The known facts from this latest case seem to fit well within a now-familiar FBI pattern whereby the agency does not disrupt planned domestic terror attacks but rather creates them, then publicly praises itself for stopping its own plots.
First, they target a Muslim: not due to any evidence of intent or capability to engage in terrorism, but rather for the “radical” political views he expresses. In most cases, the Muslim targeted by the FBI is a very young (late teens, early 20s), adrift, unemployed loner who has shown no signs of mastering basic life functions, let alone carrying out a serious terror attack, and has no known involvement with actual terrorist groups.
They then find another Muslim who is highly motivated to help disrupt a “terror plot”: either because they’re being paid substantial sums of money by the FBI or because (as appears to be the case here) they are charged with some unrelated crime and are desperate to please the FBI in exchange for leniency (or both). The FBI then gives the informant a detailed attack plan, and sometimes even the money and other instruments to carry it out, and the informant then shares all of that with the target. Typically, the informant also induces, lures, cajoles, and persuades the target to agree to carry out the FBI-designed plot. In some instances where the target refuses to go along, they have their informant offer huge cash inducements to the impoverished target.
Once they finally get the target to agree, the FBI swoops in at the last minute, arrests the target, issues a press release praising themselves for disrupting a dangerous attack (which it conceived of, funded, and recruited the operatives for), and the DOJ and federal judges send their target to prison for years or even decades (where they are kept in special GITMO-like units). Subservient US courts uphold the charges by applying such a broad and permissive interpretation of “entrapment” that it could almost never be successfully invoked. As AP noted last night, “defense arguments have repeatedly failed with judges, and the stings have led to many convictions.”
—Glenn Greenwald
Latest FBI Claim of Disrupted Terror Plot Deserves Much Scrutiny and Skepticism
It’s the playbook for any kind of leftist activist or non white conservative. Homeland security is a joke, and not because of the bullshit at the airport, although that too. There is no threat. No Threat, that is. America is drowning in guns, gasoline, soft civilian and infrastructure targets, and even military bases that are barely secure. A gluttonous smorgasbord for a would be terrorist. Yes, I have a perverse imagination. And yet, almost nothing. Gunmen who could be disgruntled employees. A rice cooker bomb (never heard of that one before). Forget all the nitpicking of security at airports and port authorities. The Federal government spends a great deal of money and the effort of several military and civilian agencies to interdict the flow of drugs. And it clearly fails at it’s stated goal. Why should we believe it is any more difficult to smuggle terrorists in? To believe this requires a dangerous lack of respect for your enemy. It requires one to believe they are cartoonishly incompetent, incapable of keeping their mouths shut about their intentions, and tragically obsessed with airplane hijackings or other Bond villain schemes. We should be so lucky to have such enemies. I don’t believe it. I used to joke that the real reason there wasn’t a wave of terrorist activity was the same reason Jamie Dimon doesn’t hang from a gibbet. We really are at full employment, and it’s classified. Every new Lucky Ducky is deputized as a G Man, and there really are spooks hiding in all the potted plants.