they used.

The way they did the investigation

caused us to be paranoid.

But what if-- what if some of these things are reversed?

It's not that this is the cause

and that's the effect,

what if this was the purpose?

Based on historically how the FBI

has dealt with communities of color,

it's not a stretch of the imagination to say

their surveillance methods created paranoia.

But in fact, they wanted to create paranoia

within the Muslim community.

Shake the cage, rattle the cage

and see what comes out.Right.

And they thought there were terrorists there,

so that if they put enough heat and pressure on us,

they would come out of the woodworks

and they would catch them on a phone call

or whatever when they did.

But w-- when you rattle a cage

and there aren't any criminals crawling out,

what does that do to the people

in the cage, you know?

♪♪

[protestors shouting]

[indistinct chatter]

♪♪

[indistinct chatter]

[indistinct chatter]

[Christina] Everybody in this room knows

exactly what we're talking about

when we're talking about the increase

in surveillance in the community,

increase in this presumption

that the community is something of a threat.

That started from Operation Vulgar Betrayal in the '90s

and that informed not just methods of investigation,

but also legislation that was enacted post-9/11.

[Assia] Law enforcement and the FBI in particular

feel like they can roll into our community

and kind of do whatever they want.

We want to send the message that no, they can't.

And we do that by reporting

every single time they come.

Checks and balances starts with people.

Um, the balance are the courts and Congress.

The check is the people.

As long as we're scared, and we hide, and we say,

"Talking about it somehow makes us more of a target,"

it actually plays into the entire secrecy of the whole game.

As long as people are afraid to talk,

then there is no check against the system.

We cannot be asleep any longer.

This is our country.

I wanna raise my boys to be proud of who they are

as Arab, as Muslims,

as Palestinians, and as Americans.

[applause]

Whether you are a citizen born here

or a citizen naturalized,

or an immigrant,

don't feel that you are less of a citizen

than the white man.

They definitely understand the fears

that our immigrant communities come to this country with.

They know we wanna invite them in

to have a cup of tea or coffee

and prove to them that we're great American citizens.

And I just wanna say...

It's very simple,

do not invite them into your home.

[applause]

[indistinct chatter]

♪♪

[Assia] A 20-minute drive from my mom's house

is the only panopticon prison ever built in the U.S.

The panopticon is designed to ensure

that the prisoner is seen without ever seeing,

and that the guards see everything

without ever being seen.

The prisoners feel like they are under

such constant surveillance that they change their own behavior.

Their paranoia becomes as effective a tool of control

as actual surveillance.

They become silent, docile, alienated.

I still don't know for a fact whether the FBI

has ever stopped watching us,

and perhaps there's nothing that I can do about being watched.

Maybe the only thing I can do is make sure

that the government is not invisible,

that the systems of power are kept in check.

It's in the act of looking back

and talking out loud that we become less alienated,

less petrified by our paranoia.

Perhaps the only way to disrupt surveillance

is to make sure that those who do the watching

are also being watched.

[wind whistling]

♪♪