This is his target. Sharif left me alone in his truck. When he did that, there was a letter sitting on the dashboard from the law office. I snapped a picture of it because i knew he was fbi. I wanted to know who this guy was. His real name is saeed torres. Amy khalifah alakili from a white muslim convert in pittsburgh, about to have a News Conference with his lawyer sang he was being set up when he was arrested by the fbi. Ultimately he was sentenced to eight years in jail on nonterrorism charges. Today, we look at the film t error that is with a t with current the seas around it. We take you on the journey of the fbi informant as well as all of that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Hundreds of people are believed to be dead in what may be the deadliest migrant disaster ever in the mediterranean sea. As many as 700 people perished after the boat capsized after departing from libya. Only 28 people were rescued. The warmer weather has increased the number of journeys by people fleeing to europe from violence and poverty in africa and the middle east. The latest tragedy comes after a spokesperson for the International Organization for migration had already warned the mediterranean death toll has increased tenfold from about 90 last year to 900 this year. Are talking about a death toll this year that is already 10 times what it was last year. And when you recall that we reported the deaths in the mediterranean last year, if this trend were to continue, we would be talking about over 30,000. It is quite alarming. Amy european officials are holding urgent talks on the margaret talks migrant talks today. In iraq, an estimated 90,000 people have fled the province of anbar over a period of several days, as the city of ramadi appears to be on the verge of falling to the selfproclaimed Islamic State. Isil forces have seized towns around ramadi, which lies 60 miles west of baghdad. Meanwhile in Northern Iraq , Kurdish Forces backed by u. S. Led airstrikes say they have made progress against isil around the city of kirkuk. Isil has released video it says shows the executions of about 30 ethiopian christians in libya. The video shows one group of captives in orange jumpsuits being beheaded on a beach, while another group of captives is shot to death in a different libyan region. Irans foreign minister has published an oped in the New York Times calling for a ceasefire and dialogue to resolve the crisis in yemen. As u. S. Backed saudi airstrikes rock the capital sanaa, which is held by Iranianbacked Houthi rebels, Mohammed Javad zarif writes one cannot confront al qaeda and its ideological siblings such as the socalled Islamic State, in iraq, while effectively enabling their growth in yemen and syria. On iranian Supreme Leader sunday, Ayatollah Khamenei criticized u. S. Foreign policy. Cooks the myth of Iranian Nuclear weapons was created by the americans with europeans and others, with the purpose of showing iran as a threat. No, america itself is the threat. The american regime is the greatest threat to the world today with its irrelevant interference anywhere he pleases in the world, without any control, without any commitment religious, or moral. Interference the compromises security. Amy Nuclear Talks between iran and world powers resume tuesday. In somalia, the militant Group Alshabab has killed nine people in a bomb attack on a van carrying workers to a United Nations office in the region of puntland. The dead include four Staff Members from unicef. It was the third deadly attack by alshabab on foreign personnel in three days, following earlier attacks on African Union peacekeepers and a kenyan convoy. A new report by the intercept and der spiegel has revealed the u. S. Military base in ramstein germany is the hightech heart of the u. S. Drone program. While u. S. And german officials have sought to downplay the bases role in the u. S. Drone wars, documents obtained from an anonymous source show the base serves as a crucial relay station, sending signals from Creech Air Force base in nevada to drones over yemen somalia , and other countries. Fbi agents have arrested six people in minnesota and california as part of what they say is a terrorism investigation. The fbi has provided no details about the arrests so far. The news comes after a 23yearold ohio man was arraigned last week for allegedly traveling to syria to aid the alqaedalinked alnusra front. Prosecutors say abdirahman sheik mohamud boasted of his skills to a government informant, and planned to attack a military facility or prison within the United States. Meanwhile, australian and British Police meanwhile say they have arrested a number of teenagers, including a 14yearold boy, in connection with an alleged plot to attack a war Memorial Ceremony in australia. The state department has acknowledged it reached out to Corporate Media executives for help countering narratives put forth by the selfproclaimed Islamic State and by russia. An email published by wikileaks as part of a trove of hacked documents from sony shows state Department OfficialRichard Stengel telling Sony Entertainment ceo Michael Lynton that countering such narratives is not something that the state department can do on its own, and suggest a meeting of media executives to help us think about better ways to respond. State Department Spokesperson marie harf acknowledged