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Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
Attorney General Eric Holder told hundred of Muslims
near San Francisco that the FBI's sting operations penetrating mosques
across the country are an essential "tool in uncovering and preventing
terror attacks." But of course, most of the FBI's high profile
prosecutions for alleged domestic terrorism involve plots that were
hatched in almost every detail by paid FBI informants who nurtured the
schemes to their pre-planned conclusions. So, in point of fact, the FBI
has not been engaged in "uncovering and preventing terrorist attacks,"
as Eric Holder claims, but rather, it has spent tens of millions of
dollars and many thousands of man-hours concocting, financing, and
providing training and equipment for crimes purely of its own invention.
The FBI -- first under George Bush and then even more aggressively under
Barack Obama -- has fabricated the illusion of a wave of terror that did
not, for the most part, exist. In doing so, the U.S. government has
perpetrated at least two classes of crimes: one, against those it has
directly entrapped and prosecuted for crimes conceived and executed by
the government, itself; and the second, larger class of crime,
conspiracy to deliberately deceive and terrorize the American people,
for the purpose of depriving the American people of their civil rights,
and to foment a public hysteria that would facilitate the launching of
military attacks on other peoples.
These are high crimes, as
high as they come, which, in a just world, would warrant many counts of
impeachment for both chief executives responsible: presidents Bush and
Obama. The
irony is, the very atmosphere of hysteria and war fever that the fake
terror plots engender among the public, insulates the perpetrators from
accountability for their crimes. No wonder the incoming Obama
administration shielded the outgoing Bush gang from prosecution. Obama
instructed Eric Holder to expand the phony terror racket, not to shut it
down. Both presidents' historical legacies are now inextricably tied to
a domestic war on terror that is largely a fiction.
The fiction has real
victims, including the poor and powerless, largely Black and brown men
who were manipulated like puppets in theatrical productions directed by
the FBI for purpose of frightening an audience of 300 million Americans. The
families of some of these entrapped, involuntary actors in the FBI's
fake terror dramas are scheduled to gather at New York University, in
Manhattan, on December 16, to devise strategies for seeking justice.
Muslim Americans have
been criminalized as a community. In Irvine, California, an FBI
operative was so brazen in soliciting recruits for jihad, mosque members
got a court restraining order
to shut him up. It turns out the informant was paid $177,000 to incite a
holy war -- the going rate, apparently, for inventing terror where none
has previously existed.
So who is the real target
of government entrapment? It could not be the individuals sucked into
the FBI vortex, since Eric Holder's men knew they were incapable of
independently carrying out the crimes and, therefore, represented no
danger to society. No, American society, itself, has been entrapped by
the Bush and Obama manipulators. The object is to terrify the American
public, so that they will surrender their civil liberties -- possibly the
greatest extortion scheme in U.S. history.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Attorney General Eric Holder told hundred of Muslims
near San Francisco that the FBI's sting operations penetrating mosques
across the country are an essential "tool in uncovering and preventing
terror attacks." But of course, most of the FBI's high profile
prosecutions for alleged domestic terrorism involve plots that were
hatched in almost every detail by paid FBI informants who nurtured the
schemes to their pre-planned conclusions. So, in point of fact, the FBI
has not been engaged in "uncovering and preventing terrorist attacks,"
as Eric Holder claims, but rather, it has spent tens of millions of
dollars and many thousands of man-hours concocting, financing, and
providing training and equipment for crimes purely of its own invention.
The FBI -- first under George Bush and then even more aggressively under
Barack Obama -- has fabricated the illusion of a wave of terror that did
not, for the most part, exist. In doing so, the U.S. government has
perpetrated at least two classes of crimes: one, against those it has
directly entrapped and prosecuted for crimes conceived and executed by
the government, itself; and the second, larger class of crime,
conspiracy to deliberately deceive and terrorize the American people,
for the purpose of depriving the American people of their civil rights,
and to foment a public hysteria that would facilitate the launching of
military attacks on other peoples.
