The propaganda machine, going strong and so plain to see.
According to informant Shahed Hussain, who also helped the FBI in 2004 by posing as an arms dealer, he met the men arrested last week at a local mosque.
Cromitie, the alleged mastermind, told Hussain "I hate those mother-------, those f------ Jewish b------ .... I would like to get a synagogue," according to the complaint.
Hussain drove the men to scout targets and supplied them with weapons and explosive devices that, unbeknownst to the accused, were fake.
"Where he goes conspiracies blossom," said attorney Terence L. Kindlon, who represents one of two men sentenced to 15 years in prison based on Hussain's help in a 2004 case involving money laundering charges for a fictitious terror plot.
"We are not entrapping or encouraging anyone to commit a crime," said Joseph M. Demarest, head of New York's FBI office. "We merely facilitated their wishes."
Assistant U.S. attorney Eric Snyder said: "It's hard to envision a more chilling plot."
Which is almost exactly what then-U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said in 2007 when announcing the bust of an alleged plan to blow up gas lines at JFK airport. Russell Defrietas — described by neighbors as a man who slept in his car and couldn't read or write — was arrested with three others on the work of an FBI informant, a twice-convicted drug dealer.
Mauskopf called it "one of the most chilling plots imaginable." Two years later, Defrietas, whom his attorney says is "mentally challenged," and three others sit in a Brooklyn jail. No trial date has been set.
As in last week's case, there was "a very active role played by a confidential informant," said attorney Daniel Noble, who represents Abdel Nur, a co-defendant in the JFK case. "There was never anything there," he said. "The question is whether anything would have happened without the informant."
That point was echoed by Schneier, of security firm BT Group. "Is the FBI manufacturing terrorists? What would happen if they were left on their own? They fall into the hands of an FBI informant, and then they get helped and egged on."
In Detroit, a case against four men once hailed as major victory over terrorism instead became a major embarrassment. In 2004, a federal judge threw out terrorism charges against two convicted men following widespread prosecutorial misconduct and questionable information from a self-described scam artist who once lived with the defendants and was trying to get a prison sentence reduced. One man was eventually deported and the fourth was acquitted.
Video tapes seized at the men's home were claimed to be terror surveillance shots. According to trial testimony, they were vacation videos taken at tourist spots including Disneyland.
However, claiming entrapment and problem informants are not enough to prevent convictions and strong punishments.
Five foreign-born men were convicted in December of conspiracy to kill U.S. soldiers in the Fort Dix case. Four were sentenced to life in prison. The fifth was sentenced to 33 years. Their trials relied heavily on two paid FBI informants who secretly recorded meetings and telephone calls during a 15-month operation and helped the men meet an arms dealer.
During the investigation, one of the men called a Philadelphia police officer saying he had been approached by someone who was pressuring him to obtain a map of Fort Dix and he suspected it was terrorist-related.
That didn't hold much sway with jurors.
Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra said he hoped the sentences served as a warning.
"We're going to catch you and hopefully catch you before you do it," he said. "And we're going to punish you severely."