the administration has talked with social media and entertainment organizations about its efforts against isil. We talk to a host of government and nongovernmental actions about the isil coalition. This is a very, very small target. I would not draw any big anytical statements from this, other than we are very clear that we believe people who have platforms who can speak out against isil should do so, but their content, what they choose to say and print, what they choose to make in terms of movies is obviously, entirely up to them. And i think sony would say the same thing. Amy other sony emails from the wikileaks trove reveal Actor Ben Affleck asked the creators of the pbs documentary seri finding your roots, to conceal the fact he had a slaveowning ancestor. The films host, henry louis gates, consulted Sony Entertainment ceo Michael Lynton for advice, and ultimately, the fact was left out of the film. Gates and pbs say the omission was based on editorial grounds. Tens of thousands of people marched ndndndaround the world saturday on a global day of action against a free trade deal being negotiated between the United States and europe. Opponents of the transatlantic trade and investment partnership, or ttip, say it would threaten gmo restrictions undermine health, environmental and financial regulations by letting corporations sue countries in private trade tribunals over laws they claim threaten their profits. Over 600 protests took place saturday against the ttip and other secretive freetrade deals, including the Transpacific Partnership or tpp which president obama has been , granted fasttrack authority to negotiate with 11 countries in south america and asia. In finland, millionaire former Telecommunications Executive who advocates austerity policies has won election as the next Prime Minister. Juha sipila will likely need to form a Coalition Government with the rightwing, antiimmigration finns party, which wants to expel greece from the european union. In mexico, a new investigation has revealed federal police massacred 16 civilians in january in the state of michoacan. Authorities had described the incident in apatzingan as a shootout with a Civil Defense force, but a report in the outlets proceso, Aristegui Noticias and univision based on interviews with dozens of people reveals federal Police Attacked an encampment of members of the anticartel Rural Defense group, who had staged a sitin after the federal security commissioner in the state dissolved their Group Without pay. The Police Reportedly yelled kill them like dogs, as they descended on the protesters, none of whom fired a shot. Hours later, the federal police opened fire on vehicles carrying Civil Defense members and their family members. A witness described seeing someone killed while on his knees. They shouted at me, put your hands up get on your knees. When i want to put my hands up and get on my knees, a person further down toward a person he was on his knees, i saw how they shot him in the face and he fell. They shot him while he was on his knees surrendering unarmed. Amy in maryland, a 27yearold africanamerican man has died one week after an arrest by Baltimore Police that left him in a coma. Freddie grays family and attorney say his voice box was crushed and his spine was 80 severed at his neck. Police have not said why they arrested gray. Video shot by a bystander shows him screaming in apparent pain as police drag him to a van. You can hear the bystanders voice. Look at his [bleep] legs. They look broke. How are you dragon him like that why are you dragging him like that . Amy amy Police Say Officers placed additional restraints on gray while he was the van, and half an hour later, called paramedics to take him to the hospital. Gray died on sunday, amid protests demanding answers. His family has called for a federal probe. Police in st. Louis county missouri shot and killed a 23yearold africanamerican man after his mother called them for help. Police say Thaddeus Mccarroll emerged from his house with a knife and charged at them, after his mother reported he was behaving abnormally and talking about a black revolution. Audio from a Police Body Camera shows mccarroll repeatedly asking the police to go, saying he was pissed off because you guys wont leave me alone. Police fired a rubber bullet then seconds later, opened fire with an automatic weapon. Mccarrolls death comes as new information has emerged about the militarized response to mass protests over the Police Killing of Michael Brown in nearby ferguson, missouri last year. Documents obtained by cnn show the Missouri National guard used the terms enemy forces and adversaries to refer to the protesters. In arizona, a Police Officer who ran a suspect over with his cruiser will not face charges. Footage from a Police Dashboard camera shows marana Police OfficerMichael Rapiejko running down a suspect police say was armed with a stolen gun. The suspect, mario valencia, was hospitalized but survived. , prosecutors say they lacked evidence to prove the officer had the requisite criminal intent for aggravated assault. He is a former nypd officer who was previously sued for excessive force. The Justice Department has admitted almost every member of an fbi unit specializing in forensic hair samples who gave exaggerated testimony in nearly every case. According to the washington