FBI Stops Yet Another (Yes Another) Of Its Own Terrorist Plots; This Time: Anarchists!
from the anarchists-running-amok dept
Following our post about the NY Times highlighting how the FBI seems to spend an awful lot of time foiling its own terrorist plots, some of our commenters pointed us to the news that the FBI has done it again (just in time to coincide with our story), arresting five individuals in a plot that appears to have been coordinated by the FBI itself. Even though some of the “anarchists” arrested expressed concerns about how resorting to violence would help, the FBI helped supply fake explosives and that appears to have convinced the group to move forward with its “plot.” Prior to that, they seem to have had little actual ability to do much of anything, other than thumbing through The Anarchists’ Cookbook and talking about what they’d like to do.
Filed Under: anarchists, fbi, terrorism
Comments on “FBI Stops Yet Another (Yes Another) Of Its Own Terrorist Plots; This Time: Anarchists!”
Well, the FBI needs to look like it does something
And that got them in the newspapers as being an effective anti-terrorist organization, instead of a stooge for industry.
Well, the FBI needs to look like it does something
Stooge for what industry?
The government is just, like, so dumb! OMG! I wish everyone could be as smart and as perfect as Mike Masnick. He’s my Pirate Hero! Yeah!
What mass psychosis?
Look! Over there! Terrists! We made ’em an’ we got ’em! Hekkuva job!! High fives!!
Your tax dollars at work, America.
Meanwhile, Hilary and the wall street money troll are in Beijing to beg for more money from The Evil Commies? to keep paying off the Wall Street felons who are really killing the country.
Can you say “laughing stock”?
Mission accomplished, Osama.
On the one hand, it is amazing the only plots they can foil are the ones they are involved in. On the other hand, maybe, just maybe someone will not get involved in a plot out of fear the FBI is involved.
Well, the FBI needs to look like it does something
The fake explosives industry.
Well, the FBI needs to look like it does something
More like what Ike talked about, the Military-Terrorism Complex
This is the perfect industry for purpetual employment, create plots, foil plots, increase funding to foil more plots which they made. THIS IS A PONZI SCHEME. ha
Foiling plots they have started. Before you know it, we’ll be paying bankers to solve the problems they created!
Kids these days...
Kids these days have no initiative! Back in the day, if they wanted to start a rockband, or an anarchist revolution, they didn’t just sit around sulking in their mom’s basement, waiting for someone in pressed suit to hand them a golden ticket.
Maybe they too are busy with ‘secret service’ in the strip clubs and brothels, so this just makes it easier?
Re:
I wish everyone could be as smart and as perfect as Mike Masnick.
I wish some of our Anonymous Cowards would post comments that are actually coherent and have some sort of point.
I guess you don’t always get what you wish for. *sigh*
Kids these days...
[The above comment may contain sarcastic material, and, as such, may not be suitable for all IQs. Any failure to detect the presence of sarcastic material will require the recalibration or replacement of any requisite sarcasm detection device, or a exculpatory colon cleaning for those who do not possess such device.
Safety notice of the Sarcasm Advisory Council]
Fonzi Scheme
A Ponzi scheme requires investment, that means “buy in”
One cannot buy into something in which they have no belief.
The government is becoming so transparently pathetic in their attempts to assert control that even the ‘normals’ are beginning to recognize the farce for what it is.
This is a reality show waiting to happen. Tonight, on The Terror Games, undercover special agent John Smith must convince terror suspect and dopey 14 year kid Joe Johnson to carry out that bombing plot that the FBI came up with in the previous episode.
Fonzi Scheme
Fonzi scheme?
Aaaaaaay! /thumbsup/
One day the FBI will not be able to stop one of their own plots. Then what?
Like the ATF on the Mexican border
It’s like sprinkling cocaine. lol
Okie Doke
Not a problem! The FBI learned their lesson with the Oklahoma City bombing and now take great care to never provide the “suspect” with actual explosives.
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Well what do you expect? They are trying and failing at being a troll. Proper trolling takes time and must be learned. All trolls must start as Newbs at some point.
Also to the OP, it is Yay! and not Yeah! If you are going to fake enthusiasm at the very least do it correctly.
Well, the FBI needs to look like it does something
ISTI: Industrial Security Theatre Industry.
As redundant as it is redundant.
