Islamic Scare Paid for with Our Tax Dollars: Homegrown Muslim Terrorist Threats Practically Invented by Govt. Informants

 A new report from New York University's The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice focuses on "three high-profile terrorism prosecutions" where "government informants played a critical role in instigating and constructing the plots that were then prosecuted"

Government infiltration of political organizations perceived as potential threats to national security, is as American as Twinkies, Elvis ripping off Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog," and Newt Gingrich's million-dollar line of credit at Tiffany's.

The use of informants and agent provocateurs was perfected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), during the 1960s and 70s, when COINTELPRO (a program aimed at destabilizing New Left groups, and the Black and women‘s liberation movements) became a household word - at least in movement households.

According to a report by the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, also known as the Church Committee, the FBI relied on "secret informants . . . wiretaps, microphone ‘bugs,' surreptitious mail opening, and break ins, [which gathered] vast amounts of information about the personal lives, views and associations of American citizens" and "conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association, on the theory that preventing the growth of dangerous groups and the propagation of dangerous ideas would protect the national security and deter violence."

(For the record, it is not only an American phenomena; regimes all over the world regularly use similar tactics.)

Often, as is seen now across the political spectrum, and was repeatedly evidenced during the Civil Rights and the anti-Vietnam War movements, undercover law enforcement officials infiltrate organizations in an attempt to undermine them, convince members of these groups to take either unproductive actions that could result in public scorn, and/or to pursue militant actions, often involving illegal and violent activities. Many infiltrators become provocateurs and actually provide the expertise and tools/weapons necessary to carry out violent actions including sabotage and bombing. Agents run amok carried out illegal actions sanctioned by far away government officers.

After 9/11, the re-ignition and ramping up of the so-called "War on Terrorism" has brought about an escalation of these methods by government agencies. While the tentacles of entrapment have stretched across political, religious and ethnic lines, they have been primarily focused on Muslim communities and organizations.

"Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. government has targeted Muslims in the United States by sending paid, untrained informants into mosques and Muslim communities," reads the first sentence of the Executive Summary from a chilling new report about the misuse of government informants to manufacture a crisis. "This practice has led to the prosecution of more than 200 individuals in terrorism-related cases. The government has touted these cases as successes in the so-called war against terrorism. However, in recent years, former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, local lawmakers, the media, the public, and community-based groups have begun questioning the legitimacy and efficacy of this practice, alleging that - in many instances - this type of policing, and the resulting prosecutions, constitute entrapment."

The report titled "Terror and Entrapment: Manufacturing the ‘Homegrown Threat' in the United States", was prepared by the New York University-based The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice.