FBI Breaks Up Another Of Its Own 'ISIS' Plots, Where It Supplied Most Of The Planning

from the feeling-safer dept

There have been a bunch of these lately, but today the FBI gleefully announced that it had stopped a terror plot in Topeka, Kansas — inspired by ISIS. Here’s how the FBI describes its big arrest:

John T. Booker Jr., 20, of Topeka, Kansas, was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed today with one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives), one count of attempting to damage property by means of an explosive and one count of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization. Booker is expected to make an initial appearance this afternoon before U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree of the District of Kansas in federal court in Topeka.

Booker was arrested this morning near Manhattan, as he completed his final preparations to detonate a vehicle bomb targeting U.S. military personnel.

There have been a bunch of these arrests lately of random people supposedly planning to do something big to join ISIS. But, looking at the details in the actual complaint, it quickly becomes clear that this is yet another of the FBI’s own plots. Yes, Booker appears to be an idiot who publicly proclaimed that he wanted to blow stuff up to join in the whole jihad thing, but his actual ability to do anything was basically non-existent until the FBI gave him two helpers who presented the details of the plan.

First, Booker did try to do something himself, but blabbed so much about it that the FBI came and spoke to him, ruining his original plan (though they didn’t arrest him then):

John T. Booker, Jr., a/k/a ?Mohammed Abdullah Hassan,? (?Booker?) is a 20-year-old United States citizen who is currently living in Topeka, Kansas. In or around February 2014, Booker had been recruited by the United States Army in Kansas City, Missouri, and he was scheduled to report for Basic Training on April 7, 2014.

On March 15, 2014, Booker publicly posted on Facebook: ?I will soon be leaving you forever so goodbye! I?m going to wage jihad and hopes that i die.? On March 19, 2014, Booker publically posted on Facebook: ?Getting ready to be killed in jihad is a HUGE adrenaline rush!! I am so nervous. NOT because I?m scared to die but I am eager to meet my lord.? That same day, the FBI became aware of Booker?s postings based on a citizen?s complaint. The FBI was able to identify Booker based on the publically available content on his Facebook account. On March 20, 2014, Booker was interviewed by FBI agents related to his Facebook postings. After being advised of and waiving his Miranda rights, Booker admitted that he enlisted in the United States Army with the intent to commit an insider attack against American soldiers like Major Nidal Hassan had done at Fort Hood, Texas. Booker stated that if he went overseas and was told to kill a fellow Muslim, he would rather turn around and shoot the person giving orders. Booker stated that he formulated several plans for committing jihad once enlisted, including firing at other soldiers while at basic training at the firing range or while at his pre-deployment military base after completing his initial military training. Booker clarified that he did not intend to kill ?privates,? but that he instead wanted to target someone with power. Booker also said that he did not intend to use large guns, but instead a small gun or a sword. Booker was subsequently denied entry into the military.

Okay, so we’ve established that Booker is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but at least was willing to state his idiotic plans publicly and then admit them to the FBI. But other than denying him entry into the military, they didn’t do anything else… other than try to set him up for a big arrest later. That’s because a few months later, they sent an FBI informant to befriend Booker and urge him to move forward with his “blow shit up” plans:

Since on or about October 8, 2014, Booker has engaged with an individual who is, unbeknownst to Booker, an FBI Confidential Human Source (CHS 1). Booker has repeatedly expressed to CHS 1 his desire to engage in violent jihad on behalf of ISIL. For example, during a face to face conversation on October 10, 2014, Booker told CHS 1 in relevant part, that he: ?was in jihad before, okay. I got captured. Okay, a long story short the people at the Masjid don?t like me because I support al Qa?ida openly. I?m not afraid, I was captured before . . . I was captured by FBI before . . . because I was with al Qa?ida.? Booker stated that he ?joined the United States Army? and he ?hadn?t really completed, I hadn?t really started . . . I was going to go in there and kill the American soldier.? Booker told CHS 1 that he dreamt of being in the Middle East, and then he showed CHS 1 a video on his phone of Muslims fighting American forces in Iraq. Booker said he dreamt about going with the fighters and wished he was with them. Booker told CHS 1 that he had heard about Americans joining ISIL and that Booker wanted to join, but he didn’t know anyone who could help him do so.

