The FBI arrested two guys in the Albany area yesterday (well, actually, Thursday) for "terrorist activities". I am very annoyed about the whole thing - the FBI's tactics, and the news reporting.
It was clearly a setup - the FBI had some suspicions, but couldn't get anything on anyone, so apparently they set them up, just so they could search their homes and the mosque. Today, it was disclosed that the imam's address and phone number had been in an address book found at an abandoned terrorist training camp some time ago. Hm. Sounds even more like the FBI wanted to get something, anything, to allow a search of that address. Is this how we do things in this country now?
If the defense attorney can't get these guys off for entrapment he/she ought to be disbarred. The way it apparently went down, they could have got ME if I'd been there.
The local TV stations went apeshit, interrupting programming at random moments to repeat what they'd already said a dozen times. The worst was when they spent like 10 minutes at a time, over and over, showing pictures of a shoulder-fired missile, showing one being fired, explaining how it can be used to shoot down passenger planes at Albany airport (Oh, my! Tape of airplane passing low overhead... I could be ON that plane!), stir it up, shake it up, scare the people good!
There WAS NO missile! These guys were not trying to BUY a missile! The money they were accused of laundering (which they may have seen as a loan) was not even the proceeds of the sale of a missile to be used against the US, or US citizens. The (Pakistani) informer/entrapper said he had sold a (imaginary) missile to some fools who wanted to kill the Pakistani UN rep at the Pakistani consulate. One would be tempted to think "this guy sure can brag, wonder if it's true?" and "Oh, well, internal Pakistani intrigue, nothing to do with me, these idiots could never pull it off anyway". And why bother to report this conversation? If you report it, the authorities would start digging into how you found out about it, and if your name has a "Q" or an "Al" in it, it really isn't worth the risk. "If this fool wants to lend me some money at a really good rate (like, I get to keep some of it), why not? Besides - hehe - I checked with my REAL terrorist buddies, and they never heard of this guy."
Hm. Does this mean we can now be arrested for not reporting a conversation we don't take seriously?
Some FBI rep appeared at a news conference and begged the reporters not to make too much of the arrests. "There's no danger. There's no missile." etc. He should have known better - you can't take a bone away from a rabid dog pack. (Not even if you're the FBI and it's a bone you don't want anyone examining too carefully.)
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