The newest war on terror tactic (which is apparently the only way the Bush administration can get terrorism prosecutions, as opposed to the previous administration, which indicted actual terrorists caught in the act...) is a doozy:
First, you find a gullable, anti-social person and their crew...
Then, you introduce a paid FBI informant to infiltrate the group...
Then, the informant coaxes the flunkie into thinking he's a real-life terrorist, complete with getting the dumbass to 'swear an oath to Osama bin Laden' ...
Then, you arrest the would-be "terrorists" and try them for conspiracy to provide material support to the FBI informant ... er ... the terrorists.
The seven men -- Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, and Rotschild Augustine -- have been charged with conspiring to support al Qaeda. But the closest the group got to Osama bin Laden was an FBI informant posing as an ``al Qaeda representative.''
The indictment documents several meetings between Batiste, the group's 32-year-old suspected ringleader, and the informant. The men discuss potential terrorism targets, including FBI offices in five cities, and list needed supplies, including machine guns, bulletproof vests and combat boots, the indictment said.
Perhaps just as damaging is that all seven men swore an oath of loyalty to al Qaeda, the indictment says.
But the indictment also suggests that the men were nowhere near executing their plans.
The defendants had no guns or other weapons when they were arrested last week. The informant did provide some boots and a camera for the suspects to photograph a North Miami Beach FBI office and other local targets, the indictment says.
But it's unclear from the indictment whether the alleged conspirators actually visited their most ambitious target, the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago.
These factors have led some to question whether the government went too far in its prosecution and has entrapped the men by manufacturing the crime for them.
''I don't think anyone seriously believes that these were real terrorists. We used to have agents and confidential informants creating drug deals in Liberty City. Now it looks like they are creating homegrown cells,'' said David O. Markus, president of the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
We have been here before. The Herald article brings up the case of Imran Mandhai, a teeniebopper who was supposed to be plotting to blow up electrical transformers throughout South Florida with an equally gullible friend. Mandhai is also the poor screwball who tried to buy an AK 47 to further his nefarious plot -- but then his credit card was declined...
Yep. We're really zeroing in on the bad guy A-Team. Too bad we have to send government informants in to create the terrorists for us to catch.
<%
dim done
done = request.form("done")
if done = "" then
done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
<%
Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
'Response.write ("Sent to ") & email
End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
