The Rest Of The Story

Boy, I sure miss J. Edgar Hoover. When he was in charge he knew how to thoroughly trump up a threat that no one could assail.

Oh, but for the good old days.

Now, whenever there's a "plot" is uncovered (or any revelation by the administration for that matter), you know it's going be a bunch of bullshit. And the Fort Dix arrests this week follow the script.

The NY Times is publishing a story today on the "informer" inside the "terrorists cell". It turns out that the group, certainly guilty of stupidity and perhaps some vague intent to do some harm, was essentially led by the informer from the get:

That moment, recorded on tape and submitted in federal court this week in Camden, N.J., as the authorities charged six Muslim men in the plot, captures something of the complexity of using informers in terror investigations. The informer, sent to penetrate a loose group of men who liked to talk about jihad and fire guns in the woods, had come to be seen by the suspects as the person who might actually show them how an act of terror could be carried off.

Indeed, over the months that followed, as the targets of the investigation spoke with a sometimes unfocused zeal about waging holy war, the informer, one of two used in the investigation, would tell them that he could get them the sophisticated weapons they wanted. He would accompany them on surveillance missions to military installations, debating the risks, and when the men looked ready to purchase the weapons, it was the informer who seemed to be pushing the idea of buying the deadliest items, startling at least one of the suspects.

Now I'm not saying that these bad guys didn't deserve attention, or that they perhaps didn't break a law. But it just goes to show how serious the threat of terrorism really is. These were a bunch of idiots with very vague nefarious plans that were likely to go absolutely no where .... sorta like the guy who was going to take down the bridge with a blow torch. That is go no where until the FBI terrorist expert joined the cell as a plant.

If this is the state of threat from international terrorism, I'm far more worried about the safety of car airbags.