FBI Disrupts Terror Plot

[RandomGuy]

http://news.yahoo.com/raid-western-minnesota-home-thwarted-terror-attack-fbi-162726079.html

http://www.fbi.gov/minneapolis/press-releases/2013/suspect-buford-rogers-arrested-in-montevideo


MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Authorities disrupted a terror plot and possibly saved lives when they raided a home in western Minnesota last week and recovered several guns including an assault rifle and explosive devices, the FBI said on Monday.

Federal, state and local law enforcement officers on Friday descended on the property, in Montevideo, Minnesota, where they arrested one man and recovered weapons and explosives after executing a search warrant, the FBI said in a statement.

Buford Rogers, 24, was arrested without incident and was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to a criminal complaint filed with federal court in Minnesota, the FBI said.

The FBI statement did not provide details of the suspected plot. Montevideo is about 130 miles west of Minneapolis near the South Dakota border.

"The FBI believes that a terror attack was disrupted by law enforcement personnel and that the lives of several local residents were potentially saved," the FBI statement said.

"The terror plot was discovered and subsequently thwarted through the timely analysis of intelligence and through the cooperation and coordination between the aforementioned agencies."

According to the criminal complaint, sworn by an FBI agent assigned to a squad that investigates domestic terrorism, Rogers was convicted of felony burglary in 2011 and admitted to firing the assault rifle twice recently at a gun range.

As a convicted felon, Rogers could not legally possess a firearm that has been transported across state or international boundaries, the complaint said. It described the assault rifle as a Romanian model AK-M.

The steady drumbeat of terrorism goes on.

(UPDATE)

2. The suspect allegedly had militia ties and believed in conspiracy theories

According to NBC News' Pete Williams and Daniel Arkin, Rogers has ties to an as yet unidentified militia group. ABC News, citing Montevideo Police Chief Adam Christopher, said Rogers had formed an organization called the Black Snake Militia.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Rogers has a social media footprint that's heavy on conspiracy theories about big government taking away citizens' rights.
From the Star Tribune:

"The NWO [New World Order] has taken all your freedoms the right to bear arms freedom of speach freedom of the press ..." read one profanity-punctuated message.

"ever one better get your guns ready cuz there comeing FEMA" and "The war is here tsa agents are doing random cheeks and shooting people for no reson," read others.

Photos in his Facebook account show him with various firearms, along with several people with guns and wearing clown makeup. [Star Tribune]

A neighbor of Rogers' who spoke with the Star Tribune added that Rogers sometimes talked about "white supremacist stuff."

Unsurprising, to say the least.

[DarrinS]

RG determined to let us know about the massive threat posed by dangerous right-wing extremists.

Thanks, RG

[boutons_deux]

not a terror plot, unless al-Buford had a political objective. FBI simply padding their stats in the terrorist column, to along with the majority of terrorists they encouraged, paid, armed, and entrapped.

[George Gervin's Afro]

RG determined to let us know about the massive threat posed by dangerous right-wing extremists.

Thanks, RG

I assume you are pleased that this guy was stopped..right?

[DarrinS]

I assume you are pleased that this guy was stopped..right?

Lots of these type of plots are disrupted and we never hear about it.

[DarrinS]

To answer your question, yes, I'm glad it was stopped.

[Th'Pusher]

RG determined to let us know about the massive threat posed by dangerous right-wing extremists.

Thanks, RG
What makes you think this is a right-wing extremist?

[boutons_deux]

stopped from what? what crime?

"possibly saving lives" :lol FBI believes its own press releases.

[coyotes_geek]

The important thing to remember here is that it's the policies of elected leaders I disagree with which allowed this to happen.

[TeyshaBlue]

What makes you think this is a right-wing extremist?

Well, RG has been on a bit of a right-wing extremist tear lately.

[SA210]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwTpJ1EoV6A

[RandomGuy]

RG determined to let us know about the massive threat posed by dangerous right-wing extremists.

Thanks, RG

Your commentary, not mine. I offered no opinion, as there is not enough information to draw any conclusions yet.

Does right-wing terrorism concern you?

Do you think right-wing terrorism is more, or less common than it was 10 or 20 years ago?

[RandomGuy]

Well, RG has been on a bit of a right-wing extremist tear lately.

Indeed. I have taken pains to point it out, because it seems no few people here don't seem to know about it, but readily point to recent muslim terrorism as some huge problem.

"muslim = budding terrorist", based on a few datapoints.

