(T)ERROR (2015) User Reviews

(D)ECENT

[juliankennedy23 · 7/10 · 21 December 2019]

T)ERROR: 7 out of 10: (T)error follows pot smoking former Black Panther as he attempts to entrap a potential terrorist in Pittsburgh on behalf of his FBI handlers. Our FBI informant is Saeed "Shariff" Torres and we get to spend most of the film with him. Saeed is what we call in documentary watching circles "a character". Whatever other failing (T)error has as a documentary, the time spent with Saeed's story and point of view make this a worthwhile watch. Here is a man who has made a lot of bad choices in his life and is now facing retirement as the chickens are coming home to roost. Honestly, this is a more interesting story than the informant vs. terrorist story the film is trying to tell.

Our other main character Khalifah Ali Al-Akili is the "terrorist" in question. Terrorist belongs in quotes because he is not quite at the level of an actual terrorist. He is more LARPIng as a terrorist. To use the singer seducing underage girls scale, he is not R. Kelly, but he is at a Drake level. It is very understandable why the FBI would monitor him. (He sells jihadist literature and makes social media posts supporting terrorism.)

Khalifah is both too smart to be caught and too stupid to be caught. He walks around practically wearing a T-shirt saying I am a terrorist ask me how. Khalifah is a white guy originally called James Marvin Thomas Jr. who converted to Islam and went for the full jihadist package. Khalifah sports one of those eminently punchable faces that makes it hard to sympathize with his fate. He gives off a serious "bro" vibe and seemed to only interested in Islam as a cover for his petty criminal activities and to fulfill his incel fantasises. From what I gathered from the documentary, he married a foreign bride who may not speak nor show her face and who was deported the day after his arrest.

Our target Khalifah hooks up with the organization Project SALAM that is trying to expose the FBI's tactics in entrapping innocent Muslims. He uses technology and street smarts to figure out he is being targeted by FBI informants and finds out their true identities all of which he presents to Project Salam (This is the Khalifah being too smart portion of the story). One would think the FBI would slink away with their tail between their legs after being bested by this bearded millennial wonder. Alas Khalifah is a felon, and he likes to make pro jihad YouTube videos where he shoots an AR-15 rifle. And well being a felon and all... They did get Al Capone on tax evasion. Nothing like the low hanging fruit of a felon with a firearm. (This is the Khalifah being too stupid portion of the story).

At best, Project SALAM comes across as one of those weird well meaning good guys in the alien invasion movies that try to negotiate with the alien invaders. (They come in peace) at worst they come across as abetting homegrown terrorists themselves. They remind me of those shadow organizations that always ended up being the bad guys in seventies spy novels. You know the ones where they stage an orgy with the French finance minister and secretly work for the Soviets.

One would think the people trying to stop the FBI from using informants are on the side of the angels but really what do they propose instead. As the recent shooting at the Jewish deli in Jersey City proves there are plenty of homegrown terrorists ready to commit violence on behalf of whatever whacky religious sect, they belong to. Clearly the FBI program could be better run but the idea in theory isn't really a bad one. Cops pretending to be hookers on the side of the street don't catch men not interested in paying for sex.

One last note can we talk about the brackets in the title. I mean I know the filmmakers think they are being cute but this ranks right up there with Se7en on the obnoxious scale and seems remarkably inappropriate for a serious documentary,

"a documentary about an undercover fbi informant working on sting operations"

[Giz_Medium · 8/10 · 2 November 2020]

Terror, or error, is a documentary about an undercover fbi informant working on sting operations. I'm not exactly sure how it really works out administratively as the guy neither is a badged agent, nor an actual informant as he really is acting on making sure the targets are arrested for something. It somehow turned out that the documentary crew was orking on interviews with the informant about an older case in which he had targetted someone in new york, to end up making a documentary about his current job, without any of the parts involved in the process. None of the informant, the target, or the fbi knew about the film makers documenting a sting in the making. The target suspected being harassed by the goverment, the informant knew his situation was compromised and the fbi knew the targets was going to do a press conference about being spied on, which was the reason they were so sloppy in arresting the guy, as the news covered it. What's really at stake on this documentary is that they get to observe it in real time instead of working through later on commentaries, and are able to show the extend of which the "war on terror" is being thought : making up the number of arrests to keep getting funding.