So, here we have Booker admitting that he doesn’t actually have the capabilities to join ISIS or do anything really. But, have no fear, because the FBI informant is there to help:

That same day, CHS 1 told Booker that he had a ?cousin? (who is also a FBI Confidential Human Source, hereinafter referred to as CHS 2) who could get people overseas and asked Booker what he wanted to do. Booker answered, ?Anything. Anything you think is good. I will follow you.?

So, now we’ve got a plot in which two of the plotters are actual FBI informants, while the only other guy is a guy who clearly has no idea what he’s doing:

On or about March 9, 2015, while under FBI surveillance, CHS 1 introduced Booker to CHS 2, who he explained was a high ranking sheik planning terrorist acts in the United States.

Then, the plan is set in motion, with the informants basically directing Booker in what he should do — saying that they would give him the equipment needed to build explosives, and that he should rent a storage space to keep the stuff:

Previously, CHS 1 told Booker that he (CHS 1) may send him some items for Booker to hold until the next time CHS 1 visited ? perhaps a package or something in the mail. Booker told both CHS 1 and CHS 2 that his house was not safe to store things because he shares it with his cousin. At that point, CHS 2 suggested that Booker may want to rent a storage locker.

[….]

On or about March 25, 2015, CHS 1 met with Booker. During this meeting, CHS 1 told Booker that he had been ?selected? to accompany Booker on his suicide mission. CHS 1 provided Booker with a list of supplies that they needed to purchase in order to build the bomb.

Booker even relied on the two FBI informants to build the (totally fake) bomb he was going supposedly going to use, and to give him a map of where he was to set it off:

The second storage unit held a large amount of inert explosive material that Booker understood was to be used to build their Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (?VBIED?). Pursuant to Booker?s plan, Booker understood that CHS 1 and CHS 2 would build the VBIED, Booker and CHS 1 would eventually deliver it to Fort Riley, and Booker would detonate the VBIED in a suicide attack. CHS 1 and CHS 2 then provided Booker with a map of the area of Fort Riley at Booker?s request.

And then, just this morning, one of the FBI informants was needed to tell Booker how the device worked so he could “blow it up.”

On or about April. 10, 2015, Booker and CHS 1 drove to a location near Junction City, Kansas where they met CHS 2. CHS 2 met Booker and CHS 1 in the van in which CHS 2 had purportedly constructed the VBIED. CHS 2 explained the function of the inert VBIED to Booker and demonstrated how to arm the device. CHS 1 and Booker then drove the VBIED to an area near Fort Riley that Booker believed to be a little used utility gate that would allow them to enter Fort Riley undetected so that they could find an area to detonate the VBIED that would kill as many soldiers as possible. While Booker was making final connections to arm the inert VBIED at the gate, he was taken into custody without incident by members of the FBI.

And thus, he’s been arrested. It seems pretty clear that he’s not a fan of the US, but this story matches many previous stories of the FBI stopping its own plots, in which the people they arrest tend to be hapless individuals with no ability to carry out any sort of terrorist attack on their own… until the FBI shows up and provides them with the fake tools to do so.

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Comments on “FBI Breaks Up Another Of Its Own 'ISIS' Plots, Where It Supplied Most Of The Planning”

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66 Comments
art guerrilla (profile) says:

Re: Re:

the same way they can get you for soliciting for underage sex when the officer on the other end of the chat room moniker ‘sexykid’ is a 48 year old police officer trolling for scalps…

entrapment doesn’t matter anymore…
real crime rate is down so much, they have to make up thought crimes and fake crimes to jack up the people they protect and serve…

Anonymous Coward says:

Tinfoil

Some years ago I laughed at a friend who thought that 9/11 was an inside job because I couldn’t imagine that anyone in power would be that… let’s call it bold to do something like this.
But after reading time and time again that most of the time a “terrorist” plot was stopped by the government or actually happened, no matter where on the planet (USA, UK, Spain, Germany…) I kind of regret laughing back then. So far I couldn’t find one actual terrorist plot or attack outside the so called Middle East that didn’t involve some form of gov agency.

Padpaw (profile) says:

Re: Tinfoil

In my opinion the governments insistence that the planes brought the towers down and not pre planted demolition charges is what hurts their credibility the most.

Have you ever seen a building collapse due to fire compared to 1 that is demolitioned? A building on fire topples pretty much to the side. While a professionally demolitioned building goes straight down and as each floors charges go off little puffs of smoke and debris come out the windows.

Turns out a birdwatcher had their video camera pointed at the towers on 9/11 and caught the towers going down. Oddly enough at every window were said puffs of smoke and debris like clockwork.

