Waiting for Mercy is a new documentary by Ellie Bernstein.Visit the Waiting for Mercy website.
Waiting for Mercy tells the story of a fabricated FBI sting operation that took place in Albany, New York during the winter, spring and summer of 2004. The complex operation was designed to entrap Yassin Aref, 37 (a refugee from Kurdistan in northern Iraq) and Mohammed Mosharref Hossain, 51, a United States citizen and an immigrant from Bangladesh.
The Albany Counter-Terrorism Task force, the Justice Department, local police, and IRS agents, organized the entrapment scheme, which was planned to portray these 2 men as “potential terrorists” who knowingly participated in a (fictitious) plot to send a shoulder fired missile to New York to attack the Pakistani Ambassador. As an end result of this long sting operation, involving hundreds of work hours, a convicted criminal informant, and many thousands of dollars, both men were arrested in 2004 and charged with money laundering and material support of terrorism.
In 2006, the two defendants were convicted of material support for terrorism and were each sentenced to 15 years in prison. Using the actual material, recorded over many months by the FBI informer, a Pakistani criminal, the documentary shows the documents and the lawyer’s responses to the charges and asks the audience to judge for themselves.
Visit the Waiting for Mercy website for more information and to donate.
Make a donation to support this film. Send checks to
Ellie Bernstein PO Box 9174 Albany, New York 12209