Fonzi Scheme
Wakka Wakka Wakka
Creating terror threats to justify the billion dollar war on terrorism, meanwhile you have families struggling to get by.
Do Americans even know what common sense is?
Fonzi Scheme
No, that’s the Fozzie scheme…
CoSen
I hear Americans recognize ‘Common Sense’ when they see it, but cannot afford to keep any at home…
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Of course we do. It is was Benjamin Fraklin invented, the $100 bill 😀
I would really like to tell you that the above is not true for the majority, but I have little faith in my country’s people. In fact I doubt the majority would get the joke about that.
Nice way to discredit "OCCUPY"
“During the course of the alleged plot, however, Baxter later expressed reservations, saying that blowing up a bridge “would not stop money flowing to the ‘one percent,'” the complaint says.”
You can bet that photos of these “TERRORISTS” will be plastered all over as “THE FACE(S) OF THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT”
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Many do, sadly not enough to out vote the Corporations dollars.
Fonzi Scheme
Personally I would rather get my money taken by a Muppet. At least with a Muppet you know that is can not go to certain things.
what a shame
one of the many problems with this is that many people will not discuss there plans with anyone else and go it alone, thereby causing the FBI to have no way of tracking the real terrorists, as they did when there were real terrorist threats.
One other major problem is that those people enticed into these plots will leave jail eventually much better informed on how to actually make a successful attack and feel more justified in doing so.
There are many ways that these FBI planned attacks could cause more damage to the country, encouraging terrorists to be extra careful when planning and implementing attacks is just one of them.
The way to stop this sort of thing is to honey pot the FBI. Make vague assertions on websites about your willingness to blow things up, wait for them to contact you, and document the hell out of it.
It would make a good project for a patriot. Pretty risky, I won’t be trying it, but if you document it well and have a good lawyer advising you, your defense should hold up.
what a shame
The current system is designed to keep ex-cons in a sort’of felon-loop-shuffle where they’ll never actually be free of the system, regardless of having served their time.
For the rest of their lives they will have no privacy, pay almost all their income to the government, and be forbidden from having rights. Just like normal citizens, except moreso and they aren’t allowed to vote.
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In general, whenever someone is over-reaching they are unbalanced, so there’s always a way to trip them up.
C'mon people... really?
If you actually read up on this, the FBI infiltrated the group, and after the occupy clowns came up with a plan (not to blow up the bridge, but something else) the “plant” stated that he could get them some C4… It was after that, that the occupy group came up with the idea to blow up the bridge. It wasn’t like the FBI plant said… “Hey! Lets blow up this bridge!”
Unlike others here, I believe the FBI did just fine in this instance.
So let me see, a group of men plot to blow up a bridge, the FBI gets wind of it at an October Occupy Protest and begins to investigate, decides to gauge their seriousness by providing fake explosives, they accept the FBI’s gracious offer and continue their plot, planting the explosives on the bridge, drive several miles away and then enter what they thought were codes to detonate the explosives but nothing happens, then they are arrested later that day.
And all of the geniuses on this site blame the FBI.
Only in America!
I guess better off foiling their own created terrorists than out screwing prostitutes in other countries on the US taxpayer’s dime.
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Unfortunately Americans don’t decide where America’s budget goes. The point where Congress listens to average citizens calling its bullshit is somewhere around half of DC standing in front of the capital building chanting about how stupid it’s being.
what a shame
Thereby creating a ‘nothing-to-lose’ scenario for the incarcerated.
i suppose that if anyone called the FBI out over these ‘plots’, they would want to know why they shouldn’t be practicing ready for the real thing. those that get ‘caught’ atm are just unfortunate collateral damage!
america
no bruce, they were americans and by definition incapable of doing anything serious without chinese skill, ingenuity, labour or money. the feds should have left them alone playing call of duty.
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already happened..look up ’93 WTC bombing which actually did kill people…Feds supplied the explosives..Their undercover informant secretly recorded the transactions he had with the Feds. Solid proof, yet nothing was done.
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that would be some lulz until you’re arrested and convicted for lying to the feds
C'mon people... really?
Or the FBI show up at the suspects houses (well, they aren’t actually guilty of anything yet) and start asking questions. I’m sure that would simmer down any plans from the group just knowing that the FBI has them on their radar.
C'mon people... really?