The same logic or standards of evidence though, applied to whites, or right-wing christian extremist groups, doesn't seem to apply. Christianity is given a pass for some reason, that does not seem overly rational to me.

[TeyshaBlue]

Indeed. I have taken pains to point it out, because it seems no few people here don't seem to know about it, but readily point to recent muslim terrorism as some huge problem.

"muslim = budding terrorist", based on a few datapoints.

The same logic or standards of evidence though, applied to whites, or right-wing christian extremist groups, doesn't seem to apply. Such people are given a pass for some reason, that is not overly rational to me.

Avante is not representative of...well, anyone really.:lol

[RandomGuy]

Avante is not representative of...well, anyone really.:lol

Actually, until recently I would sort of have included myself in that category.

Given Avante's comments, I went looking at other types of terrorism, and I was kind of surprised how much real terrorism has taken place in this country at the hands of christian/right-wing extremists. You just don't hear about a lot of it, as it gets lumped into the general category of overall criminality, and we don't think of the KKK as a terrorist organisation.

[DarrinS]

Actually, until recently I would sort of have included myself in that category.

Given Avante's comments, I went looking at other types of terrorism, and I was kind of surprised how much real terrorism has taken place in this country at the hands of christian/right-wing extremists. You just don't hear about a lot of it, as it gets lumped into the general category of overall criminality, and we don't think of the KKK as a terrorist organisation.


FBI's most wanted domestic terrorists.

All lefties

http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/dt


You're welcome

[CosmicCowboy]

Fucker probably just had some tannerite.

FBI is way overrated. I worked with them as a consultant one time and some of them were just bum-fucking stupid.

Holder has been dying to bust some stupid redneck and call him a terrorist.

[DarrinS]

Fucker probably just had some tannerite.

FBI is way overrated. I worked with them as a consultant one time and some of them were just bum-fucking stupid.

Holder has been dying to bust some stupid redneck and call him a terrorist.


RG has been hoping for this too.


CC -- what do you think of that 3d printed handgun?

[CosmicCowboy]

Didn't really pay attention to the thread. 3D printing is a cool technology for prototyping but not so much for manufacturing IMHO.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

:lol They raided a trailer and it wasn't even a doublewide.

I mean maybe they were going for incognito but if that is the best effort of the militia movement then I am not particularly worried.

[CosmicCowboy]

:lol They raided a trailer and it wasn't even a doublewide.

I mean maybe they were going for incognito but if that is the best effort of the militia movement then I am not particularly worried.

That was the best effort of Eric Holder to personify the Great White Terror Threat. He has to distract attention from what the real Islamic cocksucker terrorists have been up to.

Check it out. Look if you dare. It's fucking ugly.

http://cryptome.org/2013-info/04/boston-bombs/boston-bombs.htm

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I have no interest in the political namedropping angle.

Chechnyan insurrection is a different animal than arabic sunni is a different animal than domestic sedition.

[CosmicCowboy]

I have no interest in the political namedropping angle.

Chechnyan insurrection is a different animal than arabic sunni is a different animal than domestic sedition.

:lmao @ trying to categorize this as Chechnyan insurrection.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

:lmao @ trying to categorize this as Chechnyan insurrection.

Well initial reports indicate that the radicalization occurred in daegestan with chechnyan refugees. That is the root ideology. That is a different animal than the arabic sunni stuff. The far right militia whackjobs are a completely different set.

Either way, I get bored with the washington tit for tat namedropping bullshit that you seem to eat up.

ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA ERIC HOLDER HILLARY CLINTON BARACK OBAMA

It only serves to hide what is really going on and gives a simple easy target to go after. the bureaucracy especially the NSA, HSA types are career types that go under the radar while you get buttfucked with GOP rhetoric.

[RandomGuy]

FBI's most wanted domestic terrorists.

All lefties

http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/dt


You're welcome

:lmao FAIL.

You suck at the internets.

[RandomGuy]

Didn't really pay attention to the thread. 3D printing is a cool technology for prototyping but not so much for manufacturing IMHO.

So far.

Manufacturing costs will come down as the technology matures, just like anything else.

My gut says this will change a lot o things, but I will remain cautiously skeptical until I see a bit more about what people actually do with it. Too new to really say much conclusive about its impact.

[RandomGuy]

That was the best effort of Eric Holder to personify the Great White Terror Threat. He has to distract attention from what the real Islamic cocksucker terrorists have been up to.

