DOJ accuses bullied teen of funding ISIS after 'an undercover FBI agent befriended him': report

16 June 2023

Mateo Ventura of Wakefield Massachusetts was recently arrested by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) for "knowingly concealing the source of material support or resources that he intended to go to a foreign terrorist organization," but according to "government's own criminal complaint" — that never happened, The Intercept reports.

Mateo's father, Paul Ventura, said, "Two years ago, the FBI came to my house and they took his computer and said he's on these sites he shouldn’t be on. We said OK, and he wasn't arrested at that time or anything. I didn't hear from them again after that, but I guess over time things escalated. I wasn’t home a lot because I work, and he wasn't at school because of the bullying. Instead of them telling me that he's doing what he's doing online and to take his computer away, they let him keep doing it."

Paul noted, "He was born prematurely, he had brain development issues. I had the school do a neurosurgery evaluation on him and they said his brain was underdeveloped. He was suffering endless bullying at school with other kids taking food off his plate, tripping him in the hallway, humiliating him, laughing at him."

The Intercept reports:

The only problem with the case and how it has been described, however, is that according to the government’s own criminal complaint, Ventura had never actually funded any terrorist group. The only 'terrorist' he is accused of ever being in contact with was an undercover FBI agent who befriended him online as a 16-year-old, solicited small cash donations in the form of gift cards, and directed him not to tell anyone else about their intimate online relationship, including his family.

"In August 2021," according to The Intercept, then-16-year-old Ventura "began communicating with an undercover FBI agent online," telling "the agent of his desire to make “hijrah,” or migrate to territories under control of the Islamic State."

Furthermore, "according to the Department of Justice's complaint, an undercover FBI agent impersonating an ISIS member communicated to the 16-year-old in broken English, encouraging his decision and expressly telling him not to inform anyone else about their online conversations, including friends or family."

The Intercept reports the exchange between Ventura and the FBI agent read:

VENTURA: I reached out to brother [A.D.] for hijrah [migration] I dont know if it is still possible but if it is I know it will take sometime.

OCE: Ahh

OCE: Inshallah [if Allah wills it] I help u, but before talk have rule my brother.

OCE: U must no talk about what said here or intention to anyone. No tell family.

No tell friend. No tell ikhwan [brothers] at masjid [mosque]. No one. This for

both are safety.

OCE: Intention stay between U and Allah azzawajal [the mighty and majestic].

After two years of communication between the two, The Intercept reports:

Ventura appeared to get cold feet. In September 2022, when he was 17 years old, he told the agent that he could no longer 'go for hijrah,' because he had been 'hurt very bad in fall and can no longer walk.' The injury was an excuse that the FBI — which, according to the affidavit in the case, interviewed Ventura six days thereafter — concluded had been made up by the teen.

The Intercept reports that despite the facts of the case, "There is no indication in the allegations against him that Ventura had ever been in touch with the terrorist group."

Naz Ahmad, acting director of the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility, or CLEAR, project at the City University of New York School of Law, said, "There is still significant use of informants and undercover agents in FBI investigations who aren't just gathering information about potential crimes but are actively suggesting ideas for crimes or making it easier for people to do the things that they claim they want to do. There are documented cases where the government has provided people everything that they needed to execute a plot. Informants and undercover agents have often been used as a tool in these investigations to prod things along."

Additionally, the news outlet notes, "More information may still come out in Ventura's case about his own actions leading up to his arrest. Based on the FBI's own account of what took place, however, depictions of Ventura as a dangerous terrorist fundraiser currently spreading in the press are hard to deem credible."

The Intercept reports:

This law enforcement tactic has been criticized by national security researchers who have scrutinized the FBI's role in manufacturing terrorism cases using vulnerable people who would have been unable to commit crimes without prolonged government assistance and encouragement. A 2014 Human Rights Watch report criticizing the use of informants in terrorism investigations said, 'In this way, the FBI may have created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals.'

Furthermore, the news outlet notes, "While its use lately has waned, the Ventura case may indicate that authorities are still open to conjuring terrorists where none existed."

The Intercept's full report is available at this link.

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