These are high crimes, as
high as they come, which, in a just world, would warrant many counts of
impeachment for both chief executives responsible: presidents Bush and
Obama. The
irony is, the very atmosphere of hysteria and war fever that the fake
terror plots engender among the public, insulates the perpetrators from
accountability for their crimes. No wonder the incoming Obama
administration shielded the outgoing Bush gang from prosecution. Obama
instructed Eric Holder to expand the phony terror racket, not to shut it
down. Both presidents' historical legacies are now inextricably tied to
a domestic war on terror that is largely a fiction.
The fiction has real
victims, including the poor and powerless, largely Black and brown men
who were manipulated like puppets in theatrical productions directed by
the FBI for purpose of frightening an audience of 300 million Americans. The
families of some of these entrapped, involuntary actors in the FBI's
fake terror dramas are scheduled to gather at New York University, in
Manhattan, on December 16, to devise strategies for seeking justice.
Muslim Americans have
been criminalized as a community. In Irvine, California, an FBI
operative was so brazen in soliciting recruits for jihad, mosque members
got a court restraining order
to shut him up. It turns out the informant was paid $177,000 to incite a
holy war -- the going rate, apparently, for inventing terror where none
has previously existed.
So who is the real target
of government entrapment? It could not be the individuals sucked into
the FBI vortex, since Eric Holder's men knew they were incapable of
independently carrying out the crimes and, therefore, represented no
danger to society. No, American society, itself, has been entrapped by
the Bush and Obama manipulators. The object is to terrify the American
public, so that they will surrender their civil liberties -- possibly the
greatest extortion scheme in U.S. history.
Attorney General Eric Holder told hundred of Muslims
near San Francisco that the FBI's sting operations penetrating mosques
across the country are an essential "tool in uncovering and preventing
terror attacks." But of course, most of the FBI's high profile
prosecutions for alleged domestic terrorism involve plots that were
hatched in almost every detail by paid FBI informants who nurtured the
schemes to their pre-planned conclusions. So, in point of fact, the FBI
has not been engaged in "uncovering and preventing terrorist attacks,"
as Eric Holder claims, but rather, it has spent tens of millions of
dollars and many thousands of man-hours concocting, financing, and
providing training and equipment for crimes purely of its own invention.
The FBI -- first under George Bush and then even more aggressively under
Barack Obama -- has fabricated the illusion of a wave of terror that did
not, for the most part, exist. In doing so, the U.S. government has
perpetrated at least two classes of crimes: one, against those it has
directly entrapped and prosecuted for crimes conceived and executed by
the government, itself; and the second, larger class of crime,
conspiracy to deliberately deceive and terrorize the American people,
for the purpose of depriving the American people of their civil rights,
and to foment a public hysteria that would facilitate the launching of
military attacks on other peoples.
These are high crimes, as
high as they come, which, in a just world, would warrant many counts of
impeachment for both chief executives responsible: presidents Bush and
Obama. The
irony is, the very atmosphere of hysteria and war fever that the fake
terror plots engender among the public, insulates the perpetrators from
accountability for their crimes. No wonder the incoming Obama
administration shielded the outgoing Bush gang from prosecution. Obama
instructed Eric Holder to expand the phony terror racket, not to shut it
down. Both presidents' historical legacies are now inextricably tied to
a domestic war on terror that is largely a fiction.
The fiction has real
victims, including the poor and powerless, largely Black and brown men
who were manipulated like puppets in theatrical productions directed by
the FBI for purpose of frightening an audience of 300 million Americans. The
families of some of these entrapped, involuntary actors in the FBI's
fake terror dramas are scheduled to gather at New York University, in
Manhattan, on December 16, to devise strategies for seeking justice.
Muslim Americans have
been criminalized as a community. In Irvine, California, an FBI
operative was so brazen in soliciting recruits for jihad, mosque members
got a court restraining order
to shut him up. It turns out the informant was paid $177,000 to incite a
holy war -- the going rate, apparently, for inventing terror where none
has previously existed.
So who is the real target
of government entrapment? It could not be the individuals sucked into
the FBI vortex, since Eric Holder's men knew they were incapable of
independently carrying out the crimes and, therefore, represented no
danger to society. No, American society, itself, has been entrapped by
the Bush and Obama manipulators. The object is to terrify the American
public, so that they will surrender their civil liberties -- possibly the
greatest extortion scheme in U.S. history.