Much like the Reichstag fire 9/11 gave the government the ability to restrict people’s freedoms all in the name of safety and security which made people much less safe and got them fired up to make war on the world

teka says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Tinfoil

“the terrorists” or “The Government” managed to get into the building and rip out hundreds and hundreds of areas in the walls and floors, jackhammer apart concrete slabs and pre-stress untold numbers of steel beams before packing thousands of pounds of explosives in those places and wiring them all together into a carefully controlled explosives system.

They did this without anyone who was in the building over the proceeding MONTH noticing, much less anyone who was there the previous night and left their overnight janitorial shift that morning or went downstairs to pick up a apackage from receiving and was able to escape. This perfect sneak operation was conducted by operatives who have never and will never say anything about it, supplied by suppliers who will never say anything about it and have kept the secret far better than piddling little things like atomic bombs.

In an entirely unnecessary distraction they also masterminded the capturing of airplanes and conspired to crashed them into the pre-demoed building, without damaging any of the controlled demo materials. Another plane was crashed into a military office building while still another was crashed into the ground, presumably to strike fear into a field.

This was all carefully planned
/s

ffs

Silence Doogood says:

Re: Re: Re:3 Tinfoil

The government always engineers terrorism:

On September 11, 2001, Baker was at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington DC, for the annual investor conference of the Carlyle Group. Also present with Baker was Carlucci, “representatives of the bin Laden family,” and George H. W. Bush.[19] Carlyle had been doing business with the bin Laden family since the early 1990s.

Baker’s grandfather started the law firm Baker Botts, which had offices in Saudi Arabia and which, after 9/11, represented the Saudi Arabian government in a lawsuit filed by families of those killed and injured in the attacks. The Saudi connection is interesting considering that Carlyle owned, through BDM International, the Vinnell Corporation, a mercenary operation that had extensive contracts in the Middle East since 1975, training the Saudi Arabian National Guard and also training Turkish security forces.

Vinnell was considered “by some experts to be a CIA front.”[20] Of course Frank Carlucci was Deputy Director of the CIA, and George H.W. Bush, who was Baker’s boss for many years, was in the CIA for a majority of his career.[21] Perhaps as a result, in 1995 Vinnell was reported to be one of the first targets of al Qaeda, in Saudi Arabia.

BDM, Vinnell’s parent company, was sold to TRW in 1997. Directors at BDM at the time included Carlyle Group executives and a former assistant to Henry Kissinger, Philip Odeen, who went on to become the CEO of TRW. Directors at TRW at the same time included Robert M. Gates, former Director of Central Intelligence and current Secretary of Defense. Arden Bement, who was appointed by George W. Bush to lead the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) one month after the 9/11 attacks, had left his position as TRW Vice President in 1992, moving to Purdue University in the interim.

In 1998, at the time that Barry McDaniel moved to Stratesec, TRW merged with Lockheed Martin, the company that sub-contracted the WTC security job to Ensec.[22] Stratesec and Ensec, along with E.J. Electric and Electronic Systems Associates, worked to build the security system that was in place at the WTC when the buildings were destroyed. All four of these companies had done significant work in Saudi Arabia before working at the WTC.[23]

Marvin Bush was a director of Stratesec from 1993 to 2000. It was during that time that Kroll and Stratesec planned and executed the extensive rebuilding of the security systems at the WTC complex. As his stint with Stratesec ended, Marvin Bush became a principal in the company HCC Insurance, one of the insurance carriers for the World Trade Center.

SAIC

Marvin Bush was the cofounder of Winston Partners in 1993, a company that benefited greatly from the War on Terror. In 2000, Winston Partners invested heavily in a defense contractor called AMSEC that was 55% owned by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). It has been noted that SAIC was not only a major contributor to the NIST WTC report, it was also a company that had expertise in nanothermites, explosive materials which were found in the WTC dust as mentioned earlier.[24]

Founded by a scientist from Los Alamos National Laboratory, SAIC had a long history at the WTC, having evaluated the basement levels of the buildings as a potential terrorist target in 1986.[25] Interestingly, the company was hired to investigate the 1993 bombing of the WTC, an event that was “remarkably like the one which” they had foreseen in 1986.[26] In fact, SAIC later boasted that — “After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, our blast analyses produced tangible results that helped identify those responsible.”[27]

After 9/11, SAIC supplied the largest contingent of non-governmental investigators to the WTC investigation conducted NIST. At the same time, “SAIC personnel were instrumental in pressing the case that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and that war was the only way to get rid of them.”[28]

SAIC was also a pioneer in the intelligence contracting business, as a founding member of the Security Affairs Support Association in 1979, along with companies like TRW, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed and Hughes Aircraft. A special taskforce of the Defense Science Board, which was led in 1993 by BDM’s Philip Odeen, recommended a vast increase in the outsourcing of intelligence, which all these companies ended up benefiting from greatly.

