Waiting for Mercy

Ellie Bernstein's documentary focuses on the 2004 arrest in Albany, NY, of two Muslims—Mohammed Hossain, a Bangladeshi-born U.S. citizen who ran a pizza shop, and Yassin Aref, a Kurdish Iraqi imam at a small mosque—during an FBI sting operation. The men were portrayed as being willing participants in a bogus plot involving the planned assassination of the Pakistani ambassador using a shoulder-fired missile. A jury convicted the pair in 2006, although the film insists that the trial was marred by problematic evidence and inappropriate conduct by both the jury and the judge. While it appears fairly obvious that the men were more than a little intrigued by the phony scheme (neither contacted authorities when the subject of missiles was raised), one wonders why the government spent so much time trying to tempt law-abiding people into crime rather than pursuing active miscreants. Neither Hossain nor Aref had any criminal history, nor did they have any confirmed ties to terrorist movements. Combining interviews, television clips, and newspaper stories, Bernstein makes a plausible argument for entrapment and frame-up (if also occasionally straying into puerile denunciations of the Bush administration, complete with unflattering cartoon parodies). Overall, Waiting for Mercy provides a disturbing look at what was most likely a miscarriage of justice. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)