here's a disturbing (as i see it) article i ran across recently (link above) . . . "How the FBI's Network of Informants Actually Created Most of the Terrorist Plots "Foiled" in the US Since 9/11." (10/9/11)
is it just more "leftist propaganda?"
On September 28, Rezwan Ferdaus . . . was arrested and charged with providing resources to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to destroy national defense premises. Ferdaus, according to the FBI, planned to blow up both the Pentagon and Capitol Building with a "large remote controlled aircraft filled with C-4 plastic explosives."
. . .the FBI provided Ferdaus with the explosives and materials needed to pull off the plot. In this case, two undercover FBI employees, who Ferdaus believed were al Qaeda members, gave Ferdaus $7,500 to purchase an F-86 Sabre model airplane that Ferdaus hoped to fill with explosives. Right before his arrest, the FBI employees gave Ferdaus, who lived at home with his parents, the explosives he requested to pull off his attack. And just how did the FBI come to meet Ferdaus? An informant with a criminal record introduced Ferdaus to the supposed al Qaeda members.
. . If this sounds vaguely familiar, it's because such sting operations are a fixture in the headlines. Remember the Washington Metro [21] bombing plot? The New York subway [22] plot? The guys who planned to blow up the Sears Tower [23]? The teenager seeking to bomb a Portland Christmas tree [24] lighting? Each of those plots, and dozens more across the nation, was led by an FBI asset . . .With three exceptions, all of the high-profile domestic terror plots of the last decade were actually FBI stings.
(why are we in afghanistan again?)Today, counterterrorism experts believe groups like Al Qaeda . . . have shifted to a franchise model, using the internet to encourage sympathizers to carry out attacks in their name. The main domestic threat, as the FBI sees it, is a lone wolf.
"We're looking for the sympathizer who wants to become an operator, and we want to catch them when they step over that line to operator," Cummings says . . . the bureau brought in a CIA expert on intelligence-gathering methods named Phil Mudd [51]. His tool of choice was a data-mining system using commercially available information, as well as government data such as immigration records . . . the FBI officially denies that the program, known as Domain Management, works this way—its purpose, the bureau says, is simply to help allocate resources . . .
Some FBI veterans criticized the program as unproductive and intrusive . . . Mudd's critics saw the idea of targeting Americans based on their ethnicity and religion as a step too far . . . Sometimes, the target of this kind of push is . . . the imam (of the local mosque). Two Islamic religious leaders, Foad Farahi[52] in Miami and Sheikh Tarek Saleh in New York City, are currently fighting deportation proceedings that, they claim, began after they refused to become FBI assets . . . "The FBI is now telling agents they can go into houses of worship without probable cause," says Farhana Khera, executive director of the civil rights group Muslim Advocates. "That raises serious constitutional issues."
my comments: i suppose one could argue the "preemptive" value of these tactics. but does it ultimately create as many problems as it "solves?" it does seem over the line to me . . . awfully big-brother-ish. not to mention, it perhaps helps paint a distorted view of the terrorist threat (to be exploited by politicians as they see fit).. . .missing recordings in terrorism stings seem suspicious. But, she says, it's more common than you might think . . . generally a technical issue . . . Wedick, the former FBI agent, is less forgiving. "With the technology the FBI now has access to—these small devices that no one would ever suspect are recorders—there's no excuse not to tape interactions between the informant and the target," he says. "So why in many of these terrorism stings are meetings not recorded? Because it's convenient for the FBI not to record."
anyone else care to comment on this article?
the difficult thing would not to feel a bit conspirative when listening the FBI & CIA siglas mentioned... 