Today a majority of government intelligence work is outsourced, and SAIC is known first and foremost as an intelligence contractor. SAIC sells expertise about weapons, about homeland security, about surveillance, about computer systems, about “information dominance” and “information warfare,” and has been awarded more individual government contracts than any other private company in America. In fact, the company was paid huge sums to rebuild the NSA and FBI systems that supposedly failed before 9/11.[29]

SAIC is integral to the operations of all the major intelligence collection agencies, particularly the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the CIA. In fact, the CIA relies on SAIC to spy in its own workforce.[30] But SAIC has also played an integral role in the “War on Terror”, and was even responsible for capturing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. It was SAIC staff and technology that “tease[ed] out crucial clues about Mohammed’s activities from intercepted text messages that he sent to his al Qaeda operatives using as many as 20 different cell phones.”[31]

In an interesting coincidence, while the Carlyle/BDM subsidiary Vinnell Corp was training the Saudi Arabian National Guard, SAIC was training the Saudi Navy and bringing Saudi military personnel to company headquarters in San Diego for further study. Simultaneously, Booz Allen Hamilton was managing the Saudi Marine Corps and running the Saudi Armed Forces Staff College.[32] Vinnell now works with SAIC to train the Iraqi military.[33]

SAIC employees or board members have included Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former Deputy Director of CIA Bobby Ray Inman, former NYC OEM director Jerome Hauer, anthrax attack suspect Stephen Hatfill, former CIA Director John Deutch, and Lawrence B. Prior, a military intelligence officer and former TRW executive. Also formerly with SAIC, during the time of the planning and implementation of the 9/11 attacks, was Dick Cheney’s undersecretary of defense, Duane Andrews.

Duane Andrews considered Dick Cheney to be his personal, lifelong hero.[34] While he worked for Cheney, Andrews supervised Stephen Cambone, who went on to become Donald Rumsfeld’s “special assistant.” When Andrews left the Pentagon in 1993, he became chief operating officer for SAIC, where he supervised “much of the company’s work on secret projects with defense and national security agencies.”[35] Andrews and Cambone both later hired on to the British intelligence firm Qinetiq, along with George Tenet. Coincidentally, The Carlyle Group was a major shareholder in Qinetiq as of February 2003.On September 11, 2001, Baker was at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington DC, for the annual investor conference of the Carlyle Group. Also present with Baker was Carlucci, “representatives of the bin Laden family,” and George H. W. Bush.[19] Carlyle had been doing business with the bin Laden family since the early 1990s.

Baker’s grandfather started the law firm Baker Botts, which had offices in Saudi Arabia and which, after 9/11, represented the Saudi Arabian government in a lawsuit filed by families of those killed and injured in the attacks. The Saudi connection is interesting considering that Carlyle owned, through BDM International, the Vinnell Corporation, a mercenary operation that had extensive contracts in the Middle East since 1975, training the Saudi Arabian National Guard and also training Turkish security forces.

Vinnell was considered “by some experts to be a CIA front.”[20] Of course Frank Carlucci was Deputy Director of the CIA, and George H.W. Bush, who was Baker’s boss for many years, was in the CIA for a majority of his career.[21] Perhaps as a result, in 1995 Vinnell was reported to be one of the first targets of al Qaeda, in Saudi Arabia.

BDM, Vinnell’s parent company, was sold to TRW in 1997. Directors at BDM at the time included Carlyle Group executives and a former assistant to Henry Kissinger, Philip Odeen, who went on to become the CEO of TRW. Directors at TRW at the same time included Robert M. Gates, former Director of Central Intelligence and current Secretary of Defense. Arden Bement, who was appointed by George W. Bush to lead the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) one month after the 9/11 attacks, had left his position as TRW Vice President in 1992, moving to Purdue University in the interim.