Check it out. Look if you dare. It's fucking ugly.

http://cryptome.org/2013-info/04/boston-bombs/boston-bombs.htm


2. The suspect allegedly had militia ties and believed in conspiracy theories

According to NBC News' Pete Williams and Daniel Arkin, Rogers has ties to an as yet unidentified militia group. ABC News, citing Montevideo Police Chief Adam Christopher, said Rogers had formed an organization called the Black Snake Militia.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Rogers has a social media footprint that's heavy on conspiracy theories about big government taking away citizens' rights.

From the Star Tribune:

"The NWO [New World Order] has taken all your freedoms the right to bear arms freedom of speach freedom of the press ..." read one profanity-punctuated message.

"ever one better get your guns ready cuz there comeing FEMA" and "The war is here tsa agents are doing random cheeks and shooting people for no reson," read others.

Photos in his Facebook account show him with various firearms, along with several people with guns and wearing clown makeup. [Star Tribune]

A neighbor of Rogers' who spoke with the Star Tribune added that Rogers sometimes talked about "white supremacist stuff."

As noted elsewhere, the Southern Poverty Law Center has noted a huge upswing in militia groups.

I'm sure you want to play apologist for the right wing whackadoos, but there are more of them than you realize, or would seem to care to admit.

[RandomGuy]

:lmao @ trying to categorize this as Chechnyan insurrection.

We will get to find out a bit more as time goes on. Don't be so quick to simplify or dismiss, we are still learning exactly why.

[mouse]

ASLq25BtpTo

[Winehole23]

Lots of these type of plots are disrupted and we never hear about it.The NSA fudges: http://www.propublica.org/article/claim-on-attacks-thwarted-by-nsa-spreads-despite-lack-of-evidence

[RandomGuy]

The NSA fudges: http://www.propublica.org/article/claim-on-attacks-thwarted-by-nsa-spreads-despite-lack-of-evidence

I would be willing to bet that the bar for what constitutes "terrorist attack thwarted" is low.

[Oh, Gee!!]

this is good news.(?)

[Winehole23]

Nearly ninety-five percent of individuals on a Justice Department list of “terrorism and terrorism-related convictions” from 2001-2010 included some elements of preemptive prosecution, according to a study by attorneys which they say is the first to “directly examine and critique preemptive prosecution and its abuses.”

The study is called “Inventing Terrorists: The Lawfare of Preemptive Prosecution” [PDF (http://www.projectsalam.org/Inventing-Terrorists-study.pdf)]. It was released by Project SALAM, which stands for Support and Legal Advocacy for Muslims, and the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF), a coalition of groups that “oppose profiling, preemptive prosecution and prisoner abuse.”


While Mother Jones has already published extensive work (http://www.motherjones.com/special-reports/2011/08/fbi-terrorist-informants) on the entrapment and prosecution of “terrorists” since the 9/11 attacks examining the Justice Department’s list, this study is noteworthy because it advances the journalism to outline how the government has perverted the criminal justice system through practices that have become popular especially against Muslims.

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/06/09/inventing-terrorists-study-offers-critical-examination-of-governments-use-of-preemptive-prosecutions/

[Winehole23]

The concept of preemptive prosecution is defined as “a law enforcement strategy, adopted after 9/11, to target and prosecute individuals or organizations whose beliefs, ideology, or religious affiliations raise security concerns for the government.” (However, the authors do acknowledge that the practices bear resemblance to tactics used by the FBI as part of COINTELPRO.)


Criminal charges are pretext. For example, someone charged with “material support for terrorism” may be charged with that to criminalize “free speech, free association, charity, peace-making and social hospitality.” Someone may be charged with “conspiracy” for having friendships or simply being part of an organization the government doesn’t like.


Agents provocateurs may be sent in to entrap a target into participating in a plot manufactured and controlled by the government every step of the way. The government may also choose to use “minor ‘technical’ crimes,” such as errors on immigration forms, an alleged false statement to a government official, gun possession, tax or financial issues, etc., to go after someone for their “ideology.”

same

[RandomGuy]

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/06/09/inventing-terrorists-study-offers-critical-examination-of-governments-use-of-preemptive-prosecutions/

ISH. This kinda shit makes my skin crawl.