post, a review has found 26 out of 28 examiners overstated forensic matches in ways that favored prosecutors in more than 95 of trials examined so far. The trials took place over a 20year period before 2000. They include 32 cases in which prisoners were sentenced to death, including 14 who were executed or died in prison. Oklahoma has become the first u. S. State to approve the untested use of nitrogen gas for executions. A new law signed by the governor establishes s as a backup method if lethal and direction drugs are unavailable or if the method is blocked by a court. Nitrogen gas works by depriving the body of oxygen. It is banned for use on animals in some states, and theres no record of it ever being used to execute humans. Executions remain on hold in oklahoma as the Supreme Court considers its three drug lethal injection method following the botched execution of clayton lockett, who took 43 minutes to die. The 61yearold mailman who entered restricted airspace to land his gyrocopter on the capitol lawn in a protest calling for Campaign Finance reform says attention has focused too heavily on his methods, rather than his message. Speaking after he returned home to florida, doug hughes said money in politics should be the real concern. We need to be worried not about whethereoeoeoeoneeoan fly into d. C. , we need to be worried about the piles of money going into congress. Do you consider yourself a patriot . Know, im a mailman. Amy and dr. Irwin schatz, who became a lone critic of the nownotorious tuskegee syphillis study years before it was exposed in the press, has died at the age of 83. For four decades until 1972, the u. S. Government studied the longterm effects of untreated syphilis on poor, black men. After reading the study reading of the study a medical journal in 1964, schatz wrote i am utterly astounded by the fact that physicians allow patients with potentially fatal disease to remain untreated when effective therapy is available. But a study coauthor dismissed his letter, saying it was the first of its kind they had received. Schatz died of cancer at home in hawaii. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Today we look at an explosive new film that shines a bright light on the fbis shadowy use of informants in its counterterrorism sting operations. These undercover operatives are meant to root out would be terrorists before they attack. Since 9 11 they have been used , to prosecute at least 158 people. But critics argue they are the often target the wrong people. A 2014 report by Human Rights Watch found the fbi has focused on particularly vulnerable people, including those with intellectual and mental disabilities, and the indigent. Well, a new documentary that just premiered here in new york at the tribeca Film Festival takes us inside the world of a particular informant who has played a key role in several major terrorism cases. And it does so while he is in the middle of carrying out his latest sting operation. It is called t error, with the t in parenthesis, to put the emphasis on error. It came together when two independent filmmakers gained unprecedented access to follow saeed torres, aka shariff, a 63yearold former black revolutionary turned fbi informant, as he monitors a muslim convert named khalifah alakili. Torres knew one of the directors, lyric cabral, and after he came out to her as an informant, he agreed to share his story without informing his , superiors. In this clip from the film, the other director, David Felix Sutcliffe interviews shariff inside the fbi safe house in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, where the operation is underway. How exactly do they train you . They dont train you for nothing. Its how i use the language. If they train me, i would never get what i want because theyre strictly textbook. Theres a difference between telling someone and making a suggestion. Entrapment is if i go ahead and tell him, lets go rob a bank. And you know that was not his intention, it was my intention. So i am entrapping him. I dont make the suggestion. I may go and say damn, theres a lot of money in there, boy. Look at all that damn money. He feeds into it in the goes,[bleep] i would like to take that. What about your current targets . A wait into we speak and get to know each other what we speak about. So when he brought up camping that was my key opening right there. The door opened up for me to make a suggestion now. That is cool, man. We can go camping. I said, why dont we just go a little further . We could train like redoing the military. Amy amy that is a clip from t error, of saeed torres, aka shariff an fbi informant who portrays himself as a radicalized muslim in order to monitor khalifa alakili. As the film unfolds, alakili begins to post on his Facebook Page that he suspects the fbi is targeting him. The filmmakers used this an as an opportunity to approach him and soon find themselves interviewing him at the same time they are also documenting shariff monitoring him. During this time, each man remains unaware that the filmmakers are talking to the other one. Well, to pick up the story from there, we are joined by the filmmakers who codirected t error, lyric cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe. In a minute, we also will get a call from prison from khalifa alakili. As the film shows, he was arrested just day