Good

[arbaouisedik-724-732224 · 8/10 · 24 August 2018]

Very good shows how one of the most powerful US agencies make surveillance on its own citizens and the implications of this surveillance.

FBI informant's story is interesting but civil liberties vs. homeland security issues need deeper exploration

[Turfseer · 5/10 · 31 January 2016]

Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe directed this documentary focusing on former Black Panther Saeed Torres who became a paid FBI informant. Torres travels to Pittsburgh in an attempt to gather intelligence on one Khalifah al-Akili, a Protestant who converted to Islam a decade before, and was posting pro-Taliban statements on social media.

Torres meets with al-Akili a number of times but finally informs his handlers at the FBI that al-Akili is not dangerous. The FBI won't take no for an answer and orders Torres to keep contacting al-Akili for additional information. At a certain point, al-Akili is able to conclude that indeed Torres has been working for the FBI and blows his cover by posting his name online.

The FBI eventually arrests al-Akili on non-terrorism related charges (he's charged with weapons possession and sentenced to eight years in a federal lockup). Meanwhile Torres feels that the government has left him twisting in the wind after his cover is blown and is deserted by most of his friends.

The filmmakers manage to interview both Torres and al-Akili. However, no surveillance video or wiretapped recordings are available for them to utilize. Instead, inter-titles appear on the screen, reproducing emails sent by Torres to the FBI (and visa-versa). Without any video footage or audio clips, the documentary becomes a pedestrian affair—there is no rising tension as the story unfolds. Torres' story remains mildly interesting (supplemented by some archival footage of the Black Panthers in the late 60s and early 70s) but the case itself is hardly the stuff of great drama.

It's the film-makers conviction that many of these cases where paid informants are used by the FBI involve entrapment of innocent victims. The case of jazz musician Tarik Shah is also briefly touched on as an example of someone who was entrapped. Shah's mother appears and defends him but we learn virtually nothing of the details of Shah's case (how he was entrapped) nor do we hear from anyone representing the FBI or their point of view.

I have no doubt there have been improprieties in a fair number of these FBI counterterrorism efforts, but shouldn't each one be judged on a case by case basis? The film-makers are most concerned with the violation of civil liberties but there may also be some actual lone wolves out there who could do this country harm. Unfortunately for the film-makers here, Mr. al-Akili hardly seems like the poster boy for a violation of first amendment rights.

(T)error doesn't do enough to explore both sides of the difficult issues of civil liberties vs. homeland security. Torres' history is interesting and this is a film that will keep your interest despite its limitations.

They're Not Telling The Full Story

[elkellyjr · 1/10 · 12 December 2018]

Massive amounts of information were omitted from this "story", which is all it is. It's not a documentary as documentaries are based on facts. This is based off spin and it's obvious the "artists" came into this with bias. It was a total waste of time in what seamed like could be a decent "documentary". I would recommend finding something else to watch if you're interested in a good documentary.

A complete waste of time

[hawkemark · 1/10 · 27 August 2018]

There is no story here, it's an old FBI I formant who refers to himself as a "civilian operative" who is tasked to get close to some suspected terrorist. This so called terrorist is just a random person who made a couple posts online, he is just some guy that is of no threat to anyone but the FBI thinks he is a terrorist. After wasting over an hour of your time for absolutely nothing, the guy is arrested on some made up weapons charge when all he did was film himself shooting a rifle at a shooting range. Absolutely ridiculous. Netflix will literally make a show out of nothing and this is no exception.

Going nowhere fast...

[linhvienthai · 1/10 · 23 March 2019]

It's a documentary about a reluctant informant who's reason for doing so has no real substance other than he needed the money and or was trying to avoid a 20 year jail sentence. It's full of unresolved conflicts. It's boring and irrelevant. Don't even bother watching it, it's a waste of time.

FAKE. ¡MOCKUMENTARY.!

[fbustamp · 1/10 · 27 June 2020]

It didn't take me long to realize that this was totally bogus. I watched it on its entirely, though. These kind of mockumentaries don't help. Waste of time.