There is a balancing act going on between worrying about really abusing the rights of muslims, and the fact that the fighting in Syria is starting to attract muslims from western countries that brings up some rather disturbing questions:

ISIS militants with US passports?
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27844749
Follows on to a bunch of other articles
Not really sure how credible to put this stuff:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/380362/isis-homeland-andrew-g-doran
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/20/exclusive-more-than-100-americans-are-waging-jihad-in-syria-u-s-intelligence-says.html

Daily beast and national review citing anonymous sources does not strike me as overly credible, but one can find a couple of instances where there were confirmed cases of US citizens joining jihadi movements.


Walking a line between respecting rights and preventing whackjobs with AK-47s carrying out (more) attacks.

I will find it sadly ironic, that if/when any radicalized westerners carry out such attacks, the right will not be asking for the common sense solution of limiting the availability of assault weapons, but will freely give up all sorts of other rights.

[boutons_deux]

How Joe Montana refused to play ball when FBI tried to sting him

The FBI sent an undercover agent posing as a real estate investor to meet with Joe Montana in an attempt to lure the 49er great into a sting, according to a defense attorney in the Leland Yee case who was made privy to certain details of the government's investigation.



"It shows the deepest lack of judgment I can imagine," said the attorney, James Brosnahan.

The undercover agent set up the meeting to discuss a possible investment in Montana's planned hotel development next to the 49ers' new stadium in Santa Clara, Brosnahan said.

He said he didn't know if the agent was wearing a wire when he met with Montana a couple of years back at a South Bay restaurant, though the feds regularly did that during the investigation that resulted in the indictments in March of Yee, the now-suspended state senator from San Francisco, and 28 others.

The agent "presented himself as an honest businessman who wanted to invest in Montana's hotel," Brosnahan said.

There is no indication that Montana was asked to do anything illegal, and we're told he showed no interest in taking on a new partner.

In the end, Brosnahan said, the government backed off because it "wasn't going to fund investments in a hotel."

The Montana meeting was part of a four-year investigation in which the FBI pointed undercover agents at a variety of targets, including Yee and Brosnahan's client, former San Francisco school board President Keith Jackson, to try to ferret out corruption.

"In a sting, they have real reason to believe someone is committing a crime," Brosnahan said. "But here they fanned out all over California to see who would talk to them about anything."

The U.S. attorney's office, which is prosecuting Yee, Jackson, Chinatown tong leader Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow and the other 26 defendants, declined to comment on the apparent targeting of Montana. And neither the FBI nor Montana's attorney, Rob Mezzetti, returned our calls.

Brosnahan said the FBI meeting with Montana is evidence of how far the feds were ready to go to make a case.

"Who decided to take Joe to lunch and cast a cloud on Northern California's greatest sports hero?" he said. "Nobody was exercising any judgment about the scope of this thing."

It should be noted that Montana's partner in the 9.5-acre development deal near Levi's Stadium, Kurt Wittek, was convicted of bank fraud by a federal jury in 1992 after he helped a business associate secure an illegal loan to buy a North Carolina savings and loan. He later got part of the case tossed on appeal, and his five-year prison sentence was reduced to probation.

As we first reported last month, fear that Montana's name would bubble up as part of the FBI's corruption probe was among the reasons U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued a protective order barring prosecutors and defense attorneys from disclosing certain evidence to the public, including wiretaps and recordings.



Brosnahan said he wasn't violating the order because none of his comments "come from any of the protected evidence."

It was Brosnahan - one of the defense lawyers assigned to negotiate the terms of the protective order - who alerted his colleagues that Montana was among those the government was looking to shield.

Brosnahan had earlier declined our request to talk about the Montana matter. But now he's speaking up, in what appears to be a defense strategy to paint the feds as overzealous in their campaign to root out public corruption.

http://m.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/How-Joe-Montana-refused-to-play-ball-when-FBI-5554528.php

[Winehole23]

Lots of these type of plots are disrupted and we never hear about it.perhaps because the vast majority were LE sting operations targeting more or less inept perps, contrived to create the impression that terrorism is a much bigger threat than it actually is.

[Winehole23]

Consider the truly remarkable (yet not aberrational) 2011 prosecution of James Cromitie, an impoverished African-American Muslim convert who had expressed anti-Semitic views but, at the age of 45, had never evinced any inclination to participate in a violent attack. For eight months, the FBI used an informant – one who was on the hook for another crime and whom the FBI was paying - to try to persuade Cromitie to agree to join a terror plot which the FBI had concocted. And for eight months, he adamantly refused. Only when they dangled a payment of $250,000 in front of him right as he lost his job did he finally assent, causing the FBI to arrest him. The DOJ trumpeted the case as a major terrorism arrest, obtained a prosecution and sent him to prison for 25 years.