I don’t know how it works in the States, but around here, facilitating and instigating criminal acts is a crime. A very serious one.
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Way to show your maturity, yay
Cheerleaders, altogether now
Your number one
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We aren’t already?
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Whoosh!
Fonzi Scheme
Yay! Finally some transparency.
In all seriousness, I suspect that a big reason governments are so hesitant to be transparent is they know how much incompetence it will reveal. There’s very little we’d let the government do if we knew exactly how incompetent they are at doing it.
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And all of the geniuses on this site blame the FBI. Only in America!
Techdirt is available worldwide, and many of the folks here aren’t from the United States, or even from America (US, Mexico, and Canada, are all part of North America.)
I don’t see what’s so wrong with this. Making up bogus fake terrorism to catch prospective terrorists seems like a decent way to stop them early and safely. Yeah, youll make some “terrorists” who wouldnt otherwise be, but you may catch a few of the genuine article too.
Well, the FBI needs to look like it does something
+1
And if you try to bring out the point of how the FBI finds people who are pissed off at the Government like these guys (who look like a punk or Alt.Rocker in a local band) and then eggs them on and sucks them in to a plot they may not have done in the first place well…………..
Read Comments on News Sites as US Citizens are braindead and do not realize this one bit.All they care about is We Caught A Terrorist.USA Is going down more and more each year.
Quick thought
Seems like the FBI is bored, does not have enough to do with their time, which can only mean that they need to be downsized. It’s sad when they’re the biggest source of terrorist plots in America.
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My number one what?
My daily schedule, by an FBI agent
8:00 AM Bow down before our holy gods and masters, the MPAA and RIAA. Kiss Chris Dodd’s ring and vow eternal vigilance against the enemies of the state: college kids sharing mixtapes.
8:30 AM Briefing on Occupy Wall Street protest. Protesters heavily armed with signs and songs, maximum response required.
9:00 AM Requisition gear for Occupy response. Body armor, heavy weaponry, shields, tasers, water cannons, armored vehicles, air-to-ground missiles, pepper spray, barbed wire, and the old standby, truncheons.
9:30 AM-12:30 PM Uphold the First Amendment by beating as many protesters as possible.
12:30 PM Lunch. (Today: provided by our friends and benefactors on Wall Street)
1:30-1:31 PM: Seminar on fundamentals of public service, including protecting the rights of American citizens.
1:35-3:15 PM Undercover detail. Susie Creamcheese (6th grade) was recorded saying “I hate Mrs. Crabtree!” after school and may be a dangerous anarchist communist socialist Muslim Mexican homosexual feminist threat to the security of the United States. Infiltrate soccer team and offer to provide nuclear weapons.
3:30 PM Briefing on religious threats to civilians. Ignore clear and present danger such as North Carolina Pastor Sean Harris: Parents Should ‘Punch’ Their Gay-Acting Children or the long-term institutionalized practice of systematic child rape (and its coverup) conducted by the Catholic church and focus entirely on THE threat: Muslims on the other side of the planet who are too busy trying to survive to pay any attention to us.
4:30-5:00 PM Write up daily report. (Special crayons today!)
Re:
I think that’s why this comment got both the insightful and LOL voted. The irony in it is so bitter that it gets one wondering…
Reality show is now.
I would submit that the show is already in progress.
The FBI always delivers fake explosives, so next time, better skip the blowing-up stuff, and anarchise like these dudes did.
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not sure if troll… or moron
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It’s your number one, number two.
C'mon people... really?
Well here in the states, if you’re a civilian and you facilitate a criminal act, yes.. it’s a crime. If you’re a government agent trying to stop terrorism though.. hey, guess what… you’re allowed to pretend you’re part of a group that, ya know, might want to do us harm in some form or fashion.. and yes… you’re allowed (I’d say even encouraged) to say to that group “Hey.. what if we had some C4?”. Guess what? when the group says “Oh hell yeah!! With some C4 we can blow up that bridge!” THAT sir… is a very serious crime… and more power to the FBI for nailing these guys now, rather than after they actually did blow something up. I hope those clowns have “fun” in prison with their new room mates and enjoy tossing salad!
Put it in song
Come on guys…just figuring this out now?? It’s already been made a song a few years back 😉
A pretty awesome song too I must add…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zKE-LfdM5E
Fonzi Scheme
Yes, but who has their hand shoved up the Muppet’s metaphorical metal arse?
