Curious Details Emerge on the Fort Dix Six

MSNBC has an update on the six foreign nationals who were arrested for plotting to attack Fort Dix Army base and it looks like they might have been a bunch of bumblers egged on by over-aggressive FBI informants -- leading to speculation that an entrapment defense is upcoming. (Spotted on TPM.)

As for the bumbling plotters: "The FBI learned of the alleged plot when the men went to a Circuit City store and asked a clerk to transfer a jihad training video of themselves onto a DVD."

As for the over-aggressive informants: "One of the [accused plotters]... called a Philadelphia police officer in November, saying that he had been approached by someone who was pressuring him to obtain a map of Fort Dix, and that he feared the incident was terrorist-related, according to court documents."

Also, here's the description of one of the informants actions: "He railed against the United States, helped scout out military installations for attack, offered to introduce his comrades to an arms dealer and gave them a list of weapons he could procure, including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades."

But that might not be enough for an entrapment defense to fly. Entrapment has become extremely difficult to prove in the post-9/11 world, and as one long-time FBI agent told the AP, "If the source talks them into committing a crime, that is entrapment... [but] if they are predisposed to commit a crime, and you give them the opportunity, that’s fine." Pretty easy case to make.

Now I'm obviously in favor of giving the FBI the space and tools it needs to fight crime and violence, terrorism or no. If these guys legitimately had a plan to kill American servicemen, then throw them in the lock-up. But after the FBI and the Department of Justice strong-armed the prosecutions of the Lackawanna Six, John Walker Lindh, and Jose Padilla, you have to apply a skeptical eye to these things. The case of the Lackawanna Six is particularly instructive.

Comments

The same thing happeded to Tim McVeigh. He was encouraged by the FBI agents that were helping him. May be we have too many FBI agents with too much time on their hands. Cut the intelligence services budgets and put it into health care.

Posted by: George on 05/11/07 at 10:19 AM Respond

In the San Jose Mercury News this morning it said one had called the police to report the FBI agent (unknown as such to him at the time) was trying to get him to sell a map of Fort Dix and he was worried the guy might be a terrorist. The defense lawyers mentioned entrapment but said in the post 9-11 era it would have to be very very blatant to help. I can easily imagine that these were some overly desperate kids being pushed and encouraged to do something they would not have otherwise done (which makes it entrapment) and that it was the convenient reminder the FBI found to put in the headlines and remind us to all cower and let Bush have his war to save us. Not saying they are good young men, or ok young men, or even not totally horribly screwed up future mass murderers, but it all smells way too fishy and convenient, doesn't it?

Posted by: James on 05/11/07 at 2:28 PM Respond

It is a pity that the FBI is starting to look more and more like some police state organizations whose main objective is to scare the hell out of the citizens. In the process, they bulldoze civil rights and destroy lives. But of course, they are doing their duty.

Posted by: Jaime Galarza on 05/11/07 at 4:44 PM Respond

So intent and means count for nothing??? The 7/7 bombings were carried out by 'amateurs'. To be a terrorist, do you need a union card from the 'Union of Professional Terrorists' to be considered a threat? Just a bunch of naughty boys with too much time on their hands and poor victims of an uncaring state (no doubt)...

Posted by: Aleks on 05/12/07 at 6:15 AM Respond

Timothy McVeigh had contacts with the FBI prior to the Oklahoma City massacre? Why wasn't a word of that in the mainstream media? Is the mainstream media that corrupt or are those allegations unfounded?

Posted by: JT Barrie on 05/12/07 at 7:26 AM Respond

The mainstream media is the controlled media(e.g. truth behind 9/11/01 and JFK hit). The truth is oftentimes stranger than fiction. Think. Open up your mind. Expand your consciousness.

Posted by: George on 05/13/07 at 7:40 AM Respond