One expects an expanded perspective from the Source, so it was with disappointment that I read Bruce Miller’s recent column headlined “The Terrorist Threat Gets Too Close For Comfort.” (Wandering Eye, 12/2) In it, Mr. Miller informs us that “the threat of terrorism came home to Oregon…as the FBI foiled an alleged plot to detonate a huge bomb next to Portland’s Pioneer Square.” This might sound picky, but did the FBI “foil” the plot or did it “create” the plot? It courted and groomed the teenage suspect, built the bomb (and so is accountable for its “hugeness”), and loaded the bomb into a delivery van. That doesn’t sound to me like “foiling” the plot. A few years ago, Rolling Stone magazine published the sort of article that is all but extinct in the mainstream media. It described one case after another in which the FBI has entrapped dead-end losers into concocting feckless terror plots under the watchful eyes of undercover agents. The article begins with a case in which the FBI paid $8,500 to a former crack dealer with a conviction for attempted robbery to encourage a would-be jihadist to blow up a mall in Illinois. Since the “jihadist,” a video game store clerk with no car and less than $100 in the bank, could not afford any weapons of mini, much less mass, destruction, the FBI informant arranged to get him four fake grenades and a neutered hand gun in exchange for some used stereo speakers. The other cases described in the article are equally dubious, and bear a striking similarity to the recent escapades in Portland.
You can find the story by Googling “Fear Factory Rolling Stone.” Personally, I’d rather see taxpayer dollars spent on something other than setting up crazy but otherwise harmless people to make newspaper headlines and stoke false fears. I’d also like it if the Source would do its homework and in the future offer a balanced—some would say rational—perspective on the so-called War on Terror.
This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2010.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers:
We’re the Dept. of Homeland Insecurity and we’re here to keep scaring the wits out of you witless Americans.
Has anyone else seen the outrageous news that America has been turned into East Germany, complete with Stazi minders? It’s true. And you will soon be able to enjoy “be a good snitch” ads every time you go through the checkout line at 800 Wal-Marts across the nation. Presumably the Wal-Mart in Mexico City won’t be featuring Big Sister Janet Napolitano, though I wouldn’t put it past the DHS to consider Mexico captured territory.
As to the entrapment issue, the FBI has really been slacking lately. That lame scheme in Portland? That’s a trifle compared with what the FBI pulled off in NYC in 1993. In that case, J. Edgar Hoover’s evil spawn actually managed to blow up a couple of floors of World Trade Center 1, and then magically make its culpability disappear in a cloud of legalistic smoke. Just Google “Emad Ali Salem” and open the History Commons item for the details on an FBI bombing that actually went all the way, with no prophylactic dud bomb parts.
I guess we all should be careful that the FBI no longer finds it necessary to actually blow buildings up in false flag operations in order to intimidate and infantilize a passive and ignorant population. That’s something to be thankful for this holiday season, now isn’t it?
Its been a while since the mad tin foil hatters have checked in.