Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafism , a 21-year-old man from Bangladesh supposedly with ties to Al Qaeda, has been arrested for trying to blow up the New York federal reserve with a 1000-pound bomb.

You know, I find it somewhat interesting that a 1000-pound bomb is now a "weapon of mass destruction (WMD)." By that definition, Iraq was crawling with WMD's when we invaded them.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Was this concocted to generate sympathy and support for the Fed?

I just saw this on today's Lew Rockwell blog section:

How misleading can a "news" article get? Try this headline: "Federal Reserve bombing plot foiled in NYC" (see here). There never was a plot to foil. There never was an independent plot to foil. The plot was of the FBI's own devising and instigation. What? Did the FBI foil its own plot? This makes no sense. The FBI simply terminated a procedure to entrap some naive would-be bomber. The FBI even helped him select his imaginary target. "FBI arrests dupe" is more like it, or "FBI stings dupe", or "FBI concludes bombing sting with an arrest".

A sting operation like this doesn't foil anything. It SETS UP someone for a fall. It's an enhanced frame-up done with the FBI-encouraged participation of the person framed. The FBI agents literally become criminals, conspire as criminals, further the planned crime, and create the crime. They should arrest themselves.

The big negative from this is its propaganda value. It keeps alive the myth that America is under constant terrorist threats. It keeps alive the myth that massive resources must be allocated to federal agencies to counter these threats. It keeps alive the myth that the U.S. needs to remake the Muslim world in order to keep America safe. It keeps alive the myth that Americans must abandon the Bill of Rights or their natural rights in order to be secure from these threats.

These stings are ways to create a big bad BOGEYMAN that really doesn't exist

When your would-be terrorist is a dumbass, it\'s not real hard to catch him. I mean, this kid was discussing the legalities of Jihad on Facebook(!)

I'm going to reserve judgment until I hear more of the facts, but I don't think this kid has all of his cheese on his sandwich.

Onward and upward,
airforce

How do you blow up a building full of debt?

$40 billion a month indefinitely?

My memory isn't what it used to be. BUT, isn't this the 3rd or 4th time something like this has happened in the past year or two?

Terrorist Stings Make U.S. Less Safe

Read the whole thing at the link.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Its their thing among the Arab population. I personally don't particularly disagree with the FBI on this one since they are acting against groups which have been acting aggressively against not just the US government but individual people for a very very long time.

I think the feds have some sort of handle on a number of social networking sites used by the Arabs, so they get their hooks in one that is known anyway, set up and bust them, then the publicity of the bust gets them all to distrust various Jihadi contacts from the US.

The real quality takedown however would be in dealing with Saudi diplomats or relatively high placed representatives of a leading Muslim outfit that is doing the "cash for newsworthy events" thing that a lot of the Iranians and Syrians have been pretty well known for in the Middle East, and Khaddaffi had tried less than entirely successfully with some Muslim themed street gangs out of Chicago. They had some success until they ran into a rivalry with some more established Black Muslim groups.

So a lot of questions remain on whether or not actual foreign intelligence operatives have ever been caught attempting to pay for terrorist acts. The closest thing I have seen was a series of busts of intermediaries in the arms trade, however back around 2004 or 2005 a major police equipment supplier (Galls) got raided for selling a bunch of night vision equipment to the Iranian national police.

Someone associated with this site actually was involved in that case a little bit but the government would never officially acknowledge his help since that individual later came under investigation on another case. In each of the major investigations involving allegations of international smuggling, it was people far closer to the government who were actually providing hardware to the bad guys, although we have not gotten any heat since the BATF has been embroiled in the Fast and Furious scandal after burning a couple of our people and refusing to make any equitable deals.

I have been really curious as to why there have been no public busts of some sheik or representatives of some sheik's out of say, Oman or Yemen who were offering money for terrorist acts. You could fake up some attacks under controlled circumstances, publicize it, then when their foreign ministries and various agents step up to reward the perps, you gain intel, pull off a couple more fake terror attacks, then bust the lot of them. No so much false flag stuff with a real bodycount, but something totally Hollywood. The ruse would only have to last for a few months. Crash an empty cargo plane in the desert, claim it was a successful terror attack, get paid, then find out everything about the terrorist paymasters.

Thanks for the link Air Force and thanks for the clarifying thoughts Breacher. They helped clear up the static in my brain.