In 1998, at the time that Barry McDaniel moved to Stratesec, TRW merged with Lockheed Martin, the company that sub-contracted the WTC security job to Ensec.[22] Stratesec and Ensec, along with E.J. Electric and Electronic Systems Associates, worked to build the security system that was in place at the WTC when the buildings were destroyed. All four of these companies had done significant work in Saudi Arabia before working at the WTC.[23]

Marvin Bush was a director of Stratesec from 1993 to 2000. It was during that time that Kroll and Stratesec planned and executed the extensive rebuilding of the security systems at the WTC complex. As his stint with Stratesec ended, Marvin Bush became a principal in the company HCC Insurance, one of the insurance carriers for the World Trade Center.

SAIC

Marvin Bush was the cofounder of Winston Partners in 1993, a company that benefited greatly from the War on Terror. In 2000, Winston Partners invested heavily in a defense contractor called AMSEC that was 55% owned by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). It has been noted that SAIC was not only a major contributor to the NIST WTC report, it was also a company that had expertise in nanothermites, explosive materials which were found in the WTC dust as mentioned earlier.[24]

Founded by a scientist from Los Alamos National Laboratory, SAIC had a long history at the WTC, having evaluated the basement levels of the buildings as a potential terrorist target in 1986.[25] Interestingly, the company was hired to investigate the 1993 bombing of the WTC, an event that was “remarkably like the one which” they had foreseen in 1986.[26] In fact, SAIC later boasted that — “After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, our blast analyses produced tangible results that helped identify those responsible.”[27]

After 9/11, SAIC supplied the largest contingent of non-governmental investigators to the WTC investigation conducted NIST. At the same time, “SAIC personnel were instrumental in pressing the case that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and that war was the only way to get rid of them.”[28]

SAIC was also a pioneer in the intelligence contracting business, as a founding member of the Security Affairs Support Association in 1979, along with companies like TRW, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed and Hughes Aircraft. A special taskforce of the Defense Science Board, which was led in 1993 by BDM’s Philip Odeen, recommended a vast increase in the outsourcing of intelligence, which all these companies ended up benefiting from greatly.

Today a majority of government intelligence work is outsourced, and SAIC is known first and foremost as an intelligence contractor. SAIC sells expertise about weapons, about homeland security, about surveillance, about computer systems, about “information dominance” and “information warfare,” and has been awarded more individual government contracts than any other private company in America. In fact, the company was paid huge sums to rebuild the NSA and FBI systems that supposedly failed before 9/11.[29]

SAIC is integral to the operations of all the major intelligence collection agencies, particularly the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the CIA. In fact, the CIA relies on SAIC to spy in its own workforce.[30] But SAIC has also played an integral role in the “War on Terror”, and was even responsible for capturing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. It was SAIC staff and technology that “tease[ed] out crucial clues about Mohammed’s activities from intercepted text messages that he sent to his al Qaeda operatives using as many as 20 different cell phones.”[31]

In an interesting coincidence, while the Carlyle/BDM subsidiary Vinnell Corp was training the Saudi Arabian National Guard, SAIC was training the Saudi Navy and bringing Saudi military personnel to company headquarters in San Diego for further study. Simultaneously, Booz Allen Hamilton was managing the Saudi Marine Corps and running the Saudi Armed Forces Staff College.[32] Vinnell now works with SAIC to train the Iraqi military.[33]

SAIC employees or board members have included Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former Deputy Director of CIA Bobby Ray Inman, former NYC OEM director Jerome Hauer, anthrax attack suspect Stephen Hatfill, former CIA Director John Deutch, and Lawrence B. Prior, a military intelligence officer and former TRW executive. Also formerly with SAIC, during the time of the planning and implementation of the 9/11 attacks, was Dick Cheney’s undersecretary of defense, Duane Andrews.

Duane Andrews considered Dick Cheney to be his personal, lifelong hero.[34] While he worked for Cheney, Andrews supervised Stephen Cambone, who went on to become Donald Rumsfeld’s “special assistant.” When Andrews left the Pentagon in 1993, he became chief operating officer for SAIC, where he supervised “much of the company’s work on secret projects with defense and national security agencies.”[35] Andrews and Cambone both later hired on to the British intelligence firm Qinetiq, along with George Tenet. Coincidentally, The Carlyle Group was a major shareholder in Qinetiq as of February 2003.

Anonymous Coward says:

Is there some particular legal reason why they’re so averse to being specific about dates? Or is “on or about” SOP for this kind of thing? I can see it in cases of actual uncertainty (on or about a certain month, for example) but for the actual date something happened?