The federal judge presiding over his case, Colleen McMahon, repeatedly lambasted (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-29/new-york-city-synagogue-bomb-plotters-are-sentenced-to-25-years-in-prison.html) the government for wholly manufacturing the plot. When sentencing him to decades in prison, she said Cromitie “was incapable of committing an act of terrorism on his own,” and that it was the FBI which “created acts of terrorism out of his fantasies of bravado and bigotry, and then made those fantasies come true.” She added: “only the government could have made a terrorist out of Mr. Cromitie, whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in scope.”


In her written ruling (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2112819/united-states-v-cromitie/) upholding the conviction, Judge McMahon noted that Cromitie “had successfully resisted going too far for eight months,” and agreed only after “the Government dangled what had to be almost irresistible temptation in front of an impoverished man from what I have come (after literally dozens of cases) to view as the saddest and most dysfunctional community in the Southern District of New York.” It was the FBI’s own informant, she wrote, who “was the prime mover and instigator of all the criminal activity that occurred.” She then wrote (emphasis added):



As it turns out, the Government did absolutely everything that the defense predicted in its previous motion to dismiss the indictment. The Government indisputably “manufactured” the crimes of which defendants stand convicted. The Government invented all of the details of the scheme - many of them, such as the trip to Connecticut and the inclusion of Stewart AFB as a target, for specific legal purposes of which the defendants could not possibly have been aware (the former gave rise to federal jurisdiction and the latter mandated a twenty-five year minimum sentence). The Government selected the targets. The Government designed and built the phony ordnance that the defendants planted (or planned to plant) at Government-selected targets. The Government provided every item used in the plot: cameras, cell phones, cars, maps and even a gun. The Government did all the driving (as none of the defendants had a car or a driver’s license). The Government funded the entire project. And the Government, through its agent, offered the defendants large sums of money, contingent on their participation in the heinous scheme.




Additionally, before deciding that the defendants (particularly Cromitie, who was in their sights for nine months) presented any real danger, the Government appears to have done minimal due diligence, relying instead on reports from its Confidential Informant, who passed on information about Cromitie information that could easily have been verified (or not verified, since much of it was untrue), but that no one thought it necessary to check before offering a jihadist opportunity to a man who had no contact with any extremist groups and no history of anything other than drug crimes.



On another occasion, Judge McMahon wrote (http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/05/newburgh_4_terr_2.php): “There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that James Cromitie could never have dreamed up the scenario in which he actually became involved. And if by some chance he had, he would not have had the slightest idea how to make it happen.” She added that while “Cromitie, who was desperately poor, accepted meals and rent money from [the informant], he repeatedly backed away from his violent statements when it came time to act on them,” and that “only when the offers became outrageously high–and when Cromitie was particularly vulnerable to them, because he had lost his job–did he finally succumb.”

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/16/latest-fbi-boast-disrupting-terror-u-s-plot-deserves-scrutiny-skepticism/

[Winehole23]

The known facts from this latest case seem to fit well within a now-familiar FBI pattern (http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/21/us-terrorism-prosecutions-often-illusion) 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 (http://www.npr.org/2011/03/03/134168714/guantanamo-north-inside-u-s-secretive-prisons)).same

[Winehole23]

perhaps because the vast majority were LE sting operations targeting more or less inept perps, contrived to create the impression that terrorism is a much bigger threat than it actually is.the hits keep coming: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/26/fbi-manufacture-plots-terrorism-isis-grave-threats/

[Winehole23]

Once again, we should all pause for a moment to thank the brave men and women of the FBI for saving us from their own terror plots.

[Winehole23]

We’re constantly bombarded with dire warnings (http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/homegrown-terrorism-remains-biggest-threat-jeh-johnson-says-1.2782480) about the grave threat of home-grown terrorists, “lone wolf” extremists and ISIS. So intensified are these official warnings that The New York Times earlier this month cited (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/world/middleeast/islamic-state-sprouting-limbs-beyond-mideast.html) anonymous U.S. intelligence officials to warn of the growing ISIS threat and announce “the prospect of a new global war on terror.”


