Word: fitzpatricks
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That the world of FBI informers is full of squirrelly characters is no surprise. You can't expect Boy Scouts to tell you much about the seedier corners that law enforcement needs to poke into. Even so, there may not be many government informants more rough-edged than Michael Fitzpatrick. Convicted bomber, alleged coke user, he is also the man whose accusations led to the arrest of Qubilah Shabazz, a daughter of Malcolm X, two weeks ago. In an increasingly controversial case, Fitzpatrick's credibility has become central to the government's charge that she tried to hire...
Prosecutors say Fitzpatrick, 34, tipped off an FBI agent and agreed to inform on Shabazz last July after she let him in on her desire to kill Farrakhan, a man suspected by many--including Malcolm's widow Betty--of having something to do with her father's 1965 assassination. Friends of Shabazz's say Fitzpatrick, who was arrested for cocaine possession in late 1993, lured her into planning a crime so he could offer her up to prosecutors in return for leniency on the drug charge...
...exclusive interview with Time, FBI director Louis Freeh insisted that his bureau took pains to ensure that Fitzpatrick did not push Shabazz into a crime. Throughout the seven-month investigation, he says, Fitzpatrick's FBI handlers were overseen by bureau supervisors and the U.S. Attorney's office, whose reports were sent East for further review. Freeh said he was ``aware'' of the investigation though he ``did not review all the details.'' Nevertheless, ``I'm satisfied that we were well within...
...chief evidence against Shabazz, who has pleaded not guilty, is a statement she signed for FBI agents and a stack of 20 audiotapes of conversations between her and Fitzpatrick. There is also a 50- min. videotape that Fitzpatrick made at a Minneapolis-area motel room where he had set up a hidden camera. But the Minneapolis Star Tribune, quoting an unnamed federal official close to the case, says that on the videotape Fitzpatrick does most of the talking, encouraging Shabazz to go ahead with the plot while she objects that innocent people might be killed or that Farrakhan supporters might...
Their doubts quickly settled on the government's informant. According to lawyers close to the defense, he is none other than Qubilah's school friend Michael Fitzpatrick, whose life since those days has followed a singular course. In 1977 the 17-year-old was arrested in the bombing of a Soviet bookstore. Subsequently, according to court documents, he turned government informer and betrayed co-conspirators in a second attempted bombing: the Associated Press quoted a former acquaintance as calling him "a setup artist." The government sent him to Minneapolis as part of the witness- protection program and assigned...