Hmm, everytime there is a terrorism plot, the FBI seems to be involved with facilitating it and supplying the explosives. But of course, that's just because they're trying to ferret out the evildoers and see how far they would go, right?
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/somaliborn-teen...
Mohamud was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Portland police around 5:40 pm Friday (0040 GMT Saturday) after he attempted to remotely detonate what he believed to be an explosives-laden van that was parked near the tree lighting ceremony in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square, officials said.
But the device was in fact a fake supplied by the FBI, and the public was never in any danger, they added.
"While the public was never in danger from the device, this case serves as yet another reminder of the need for continued vigilance both at home and abroad," David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.
Has any US media picked up on this question or is it only outlets like Russia Today?
Homegrown terror plots seen as FBI entrapment http://rt.com/news/fbi-terror-home-grown/
A war is being waged in the US against homegrown terrorism, but critics say some of the FBI’s tactics amount to entrapment, with agents helping to organize plots simply for a PR coup when the agency foils them.
A Pakistani-born American was arrested on Wednesday for carrying out surveillance on the Washington DC subway as part of a suspected terror plot. Farook Ahmed is accused of working with people he believed were members of Al-Qaeda – they were actually US agents. A US counterterrorism official said there is no indication Ahmed was ever in touch with real militants.
The case has echoes of a high-profile trial in which four African-American Muslims were found guilty just over a week ago, of a plot to bomb two Bronx synagogues and shoot down military aircraft in New York.
Dubbed the Newburgh four, the men were arrested in May 2009 and paraded in front of New York news cameras, as the faces of homegrown terrorism. According to the FBI, the four intended to carry out their terror plan on the day of the arrest.
"Four individuals had sought to bomb Jewish facilities here in the Bronx and also take down military aircraft in Newburgh. A terrifying plot the FBI claims to have thwarted," said Joseph Demarest from the FBI.
The men were poor, illiterate ex-convicts, with neither passports nor licenses. According to Demarest there was no direction by a foreign entity or terrorist group. Instead, direction came from Shahid Hussain, a Pakistani immigrant on the FBI payroll reportedly paid nearly US$100,000 for his services. Apparently the FBI operative provided the fake C-4 and actually showed them the fake stinger missile.