But how serious of a threat can all of this be, at least domestically, if the FBI continually has to resort to manufacturing its own plots by trolling the Internet in search of young drifters and/or the mentally ill whom they target, recruit and then manipulate into joining? Does that not, by itself, demonstrate how over-hyped and insubstantial this “threat” actually is? Shouldn’t there be actual plots, ones that are created and fueled without the help of the FBI, that the agency should devote its massive resources to stopping?

same

[Winehole23]

another sting, another patsy, another call to censor the internet:


As you may have heard, yesterday the FBI "uncovered" yet another of its own terrorist plots (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/02/isis-women-arrested_n_6993284.html), the latest in a very long line (https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?tag=own+plots) of "terrorist plots" the FBI has "uncovered" -- in which the details always show that it was an undercover FBI "informant" (often doing this to get off leniently for some other issue), who more or less goads hapless, naive people, into a "plot" that had no real chance of ever happening. This appears to be the same sort of thing.


Still, politicians never leave an opportunity like this unexploited, and so in jumps Senator Dianne Feinstein, arguing that the only proper way to deal with this is to, of course... censor the internet (http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=5aa2afc1-2616-439a-a7bf-1f54b71b40ca):


I am particularly struck that the alleged bombers made use of online bombmaking guides like the Anarchist Cookbook and Inspire Magazine. These documents are not, in my view, protected by the First Amendment and should be removed from the Internet. For what it's worth, Dianne Feinstein's "view" is wrong. The Anarchist Cookbook is very much protected by the First Amendment. While the book is banned in other countries, who don't have the equivalent of the First Amendment, it's perfectly legal in the US. The FBI/DOJ has extensively investigated (http://www.governmentattic.org/4docs/FBI-AnarchistsCookbook_1971-1999.pdf) the Anarchist's Cookbook in particular over the years, and as far back as 1997 directly told Senator Feinstein that she could not ban it (http://cryptome.org/abi.htm). This is from the DOJ back in 1997:


Senator Feinstein introduced legislation during the last Congress in an attempt to fill this gap. The Department of Justice agrees that it would be appropriate and beneficial to adopt further legislation to address this problem directly, if that can be accomplished in a manner that does not impermissibly restrict the wholly legitimate publication and teaching of such information, or otherwise violate the First Amendment.


The First Amendment would impose substantial constraints on any attempt to proscribe indiscriminately the dissemination of bombmaking information. The government generally may not, except in rare circumstances, punish persons either for advocating lawless action or for disseminating truthful information -- including information that would be dangerous if used -- that such persons have obtained lawfully.

And yet, Feinstein's first response to the FBI uncovering yet another of its own plots is to go back to trying to censoring the internet in direct violation of the First Amendment? Yikes.


Oh, and even worse... in keeping with the fact that this plot was actually created by the FBI itself, guess where the two "terrorist wannabes" got the Anarchist Cookbook? From the undercover FBI agent!https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150402/15274630528/fbi-uncovers-another-its-own-plots-senator-feinstein-responds-saying-we-should-censor-internet.shtml

[101A]

Did the Patriot act make entrapment legal?

[Winehole23]

probably closer to the mark to say entrapment of feeble-minded, inept terrorist patsies, especially if they are Muslim and non-white, is politically tolerated. but yeah, it sure looks that way.

[boutons_deux]

probably closer to the mark to say entrapment of feeble-minded, inept terrorist patsies, especially if they are Muslim and non-white, is politically tolerated. but yeah, it sure looks that way.

but the Keystone Kops ignored Russian warnings about the Boston bombers.

[TheSanityAnnex]

another sting, another patsy, another call to censor the internet:

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150402/15274630528/fbi-uncovers-another-its-own-plots-senator-feinstein-responds-saying-we-should-censor-internet.shtml

Don't be surprised when congress tries to use Net Neutrality to remove content such as this.

[Winehole23]

how would Congress do that?

[Winehole23]

Congress had nothing to do with net neutrality rules as currently formulated, and the FCC will enforce the rules. How the Congress would "use net neutrality" to censor the internet isn't clear...

[boutons_deux]

Don't be surprised when congress tries to use Net Neutrality to remove content such as this.

net neutrality is enforced by the "INDEPENDENT" FCC, not by Congress. :lol

All Congress can do is dick around with or abolish the FCC, not enforce its regulations.

[TheSanityAnnex]

Lol at believing the FCC is "independent".

[boutons_deux]

Lol at believing the FCC is "independent".

I don't believe, I know.

[Winehole23]

Lol at believing the FCC is "independent".Again, what does Congress have to do with net neutrality?

FCC commissioners are appointed by POTUS, make net neutrality rules and will enforce them. Seems you're a little unclear on the concept.