“On or about September 11, 2001, four or approximately four airliners were hijacked by one or more terrorists…”

Anonymous Coward says:

The FBI created a fake terror plot.
The FBI convinced someone to go along with their fake terror plot.
The FBI trained someone in their fake terror plot.
The FBI supplied all of the equipment for the fake terror plot.
The FBI supplied the location of the fake terror plot.
The FBI built the fake terror plot bomb.

This guy literally did nothing to be arrested for terrorism.

How the hell is this legal in ANY STRETCH OF ANY IMAGINATION OF ANY BEING?

Not an Electronic Rodent (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:

To me, this is like setting a building on fire and handing some poor person the matches and running off.

No, it’s not….
it’s like making one of those fake fires with a fan, some silk and a light, handing some poor person a huge, plastic Swan Vesta match that wouldn’t burn if you tried… and then having him arrested for killing hundreds of people by burning down a building that doesn’t in fact exist.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

Because you need terrosits to keep the military industrial complex going.
Because without a terrorist plot a huge chunk of the USA econnomy will go down.
Because you need a working economy to keep people alive in a capitalist country (if you don’t have money you die even in a hospital, google).
Because you need to keep people alive you need terroists.
Because you need you need terrorits you need people who entrap them.
Because you can’t make a supposed terrorist plot without a fall guy you need the government agencies.
Because you need government agencies they are allowed to do what they want.
Because gov agencies are allowed what they want they spy on leaders and find dirt.
Because the gov agencies find dirt on gov leaders they dictate who is a gov leader.
ALL HAIL THE NEW DICATATOR: gov agencies

GooberedUp (profile) says:

Silly article

“until the FBI shows up and provides them with the fake tools to do so.”

Or until the person goes and shoots some mall up and then you idiots scream about how the government knew about him but didn’t do anything.

Stupid article.

P.S. SOP on the date. I’m an attorney and that’s the way we write it all the time.

GooberedUp (profile) says:

Re: Re: Silly article

Not “you” as in you personally or techdirt. “you” as in much of the public, including me, when I hear about people being persons of interest that weren’t arrested/detained/whatever at some point or another right before they go nuts and kill people. Maybe I should have said “we idiots”.

It’s impossible to know who the next person will be that commits an evil act. So as opportunities come up to possibly stop some future act, I support eliminating the threat.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: Silly article

I view this as entrapment (although I’m sure the courts will find a way to claim it isn’t). More importantly, I find it very aggravating that the FBI pushes the media to report this as if it was an actual attack stopped at the last second by some brilliant bit of police work, when the reality is nothing of the sort.

pixelpusher220 (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Silly article

Since you have expressly stated your desire to punish people for things they haven’t yet done…

We should be arresting you for depriving people of their liberties without cause.

I mean, here its just text on a page, but as you say, we can’t tell when you’ll turn into a fascist dictator – so we should eliminate the threat.

We should also probably arrest anyone for having an alcoholic beverage, because we can prevent possible future acts of DUI.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: Silly article

It’s impossible to know who the next person will be that commits an evil act. So as opportunities come up to possibly stop some future act, I support eliminating the threat.

What an odd combination of statements. You can’t know who will commit an evil act, so everyone is a threat. You support eliminating the threat as opportunities come up.

Does this mean that you are in favor of killing (“stop future acts”, “elminating”) everyone (“impossible to know who…”) you can get away (“opportunities come up”) with killing?

Not an Electronic Rodent (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Silly article

It’s impossible to know who the next person will be that commits an evil act. So as opportunities come up to possibly stop some future act, I support eliminating the threat.

OK, let’s pretend for a moment that this argument makes sense….

Where’s the bar set?
This guy apparently committed no criminal act (since there was in fact no actual bomb involved at any point in the “conspiracy”) and it appears that he’s pretty much all talk and seems too stupid to actually plan anything on his own.

So, that means it’s OK to arrest people who:
1/ Are easily led and might be convinced by someone malicious to commit a violent crime if they happen to meet the wrong person.
2/ Are unthinking and at least borderline sociopathic enough to maybe commit some random act of violence if the right set of circumstances of anger/means/trigger/target happen to come their way at the wrong time.

So that leaves me two questions;
Where are you going to put all the people that fall under that definition?
How are you going to find enough people who don’t to look after them?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Silly article

Or until the person goes and shoots some mall up and then you idiots scream about how the government knew about him but didn’t do anything.