Re:
I was actually seriously considering this after the last article. Maybe they think that if news comes out that every single attempted terrorist attack is actually a government plot, people won’t become involved? Backwards logic, but logic nonetheless I guess…
C'mon people... really?
“…More power to the FBI for nailing these guys now, rather than after they actually did blow something up.”
Arresting them after they’d actually blown something up was never an option. There was never any plan to blow up anything other than with the “C4” which the FBI offered.
“Let’s arrest murderers before they commit murder” (with its equivalents) is almost my least favorite popular political catchphrase, coming in a close second after “if you have nothing to hide…”.
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So…
Should the FBI have a team online that connects with people that like porn and say “hey check out this link” which leads to child porn? Then they arrest anyone who clicks the link. Hey we stopped somone that could have been driven to child porn so it is a success
Or…
Have undercovers at grocery stores (or art galleries, etc.)give away free samples of beer / wine then arrest them for drinking and driving (regardless of BAC since they will have a record of you consuming alcohol just prior to driving) as they leave the parking lot. Hey, these are people that could be led to drinking and driving.
Or..
I could come up with multiple examples of entrapment that we could use to put potential evil dooers behind bars, but you should get the idea.
And a question for you: Do you like cigars? Have you ever wondered what all the rage is about Cuban cigars? …careful how you answer. I could think that you plan to start importing Cuban cigars. I am sure that I could convince you that it is a good idea to try.
Re:
Then what?
Most likely scenario:
Everyone involved points a finger at each other. A Congressional inquiry will be made where loud voices will be spoken, and more fingers pointed. A mid-high level functionary will be forced to resign into an executive level position with a security or defence company. The government claims immunity from prosecution as the culprit was a terrorist anyway (that they created the terrorist is beside the point), so no restitution is made for the victims.
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Right, because the ends always justify the means.
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Or better still, run it as a sting operation. When the FBI mole gives them the Go-order, turn the guy in to the police. The group will, after all, have all the weapons and explosives the guy supplied them, and have tape recordings of him planning the terrorist attack, etc, etc.
It’s bound to happen sooner or later, and can you just imagine the sort of PR disaster it would be for the feds?
They might have to go back to investigating crimes and chasing real terrorists. Apparently, real terrorists are too rare to justify the FBI budget, so they have to make their own at home in their garage.
Fonzi Scheme
I dunno, I hear Fozzie occasionally snorts carpet cleaner in his dressing room…
Reality show is now.
Coming soon to a Courtroom near you!
Okie Doke
Real explosives aren’t hard to make. Guy Fawkes tried to blow up a large building with simple black gunpowder, after all.
Yeah, the explosives the FBI supplies are fake. But it’d be a hell of a black eye for the agency if a fake terrorist plot turned real and successful because the “terrorists” used the FBI plan with their own home brew explosives and successfully blew up a federal building.
If a sting like that goes wrong, can the undercover agent(s) be charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism?
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RICO Act. Criminal conspiracy. Felony murder.
All of these things could land on anyone even remotely connected to a successful terrorist attack, if it comes out that the plot was created, planned, driven and all but carried out by the feds.
Conspiracy laws are scary. You can wind up in prison for a LONG time despite having no knowledge whatsoever of the actual conspiracy or crime, simply for associating with people who do. Witness what happened to Osama bin Laden’s limo driver! All he did was be employed to drive a car for a wealthy man from a respected family. And from a criminal conspiracy standpoint, that driver is just as guilty as Osama.
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It has been said that a committee is the only known vertebrate organism with two dozen feet and no brain.
A bureaucracy is a massive network of committees. Do the math.
Granny Warned Me
Granny told me when I was young. Listen to me boy and learn something. Don’t you ever trust Police, Lawyers or Politicians. They lie for a living and can never stop, because once you learn how to lie real good. It becomes easier than telling the truth.
Remember……..
I tell granny they will steal the rest of your houses with reverse mortgages. Pretty soon no one will own anything.
Well, the FBI needs to look like it does something
Perhaps this is an appropriate context in which to suggest a second-order corollary to the Shirkey Principle, to wit: Problems that do not actually exist will be created by the institutions whose purpose it is to solve them.
