[Nice summary of what all of what we all suspected in the first place]
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/437864/yet_another_bogus_terror_plot
Posted on May 23, 2009 The Nation Blogs
FBI Blows It: Supposed Terror Plot Against NY Synagogues Is Bogus By Robert Dreyfuss
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).
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