There is a huge difference between monitoring someones activities and arresting them if and when they try to obtaining items for terrorist activities and providing the plot and dummy materials. The first is good police work, the second is making someone take a fall for thought crime.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Silly article

They did know about him and they did not do anything about it. But they did use him in a bigger plot they created and provided the material for.

Without the FBI the person could not have done anything because the person tried and failed.

By the way what is your real name? If you are indeed an attorney and stand for what you believe in then your clients deserve to know who they are dealing with in my opinion. At least I don’t want to hire an attorney that doesn’t see my point of view. Meaning if you don’t publish your name I assume you are nothing but a troll saying she or he is an attorney.

Anonymous Coward says:

The FBI has to do this

Work it out. They have zero, zip, zilch, nada ability to stop real plots (e.g., Boston Marathon bombing) even if they’re concocted by ignorant amateurs and very poorly carried out (e.g., Boston Marathon bombing).

The FBI knows this. They know they’re helpless. The serious people in government know this. The serious people outside government know this. But nobody wants to admit it. Nobody wants to go on national television and tell the truth: “Hey, folks…by its very nature, terrorism is unstoppable. Some of you are going to die and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Instead, by pretending that they can actually do something effective, they can shred the Constitution, accumulate power, and justify their horribly-bloated budget via occasional dog-and-pony shows like this. Spending a million or two taxpayer dollars on this pathetic loser (investigation, prosecution, incarceration, etc.) provides air cover for everything else.

There will be more. They’ll find the mentally ill, the disenfranchised, the radical, anybody and everybody they can. They’ll push them over the edge — INSTEAD of trying to help them and keep them from going that direction. They’ll destroy their lives and their families’ lives.

And when the next REAL terrorist attack comes, they won’t have a clue. Remember: this is the agency that was so amazingly stupid that it didn’t grasp the significance of a field agent report that an oddly high number of middle eastern men were learning to fly planes, but not to land them.

Padpaw (profile) says:

Re: The FBI has to do this

the FBI knew about the boston bombers though. IT is on record Russian intelligence warned them about it, and the FBI chose to do nothing about it.

Then there is the question of why the boston PD were running a bomb drill shortly before the marathon, why they detonated a bomb at the library and why they had such a large presence at the marathon. snipers on the roofs, bomb sniffing dogs, craft mercenaries, federal agents.

Looks more to me they chose to let this attack happen. Just like they choose to setup up people for terrorist acts that they most likely could not or would not have ever done on their own.

Fuck says:

shit

Yet another article with a completely unnecessary obscenity. Its starting to come off as desperate.

At this point, its old hat. “Shit” and “fuck” just aren’t cutting it anymore. If you’re gonna do it, just DO it. It’s high time you dropped the word “cunt” into an article. THEN you’d be one of the cool kids. 😉

Anonymous Coward says:

Are there so few bad guys (actual criminals) that some higher-up in the FBI thinks, whenever someone reports a funky FB post, “Get those agents over who have nothing to do on to creating a new crime” ? Shouldn’t they be after the 10 Most Wanted or something? How many agents are taken off investigations into stuff that has ALREADY HAPPENED just to create new crimes to juice the ‘solved’ numbers?

Anonymous Coward says:

This man was clearly deranged and dangerous. Removing him from the populous, unless/until he can be reformed, is the correct thing to do. The entrapment aspects of this story aren’t without merit, however, I think what’s missing here is acknowledgement for the lack of (or failure to utilize) more rational options (like involuntary mental health commitment) to deal with situations like this- or the failure of those systems to achieve a desirable outcome. There’s more to all this then just ‘the fbi needs to justify itself’ – that conclusion seams very sort sighted.

That One Guy (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Don’t know about Mike, but as for my suggestions…

Go to a judge asking for a warrant to observe the communications of the idiot(though for the most part that would seem to be unnecessary, if he’s going to make his crazy public anyway). Still, better to get the warrant just in case, and it’s not like doing so would take much work.

With the available evidence, should be no problem at all to get a warrant to monitor his communications. Do so. At this point, do absolutely nothing other than monitor his communications. At most, if he seems to be getting a bit too deranged, to the point where he might be a danger to himself, consider asking a judge to sign an arrest warrant to place him in protective custody so he can get some psychiatric help.

Until it looks like he’s actually going to do something, stand back and do nothing other than monitor communications.