Well, without advocating violence, blowing up billboards on top of buildings would actually make sense in the Fight Club kind of way, I guess. At least it would be a powerful statement.
But blowing up some random bridge in a national park somewhere? Who even came up with that idea? “Now that’ll teach them to… not… drive in national parks”. Even from an anarchistic point of view, I have a hard time seeing how this makes any sense at all.
C'mon people... really?
You’re glossing over the fact that these guys never would have got their hands on the C4 otherwise. And the last time I checked, plotting to do something without actually having the opportunity or means to commit the crime is not a crime.
For instance, who hasn’t heard an angry guy at a bar saying he’d shoot is boss, wife, ex-friend, neighbor, coworker, etc., etc.? Hell, I’ve heard more than one man say he would shoot Bush if given the chance. I’ve heard others spout off about Obama too. There’s millions of people who at one time or another said they would intentionally kill someone. Now, if some guy where to approach any of them and say, “Hey, I could get you that gun.” Never actually give it to them, just merely offer it. How many would say “Oh hell yeah!!”? By your account, every last one of them should be in jail right now.
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The precept “innocent until proven guilty,” integral to the American Justice system originated under the theory that it is better to allow some who are guilty go free than it is to allow even a single innocent to be convicted.
Catching even one “terrorist” who wouldn’t otherwise be is entirely unacceptable under that theory.
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That’s how you know it was the FBI’s idea all along. A nice safe target just in case they supplement with a little homemade stuff. Really, it is a three-ring-circus of pathetic. Pathetic media eating it up, pathetic FBI unable to do anything better and pathetic anarchists believing the plant.
The “thought police” are already here, friends.
It won’t be long before they don’t even need to supply fake explosives to start throwing people in jail.
Actually, they’re already here. Examples can be found I just can’t be bothered to search for URL’s. Do your own research. If you’ve read this far on this thread you’re already curious enough to find out, which is a good thing…
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They aren’t mutually exclusive
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Really, what does this topic even have to do with pirates? You’re beyond desperation. You’re little more than a joke.
Imagined press conference (with imagined actual journalist):
Reporter: “But, wasn’t the informant, whom you are primarily relying upon for your information, actually paid over $6,000 by the FBI and later jailed for passing bad checks even though you were aware that, of his convictions on robbery and at least three other time on passing bad checks?”
FBI Spokesperson: “Umm… But, terrorism! Mohawk!“
Reporter: “And didn’t this paid informant (contractor?) basically entice these folks into planning acts they had never thought of on their own and would likely have never done so had it not been for your informant plans created by the FBI?”
FBI Spokesperson: “But… but… Topple! Bridge! ‘Occupy!’…”
Reporter: And weren’t you just reprimanded by a judge in September about a similar case, saying the ‘essence’ of the operation was that you ‘created acts of terrorism out of the fantasies and the bravado and the bigotry of [those involved]’, that you ‘made them terrorists,’ and that she was ‘not proud of [her] government for’ those actions?
FBI Spokesperson: “Well… Um… Anarchist’s Cookbook!!… ANARCHISTS!!!”
Reporter: “And … mrrffle pfrrt …”
FBI Spokesperson: “Any more questions? No? Okay, well, I want to thank all of you for coming today to help us get the word out about how we’re keeping America safe.”
FIN
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I believed it all…….except for the imagined part.
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I wonder how many times the FBI has busted up an ATF plot?
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you catch prospective terrorists by turning them into real terrorists. you’re not sending prospective terrorists to jail which havent been turned into real terrorists yet, at least, real terrorists as defined by the law.
AC’s examples are all terrible.
would clicking a link thats not known to be child porn (but actually is) be a crime? is buying bombs with the other documentation of terrorist intent a crime? don’t compare apples to oranges.
regardless of BAC? drinking and then driving isn’t a crime. driving with intoxicated is a crime, which you wouldnt be after a taste, and your BAC would bear that out.
I am disappointed
I am disappointe with those anarchists. What where they thinking? How was it possible they accepted such a pointless plan?
C'mon people... really?
you are eager to send people to jail for thought-crimes that a skilled FBI agent manipulates them into, with the added bonus of insisting that they are sexually assaulted while being unlawfully imprisoned for these un-crimes.
wow.
This is the kind of person they must be recruiting. Scary, isn’t it?