U.S. FBI Director Christopher Wray is sworn in during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 2, 2021. (Graeme Jennings/Pool via Xinhua)
DOHA, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has long used its broad powers in national security to suppress and frame African Americans, Muslims and other marginalized minority communities, Al Jazeera has reported.
The report came on Sunday after a New York judge on Nov. 18 overruled the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam, who were wrongly convicted of murdering human rights activist Malcolm X in 1965.
A two-year re-investigation found that the FBI and the New York City Police Department withheld exculpatory evidence that would have likely set the two men free.
As shown by the report, African Americans are not the FBI's only target. Over the years, the FBI manufactured terrorists from innocent Muslims, silenced minority groups by prosecution, and forced them to become informants against their own communities.
Given the agency's well-documented history of animus, African Americans and other marginalized communities "have learned over the decades not to trust the FBI," the report noted, urging that it is time to hold the FBI accountable for its crimes. ■