[Marxism] FBI Blows It: Supposed Terror Plot Against NY Synagogues Is Bogus

[milongonsinga <milongonsinga@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.alternet.org/world/140209/fbi_blows_it:_supposed_terror_plot_against_ny_synagogues_is_bogus/

FBI Blows It: Supposed Terror Plot Against NY Synagogues Is Bogus
By Robert Dreyfuss, The Nation
Posted on May 23, 2009, Printed on May 23, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/140209/
By the now, it's maddeningly familiar. A scary terrorist plot is announced. 
Then it's revealed that the suspects are a hapless bunch of ne'er-do-wells or 
run-of-the-mill thugs without the slightest connection to any terrorists at 
all, never mind to Al Qaeda. Finally, the last piece of the puzzle: the entire 
plot is revealed to have been cooked up by a scummy government 
agent-provocateur.
I've seen this movie before.
In this case, the alleged perps -- Onta Williams, James Cromitie, David 
Williams, and Laguerre Payen -- were losers, ex-cons, drug addicts. Al Qaeda 
they're not. Without the assistance of the agent who entrapped them, they would 
never have dreamed of committing political violence, nor would they have had 
the slightest idea about where to acquire plastic explosives or a Stinger 
missile. That didn't stop prosecutors from acting as if they'd captured Osama 
bin Laden himself. Noted the Los Angeles Times:
Prosecutors called it the latest in a string of homegrown terrorism plots 
hatched after Sept. 11.
"It's hard to envision a more chilling plot," Assistant U.S. Atty. Eric Snyder 
said in court Thursday. He described all four suspects as "eager to bring death 
to Jews."
Actually, it's hard to imagine a stupider, less competent, and less important 
plot. The four losers were ensnared by a creepy FBI agent who hung around the 
mosque in upstate New York until he found what he was looking for. Here's the 
New York Times account:
Salahuddin Mustafa Muhammad, the imam at the mosque where the authorities say 
the confidential informant first encountered the men, said none of the men were 
active in the mosque. ...
Mr. Cromitie was there last June, and he met a stranger.
He had no way of knowing that the stranger's path to the mosque began in 2002, 
when he was arrested on federal charges of identity theft. He was sentenced to 
five years' probation, and became a confidential informant for the F.B.I. He 
began showing up at the mosque in Newburgh around 2007, Mr. Muhammad said.
The stranger's behavior aroused the imam's suspicions. He invited other 
worshipers to meals, and spoke of violence and jihad, so the imam said he 
steered clear of him.
"There was just something fishy about him," Mr. Muhammad said. Members 
"believed he was a government agent."
Mr. Muhammad said members of his congregation told him the man he believed was 
the informant offered at least one of them a substantial amount of money to 
join his "team."
So a creepy thug buttonholes people at a mosque, foaming at the mouth about 
violence and jihad? This is law enforcement? Just imagine if someone did this 
at a local church, or some synagogue. And the imam says the people "believed he 
was a government agent."
Preying on these losers, none of whom were apparently actual Muslims, the 
"confidential informant" orchestrated the acquisition of a disabled Stinger 
missile to shoot down military planes and cooked up a wild scheme about 
attacking a Jewish center in the Bronx.
It gets even more pathetic:
The only one of the four suspects who appears to have aroused any suspicion was 
Payen, a Haitian native who attended the Newburgh mosque. Assistant imam Hamid 
Rashada said his dishevelment and odd behavior disturbed some members, said the 
assistant imam, Hamid Rashada.
When Payen appeared in court, defense attorney Marilyn Reader described him as 
"intellectually challenged" and on medication for schizophrenia. The Associated 
Press said that when he was asked if he understood the proceedings, Payen 
replied: "Sort of."
Despite the pompous statements from Mayor Bloomberg of New York and other 
politicians, including Representative Peter King, the whole story is bogus. The 
four losers may have been inclined to violence, and they may have harbored a 
virulent strain of anti-Semitism. But it seems that the informant whipped up 
their violent tendencies and their hatred of Jews, cooked up the plot, incited 
them, arranged their purchase of weapons, and then had them busted. To ensure 
that it made headlines, the creepy informant claimed to be representing a 
Pakistani extremist group, Jaish-e Muhammad, a bona fide terrorist 
organization. He wasn't, of course.
It is disgusting and outrageous that the FBI is sending provocateurs into 
mosques.
The headlines reinforce the very fear that Dick Cheney is trying to stir up. 
The story strengthens the narrative that the "homeland" is under attack. It's 
not. As I've written repeatedly, since 9/11 not a single American has even been 
punched in the nose by an angry Muslim, as far as I can tell. Plot after plot 
-- the destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge! bombing the New York Subways! taking 
down the Sears Tower! bombing the Prudential building in Newark! -- proved to 
be utter nonsense.
Robert Dreyfuss is the author of "Devil's Game: How the United States Helped 
Unleash Fundamentalist Islam" (Henry Holt/Metropolitan Books).
© 2009 The Nation All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/140209/
 
"To investigate a problem is, indeed, to solve it," Mao.


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