[spursncowboys]

This is a hoax. Everyone knows Barry beat the terrorists! Just look to Iraq and Yemen

[Winehole23]

looking at the Houthis as Iranian proxies is as simplistic as well, looking at out current Iraqi allies as Iranian proxies, but with even less justice...

[Winehole23]

the country mostly closely allied with Al Qaeda is and always was... Saudi Arabia.

[angrydude]

perhaps because the vast majority were LE sting operations targeting more or less inept perps, contrived to create the impression that terrorism is a much bigger threat than it actually is.

They need more funding. Look at how many terrorist attacks they've stopped!

[boutons_deux]

FBI Uncovers Another Of Its Own Plots, Senator Feinstein Responds By Saying We Should Censor The Internet


https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150402/15274630528/fbi-uncovers-another-its-own-plots-senator-feinstein-responds-saying-we-should-censor-internet.shtml

[FuzzyLumpkins]

FBI Uncovers Another Of Its Own Plots, Senator Feinstein Responds By Saying We Should Censor The Internet


https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150402/15274630528/fbi-uncovers-another-its-own-plots-senator-feinstein-responds-saying-we-should-censor-internet.shtml



I heard an interview from her regarding the internet censoring thing back after the CIA report and she was saying the same line then. I think the causal link is bullshit.

[Winehole23]

With Suarez, the FBI followed its sting playbook to a tee. The informant recorded Suarez making video, as occurred in the sting involving Sami Osmakac (https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/16/howthefbicreatedaterrorist/), a mentally ill Albanian-American from Florida who was also caught up in a counterterrorism sting.

In the video, Suarez wore a black tactical vest, black shirt, black face mask and a yellow and black scarf. “I call to other brothers worldwide to create a caliphate in the Middle East,” Suarez had written in his video script, according to the affidavit. “Destroy our enemies against us.”


A couple of weeks later, on June 3, the informant introduced Suarez to an undercover FBI agent, who was posing as an Islamic State operative who could supply explosive devices. Suarez allegedly talked of an attack on July 4 in Marathon, Florida, or in Miami Beach.


“They would know that, you know, it’s coming from Islamic State,” Suarez allegedly said.


The Independence Day plot didn’t happen, of course. It’s unclear why, from the FBI affidavit. There is some suggestion that Suarez had cold feet. The undercover agent had to ask Suarez in a phone conversation on July 13 if he was playing games, according to the affidavit.


“No, I don’t,” Suarez answered. “I’m not playing no games.”


The agent then asked if Suarez if he was “true to the Islamic State.”


A one-word answer followed: “Yeah.”


The first undercover agent introduced Suarez to a second agent, a supposed bomb maker for the Islamic State. On July 27, Suarez met with the second undercover agent in Key West and accepted from him what he believed was a backpack bomb. In truth, the device was inert. FBI agents then arrested Suarez, and he was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.


One of Suarez’s former co-workers on a hotel cleaning staff told the local newspaper he was a “a little slow (http://www.keysnet.com/2015/07/28/503863_neighbors-of-alleged-want-to-be.html?rh=1).”


Suarez is the latest man to be arrested as part of an increased push to nab Islamic State sympathizers in FBI counterterrorism stings (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/us/fbi-emphasizes-speed-as-isis-exhorts-individuals-to-attack.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1). These stings, like the ones over the previous decade that targeted so-called lone wolf Qaeda sympathizers, are catching people of questionable capacity who may not even be in contact with the Islamic State. Some of these recent targets have been described as mentally ill (http://www.salon.com/2015/04/11/cleric_man_charged_in_kansas_bomb_plot_is_mentally _ill/).


In Suarez’s case, it’s questionable whether he could have moved a terrorism plot forward were it not for the FBI. When he tried on his own to purchase an AK-47 using his real name and address, according to the FBI affidavit, the seller turned him away.
The reason: Suarez was incompetent. He had filled out the paperwork incorrectly.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/29/fbis-key-west-sting-target-incompetent-little-slow/

[Winehole23]

Trump continues the tradition of grooming terrorists, then busting them:


THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE proudly announced (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/missouri-man-charged-attempting-provide-material-support-isis) the first FBI terror arrest of the Trump administration on Tuesday: an elaborate sting operation that snared a 25-year-old Missouri man who had no terrorism contacts besides the two undercover FBI agents who paid him to buy hardware supplies they said was for a bomb — and who at one point pulled a knife on him and threatened his family.
Robert Lorenzo Hester of Columbia, Missouri, didn’t have the $20 he needed to buy the 9-volt batteries, duct tape, and roofing nails his new FBI friends wanted him to get, so they gave him the money. The agents noted in a criminal complaint (https://www.justice.gov/file/940801/download) that Hester, who at one point brought his two small children to a meeting because he didn’t have child care, continued smoking marijuana despite professing to be a devout Muslim.
https://theintercept.com/2017/02/22/trumps-first-terror-arrest-a-broke-stoner-the-fbi-threatened-at-knifepoint/

[Winehole23]

the only contact Hester had with ISIS was with the two undercover agents who suggested to him that they had connections with the group.

