Four Muslim-American men filed a lawsuit against the FBI on Tuesday, charging that the bureau placed them on the “no-fly list” in retaliation for their refusal to inform on their communities and then denied them the chance to clear their names.
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“I do not want to become an informant, but the government says I must in order to be taken off the no-fly list,” said Awais Sajjad, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “How can the government tell me that the only way I can see my family again is if I turn my back on my community?”
The plaintiffs—all of whom have no criminal records—filed the complaint (pdf) with the counsel of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
The men say they believe that the FBI used the no-fly list in attempt to coerce and intimidate them into being spies for the bureau. Some were told that infiltration could get their names wiped from the list, while others were threatened with being placed on the list if they resisted recruitment.
“Plaintiffs are among the many innocent people who find themselves swept up in the United States government’s secretive watch list dragnet,” reads the complaint. “Plaintiffs declined to act as informants for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and to spy on their own American Muslim communities and other innocent people.”
Being placed on the no-fly list had severe repercussions in all of their lives, including loss of jobs, stigma, and being cut off from family members and loved ones.
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