On Sunday Glenn Greenwald wrote The FBI successfully thwarts its own Terrorist plot. In his usual lengthy way he walks though all the issues with the story of Mohamed Osman Mohamud who was arrested for planning to bomb Portland OR.
"All of the information about this episode -- all of it -- comes exclusively from an FBI affidavit filed in connection with a Criminal Complaint against Mohamud. As shocking and upsetting as this may be to some, FBI claims are sometimes one-sided, unreliable and even untrue, especially when such claims -- as here -- are uncorroborated and unexamined. That's why we have what we call "trials" before assuming guilt or even before believing that we know what happened: because the government doesn't always tell the complete truth, because they often skew reality, because things often look much different once the accused is permitted to present his own facts and subject the government's claims to scrutiny."
"A very similar thing happened last month when the FBI announced that it had arrested someone who was planning to bomb the DC Metro system when, in reality, "the only plotting he did was in response to instructions from federal agents he thought were accomplices." That concocted FBI plot then led to the Metro Police announcing a new policy of random searches of passengers' bags."
1 comment:
These entrapment cases kill me. In several cases it sounds like the person would have remained harmless but the government agents led them down a trail to commit these terrorist acts. If it was your friend wouldn't you get them therapy or rehabilitation rather than help them to do something crazy.
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