[Winehole23]

Hester agreed to go along with the agents’ plans, even when they described to him in detail their violent intentions. But that — and buying the hardware supplies requested by the agents — appears to be all he did. There is no evidence that he had ever been in touch with actual terrorists or had developed a plot of his own. Some of what he agreed to go along with in this case also came after an undercover agent had pulled out a knife and threatened to kill him and his family.


Regardless, Hester is now in federal custody on charges of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization. If convicted on the charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

[spurraider21]

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/missouri-man-charged-attempting-provide-material-support-isis

Paints a different picture than hussain's article that portrayed this dude as some unwitting, unknowing participant

[RandomGuy]

RG determined to let us know about the massive threat posed by dangerous right-wing extremists.

Thanks, RG

Violence by far right is among US’s most dangerous terrorist threats, study finds
This article is more than 4 months old
Center for Strategic and International Studies analysis of domestic terrorist incidents found majority have come from far right

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/27/us-far-right-violence-terrorist-threat-analysis

Feel free to point out any far left plot to kidnap and kill a Republican governor.

[DarrinS]

1326501254952972288

[ChumpDumper]

1326501254952972288Your side mass murders worshipers in synagogues.

[Leetonidas]

1326501254952972288

Did you think you were making a point in this thread when you posted this tweet?

[RandomGuy]

Feel free to point out any far left plot to kidnap and kill a Republican governor.


[picture of property damage from 2017]


So, nothing violent that actually harmed a person then.

Got it.

"property damage is just as violent as plots to kill people"

Fucking derp moron.

[BSfromTX]

Reminding everyone that conspiracy bad. Anyone thinking outside the narrative likely psycho terrorist.

[ChumpDumper]

Reminding everyone that conspiracy bad. Anyone thinking outside the narrative likely psycho terrorist.What are you even talking about?

Conspiracies do indeed exist. Believing the fake ones purely on faith is what 70% of Republicans are into.

[RandomGuy]

1326501254952972288

Man threatened to blow up people celebrating Biden victory, FBI building, prosecutors say
https://news.yahoo.com/man-threatened-blow-people-celebrating-155832418.html

[Winehole23]

Trump continues the tradition of grooming terrorists, then busting them:

https://theintercept.com/2017/02/22/trumps-first-terror-arrest-a-broke-stoner-the-fbi-threatened-at-knifepoint/updated for the Biden era


Mashkoor’s case also follows (https://theintercept.com/2023/06/15/fbi-undercover-isis-teenager-terrorist/) a pattern (https://theintercept.com/2023/07/31/fbi-isis-sting-mentally-ill-teen/) of FBI sting operations (https://theintercept.com/2018/05/23/texas-teen-isis-mall-shooting/) in which a teenager is arrested shortly after their 18th birthday. As in similar cases (https://theintercept.com/2016/08/03/18-year-old-arrested-on-terrorism-charges-is-mentally-like-a-child/), the court documents suggest that Mashkoor was limited in his ability to execute a terrorist plot on his own.

“This case appears consistent with a common fact pattern seen in tens, if not hundreds, of terrorism-related cases in which the FBI has effectively manufactured terrorist prosecutions,” said Sahar Aziz, a national security expert and law professor at Rutgers University. “In this case, it was a 16-year-old kid who otherwise would have just sat in his relatives’ basement posting offensive content in a manner similar to a white supremacist or Proud Boy — people whom the FBI does not spend enormous resources to entrap just so they can get a high-profile press release.”https://theintercept.com/2024/01/10/fbi-sting-isis-autistic-teen/

[Thread]

updated for the Biden era

https://theintercept.com/2024/01/10/fbi-sting-isis-autistic-teen/

Hey, Winestein, the F.B.I. as our Effy is wont to express fucked around in RR & Waco, then found out? Back at the office.

Think McVeigh.