As some of you might have heard, a 19 y/o Somalian immigrant was arrested on Friday after using a cellphone to try to detonate a bomb at a Christmas tree lighting in Portland, Oregon.
This failed attack has, not surprisingly, pissed off a lot of people. Myself included as I know people who were at the ceremony and who could have been hurt or killed if the bomb was real.
And at about 2 this morning someone took it upon themselves to retaliate; an Islamic Center in a near-by suburb of Portland was set on fire. Story here
It seems that tensions are rising and I have a feeling that this is going to erupt into something much bigger.
The thing that a lot of people are overlooking, was that the FBI sting guys gave that kid MULTIPLE opportunities to back out of the plan, mentioning women & children dying. He didn't care, and went ahead anyway. Luckily the FBI were on this kid's case from the get-go, all those fake explosives and detonating devices gave him a false sense of security.
Right until they busted his ass.
The Somalis in the community are outraged on the kid's behalf, "He was set-up to do something illegal!". Uh, no, stings never "set-up" innocent people. Idiots.
Yep, they most certainly gave him every opportunity to back out. They even waited until he tried to detonate the bomb a second time before arresting him. And now they have the little shit dead to rights.
Anyone who said the kid was set-up is a fucking moron. He was the one who was trying to contact people in Pakistan, he was the one who gathered the materials to make the bomb, he was the one who picked the location and time and he was the one who tried to detonate the bomb. Doesn't sound like a set-up to me.
It seems as though the would-be terrorists were just chatroom cowboys, boisterous fantasists, until the Feds intervened - posing as al Quaeda operatives - and supplying the means to enact the fantasy.
I have no sympathy for these imbeciles, but this is entrapment.
There have been a spate of FBI sting operations recently. All very similar. The cynic in me suggests that maybe the government was forced to burn some de-facto operatives. They are not above soliciting outside assistance.
First of all, it was one individual and this was not a case of entrapment. As has already been mentioned, the guy was given every opportunity to back out, but he didn't. He spent a year planning the failed attack; picking the location and the time. He was also the one who parked the van with the fake explosives.
"Entrapment" is when the police get somebody to commit a crime they were otherwise unlikely to commit. This does not apply in this case because the individual in question was already in contact with an "unindicted individual" in Pakistan trying to arrange travel to prepare for a "violent Jihad" before beginning correspondence with the Feds.
This particular case was of one individual, yes, I am aware.
If a man agrees to paid sex after being propositioned by a police officer, that would be considered entrapment. The fact that he might otherwise have approached a legit whore is kind of irrelevant. Splitting hairs, I know.
