Premediating predisposition: informants, entrapment, and connectivity in counterterrorism

The I’s of the Informant: Memoirs of Surveillance Society

“…Both the Cold War and war on terror security paradigms are partially organized around the idea that a ubiquitous enemy necessitates action within one's own borders (Reeves 2017;Szpunar 2018). This is a particular instantiation of Appadurai's (2006) fear of small numbers: a foreign enemy threatens to fool, hypnotize, or brainwash an American into action on its behalf.…”

“…In some instances, the informant has the power to turn their surveillance accoutrements (wires and hidden cameras) off and on at will. Moreover, the informant improvises, adds carrots unsanctioned by their handlers (Szpunar 2018); the informant's improvisation can indeed "complement technical forms of data collection and analysis" (Reeves 2017: 10), but it may also jeopardize state efforts.…”

“…1 Vis-à-vis their targets, the informant is at times: the only connection to a terror group, however imaginary; the primary radicalizing force, encouraging targets to consume extremist propaganda and utter anti-American sentiments; the supplier of (fake or inert) weapons; the one who thinks up a plot; and a provider of financial assistance (for an illustration, watch Heilbroner and Davis 2014). In short, the informant mediates a target's connection to a global threat in a way that brings cells, networks, and plots into being (Szpunar 2018). While many of the aforementioned acts are "indicators" of entrapment (Norris and Grol-Prokopczyk 2015), the informant's work is done in such a way as to conjure signs of his target's predisposition, allowing entrapment claims to be circumvented in US courts (Szpunar 2017).…”

“…Last, the active work of the informant does not end in the field. In both the Cold War and war on terror contexts, informants testify at trials, actively shaping interpretations and filling in gaps in audio and video surveillance (Szpunar 2018). Ultimately, instead of a passive supplier, the informant is an active medium that shapes both the environment into which they are placed and the information that emerges from it.…”

“…State archives have been useful in the East German Stasi context (Bruce 2010;Epstein 2004). Trial transcripts also provide insight into the actions, motives, and roles of informants throughout investigations and at trial (Szpunar 2018). Yet, the latter trail is narrowing.…”