While the American people are being bombarded every day with news reports about the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings—most of which reports are based on deliberate FBI and law-enforcement leaks spoon-fed to the news media—important lessons can be drawn from FBI terrorism cases going back 20 years, at least as far as 1993.
Furthermore, the FBI's long history of infiltration, incitement to violence, and entrapment, is little known to Americans today. But what the Bureau has done against labor, radicals, and other perceived adversaries for over nine decades, it is doing still today, particularly against Muslim communities and organizations.
After the first World Trade Center bombing, on Feb. 26, 1993, the news media breathlessly reported detail after detail of the FBI's painstaking investigation. Sifting through bomb debris, investigators found an axle with a VIN (vehicle identification number). That led them to a truck rental outlet in New Jersey. When one of the alleged bombers, Mohammed Salameh, returned to the rental store to report that the van he had rented had been stolen, and to get his deposit back(!), he was arrested. Good police work led to other conspirators, and eventually the case was cracked through methodical detective work.
The reality was quite different. Three months after the bombing, in May 1993, it was revealed that an FBI informant had taught Salameh how to drive the van, two days before the bombing. In June, it was disclosed that a former Egyptian military officer, Emad Salem, had penetrated the alleged bomb conspiracy for the FBI, and had helped test explosives, and had rented the apartment where explosives were mixed. Even as more reports came out over the Summer, the FBI maintained that its informant Salem did not know in advance about the plans to bomb the World Trade Center.
The result is that over the past decade, the FBI's force of registered informants is now estimated at over 15,000, according to Trevor Aaronson, author of the new book The Terror Factory. That number itself is ten times the number of informants that the FBI ran in the 1960s during the infamous COINTELPRO (Counter-Intelligence Program) days. If unofficial informants and other confidential sources are added in, the number is three to four plastic card that, Aaronson says, citing a former top FBI official. These informants are heavily targetted on the Muslim community, and they run the gamut from convicted criminals, to imams and professionals within the Islamic community itself.
Under the FBI's new mission of "prevention, pre-emption, and disruption," the Bureau has carried out numerous entrapment operations, to the extent that most of the major terrorist prosecutions in the U.S. over past ten years actually involved plots created by the FBI. According to a report issued last Summer by the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School, "there have been 138 terrorism or national security prosecutions involving informants since 2001," and these informants have usually crossed the line "from merely observing potential criminal behavior to encouraging and assisting people to participate in plots that are largely scripted by the FBI itself."
The FBI recruits informants with extensive criminal records, pays them tens of thousands of dollars "to ensare dupes in terrorist plots," German points out. Most of these targets posed little if any threat; they rarely had weapons of their own, or the financial resources to carry out violent acts. "Yet the government provided them with military hardware worth thousands of dollars that would be extremely difficult for even sophisticated criminal organizations to obtain, only to bust them in a staged finale."
German says that when he worked undercover investigations for the FBI, prior to 9/11, "if an agent had suggested opening a terrorism case against someone who was not a member of a terrorist group, who had not attempted to acquire weapons, and who didn't have the means to obtain them, he would have been gently encouraged to look for a more serious threat." Moreover, German observes: An agent who suggested giving such a person a stinger missile or a car full of military-grade plastic explosives would have been sent to counseling. Yet in Aaronson's telling, such techniques are now becoming commonplace.
ast week, Jordan’s manhood was the center of attention with the ladies in the house, not in a good way. The Real World Portland roommates have been pretty harsh towards him since Nia revealed that his attitude was his way of overcompensating. You know, some guys buy big trucks, Jordan has a big attitude, almost the same, right? Ok maybe not. Make sure to stick around for my Real World Portland live recap tonight to find out what happens!
Apparently Nia is writing a book, it’s call “How To Play The Game” and it’s basically a play book for women who want to date athletes. She dated them before and she knows how to get one, however does she know how to keep one? Nia goes to the pub to apply for a job, she lands one as a cocktail waitress. Marlon is a little upset with Nia for just standing around and not doing much, Brett, the manager, tells her if she wants to leave she can. Nia tells her that she’s not feeling good, but then asks her where the closest liquor store is. Really? The next day Nia asks Marlon to cover for her at work with the boss, not a good first impression. Jordan tells Brett that Nia is a gold digger and she doesn’t really want to work, she just wants to hang out. Uh oh.
Jordan met a girl at the bar and is taking her out, she’s running late so Jordan calls her. She said she left her debit card somewhere and that she would call him when she gets it, well she doesn’t call and when he calls her he gets her voicemail! Jordan got stood up and he is mad about it!
Molli calls and Jordan is out with the guys drinking, Nia answers the phone and tells Molli that he’s really upset and out drinking by himself. I have a feeling that is not going to go over well! Johnny tells Jordan, who is really drunk, to stop standing on the bar seats. Nia and Jess go to the bar right before this happens and shortly after, they all leave together. While walking home Nia is arm in arm with Jordan and Marlon is kind of upset about it.
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