UPDATE: A friend and kind reader pointed me to an article entitled "Half of Terror Cases Investigated By the FBI ... Were Also Hatched by the FBI."
I'm sure you've heard about the alleged plot to assasinate the Saudi Ambassador to the US and bomb the Israeli embassy etc etc. which was supposedly "directed by factions of the Iranian government" (whatever that means.)
Simple question: Why? Suppose the alleged plot was successful - then what? Apart from risking a major diplomatic incident should such a plot be uncovered, what would Iran have to gain from doing any of this? Would Saudi Arabia or Israel simply disappear? Are the Iranians just crazy people who like to blow up places for no real gain?
I call BS.
There have been many such 'terror plots' foiled in the US - and the one thing they all had in common was that there was a government informant who was involved and even instigated the plot by recruiting some otherwise hapless and simple-minded "terrorists" and provided them with the tools and financing - including buying them the military boots that were later presented in their trial as evidence of their militancy, as well as the cameras that they used to photograph their intended targets.
How hapless and simple-minded? Remember Jose Padilla who was supposedly going to launch a nuclear "dirty bomb" attack? Did you know he was planning to convert plain uranium ore (ie: rocks) into enriched uranium ... by swinging a bucket of the stuff in a circle over his head? Yes folks, these are the "terrorists." They can't even light their own shoes or underwear on fire.
And remember that particular government informant - Emad Salem - the Egyptian who had, with the assistance of the FBI, infiltrated the group that committed the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993? And remember how he had offered to switch the explosives used in that bomb with a safe substitute, but his offer was ignored by the FBI?
Of course the line between informant and agent provacatuer is very negligble. Some of you may remember Tommy the Traveler, a government agent who travelled to college campuses across the US in the 70's and infiltrated student anti-war movements, in order to provoke them into commiting acts of violence for which they could be arrested? And then there's always the smear.
This sort of thing is particularly interesting, and potentially worrisome, in light of recent revelations of massive secret surveillance of Muslim Americans.
And notice how suddenly Iran's recent repeated offer to cease enriching to 20% in return for receiving the necessary fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor simply fell out of the news... yet another Iranian nuclear compromise offer that is deliberately ignored, downplayed or actively torpedoed, so the usual pattern continues.
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