Originally posted on Quora December 8, 2022
In light of revelations that a dozen FBI informants were integral to creating the plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, including organizing meetings to plot the alleged kidnapping, paying for accommodations and travel expenses, setting up training exercises and encouraging group collaboration on the supposed plot, it should be noted that the FBI has taken a similar active role in creating terrorist plots in the past. I originally posted this on another site in September of 2016.
In recent years, the FBI has increasingly resorted to sting operations to 'prevent terrorism.' During these sting operations, the confidential informants contact anyone who the FBI deems a potential terrorist, which usually takes nothing more than espousing “extremism” on social media or visiting certain websites. The informants entice suspects to commit terrorist attacks usually giving them weapons, giving them explosives (either by buying it for them or providing the money for them to buy weapons) planning the attack and providing firearms training. The bust isn't made until the set up is complete. Since 2015, these sort of sting operations have been used in two-thirds of terrorism related prosecutions.
In Rochester, a paid informant went undercover and drove a man suspected of being an Islamic extremist, Emanuel Lutchman, to a Wal-Mart in December to buy a machete, ski masks, zip ties and other supplies for a would-be terrorist attack on New Year's eve. Because Mr. Lutchman, a mentally ill panhandler, had no money, the informant covered the $40 cost.
In North Carolina, an undercover agent pressed another suspect, Justin Sullivan, on whether he was willing to commit acts of terrorism for the Islamic State - "do you think you can kill?" the agent asked in one online message - before giving him a silencer for an AR-15 assault rifle in June 2015.
In Washington State, an undercover informant paid $1,100 to Daniel Franey, a former solider, for acting as a lookout on several trips to buy duffel bags filled with assault weapons for a possible attack last summer.
The FBI arrested all three suspects before any attack occurred, and has used similar undercover techniques to prosecute dozens of others it believes had ties to the Islamic State, court records show.
FBI informants also attempted to ensnare the Orlando shooter in a 2013 false flag terror attack.
A Human Rights Watch study of FBI's counterterrorism practices found that the FBI disproportionately targets suspects with mental illnesses, intellectual disabilities, low socioeconomic status; men who are as impressionable as children and not capable of plotting and carrying out attacks on their own. In the cases of Adel Daoud, Matin Siraj, Hosam Smadi, Rezwan Ferdaus, and the Newburgh four, the informants radicalized the suspects, provided the means, and created the plot. In such cases, the only substantial role the suspects had was driving a vehicle with fake explosives to certain buildings and pushing numbers on a cellphone, which they believed to be a detonator. In the case of Ferdaus, the FBI busted him by delivering weapons to him and photographing him holding a gun.
The motive for these police practices should be no mystery to anyone who is privy to the underlying racket, that is the war on terrorism.