John Fenderson (profile) says:

Re: Re:

My suggestion? Investigate. If he’s just a random nut, as it sounds like, then put him on a list of people to check out if something bad happens, maybe keep track of where he lives, and otherwise ignore him.

If he appears to be a dangerous nut, then keep him under some greater level of surveillance.

Nothing more needs to be done than that.

Anonymous Coward says:

It's the world we live in

Two days before the Columbine anniversary my son was evicted from high school (1 month before graduation) and arrested for felony bomb threats and felony harassment.

Did he call in a bomb threat to the school (we had 5 of those when I was in high school, never caught the callers)?… Nope.
Did he specifically threaten any individuals?… Nope

He pissed off some of his “friends” and two of the girls went to the administration with “he said….”

My son has NO disciplinary issues, other attendance related issues (who really wants to be at high school…).
No research, No analysis, No talking to parents. Office to Mental Health evaluator (who said he was fine), then arrested the next day.

Headlines 2 days before the columbine anniversary, “Local Police force stops plot to blow up school.” A year later, after one of the key “witnesses” admitted that she was under the influence when talking to the police (didn’t want to admit that she just flat out lied), the charges were finally dismissed as there was no actual evidence.

But lets look at the effects…
Prosecutor gets BIG headlines for a small town…
Police force “justifies” it’s school presence…
My son doesn’t get to graduate from High school with only a month of work left…
My son looses his job due to “pending charges”…

And everyone is so much safer…

beltorak (profile) says:

> CHS 1 … asked Booker what he wanted to do. Booker answered, “Anything. Anything you think is good. I will follow you.”

You know, at this point if there were any functional brain cells in the agent’s head he would have just said “OK pal, game’s over. I’m really with the FBI [flash badge], and you are really an idiot. Just keep in mind we’re watching you now, and if you think you can get away with any of this jihad-y bullshit we’ll be all over you like shit on rice.” and cooly walk off into the sunset.

There, crazy averted.

OK, maybe this wouldn’t be the best thing to happen, but it might make a great scene in some True Lies-esque movie.

David says:

Sigh

You don’t curb terrorism by arresting malleable idiots. There will never be a shortage of them.

You curb terrorism by making sure that smart people don’t have a motive to plan terrorist acts.

Recruiting large numbers of FBI agents for the sake of planning believable terrorist attacks at arbitrary levels of plausability is not a smart step.

Without training, schooling and other resources by the CIA, people like Saddham Hussein, Osama bin Laden and a number of other notably effective enemies of the U.S. would likely still be chewing cud.

Anonymous Coward says:

I notice that many comments are screaming entrapment, but my understanding of entrapment is when the government (or one of their agents) forces you into some action you would not normally take.

For example, a FBI undercover agent making you courier drugs by a fake threat to you family’s lives would be entrapment, if the same undercover agent approached you asking you to courier drugs for money wouldn’t be if you just said yes.

I’ll admit I’m not American, so I may be misunderstanding how the legal system there defines entrapment.

Cheers

John Fenderson (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Entrapment happens when law enforcement induces you to commit a crime that you would not have otherwise committed. For example, if you’re walking around downtown asking to buy illegal drugs from people, and you happen to ask a cop — that’s not entrapment. If the cop is standing on the street corner talking you into buying drugs — that’s entrapment.

Whether or not entrapment has happened is often very subjective, which is why most “sting” operations carry with them a great risk of being entrapment.

qyiet (profile) says:

FBI is better than Hans Blix.. they found some.

attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction

Is no-one else bothered by this change in definition of ‘weapon of mass destruction’ that seems to have happened. When Hans Blix was searching Iraq for WMDs these seemed to include Nukes, Chemical and Biological weapons. The sort of things where a single attack could wipe a city off the map. Now we are down to car and pressure cooker bombs? Why couldn’t Hans Blix find a single one of those in Iraq?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: FBI is better than Hans Blix.. they found some.

I think the US definition of WMD went down a slippery slide of gotta catch’em all and now its just weapons of single destruction, only harmfull about one person like “assault with a deadly weapon”, and weapons of mass destruction, harmfull to more than one person.

So any explosive and incendiary device and whatever, equals wmd.
Can of gas in the car? Could be wmd.
Can of gas on your farm truck? WMD.

You can’t sympathize with someone charged with WMD.

It’s just like “you wouldn’t download a car” rhetorics-

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