I am profoundly unimpressed by the terrorist threat to America.

[BurtWorm]

If the FBI, CIA and GOP want me to get scared, they're going to have to work a lot harder than they have been working. Maybe if they went after people they didn't have to provide weapons to and push to do more than just talk ...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30856404/

Defendants dealt with informant
In their efforts to acquire weapons, the defendants dealt with an informant acting under law enforcement supervision, authorities said. The FBI and other agencies monitored the men and provided an inactive missile and inert C-4 to the informant for the defendants, a federal complaint said.

The investigation had been under way for about a year.

"They never got anywhere close to being able to do anything," one official told NBC News. "Still, it's good to have guys like this off the street."

In June 2008, the informant met Cromitie in Newburgh and Cromitie complained that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and he was upset about the war there and that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by U.S. military forces, officials said.

Cromitie also expressed an interest in doing "something to America," they said in the complaint.

In October 2008, the informant began meeting with the defendants at a Newburgh house equipped with concealed video and audio equipment, the complaint said.

Beginning in April 2009, the four men selected the synagogue and the community center they intended to hit, it said. They also conducted surveillance of military planes at the Air National Guard Base, it said.

Rep. Peter King, the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, was briefed on the case following the arrests.

"This was a long, well-planned investigation, and it shows how real the threat is from homegrown terrorists," said King, of New York.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said if there can be any good news out of this case it's that "the group was relatively unsophisticated, penetrated early and not connected to any outside group."

[ensho]

1. me too - our home grown nuts and alcoholics worry me more

nt

[arcadian]

2. Puppet theater

Americans can't handle "news" unless it's staged.

[bottomtheweaver]

3. "not connected to any outside group"

except by strings:

[Winterblues]

4. The FBI ..PROVIDED.. a missile and C-4 to these people?

Wouldn't that be entrapment? :shrug:

[NYCGirl]

6. Not if they had been shopping for them (and they did set the "bomb"). NT

[endarkenment]

20. Informant initiated plot to commit crimes.

Whatever the legal technicalities of entrapment are, this is the government setting out, in agent provocateur mode, to create a crime at its convenience. The timing is of course quite convenient for those, such as Lord Cheney, who in his role as head of the Shadow Government, intends to Stay the Course.

[Wednesdays]

5. K&R

:kick:

[EFerrari]

7. I agree. If they want to scare me, they have to buy me dinner first.

[L0oniX]

8. Been saying it for years ...I am more afraid of the idiot drivers than any group of terrorists.

Average over 45000 die every year in traffic accidents. What's that compared to the 3000 who died in 9/11? This is all for the MIC and those that finance war.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/L0oniX/3

[NYCGirl]

9. People know that cars can be dangerous. People don't go to their offices in the

morning thinking they can be blown up by a plane.

[L0oniX]

10. How do you know when an idiot is going to smash into you?

[NYCGirl]

12. Didn't your mom tell you to look both ways when you cross the street?

Traffic accidents are accidents. Slamming a plane into a building is premeditated murder.

[L0oniX]

14. When you are dead it doesn't matter how it happened.

For that matter ...what makes the loss of a friend or spouse or co-worker due to a drunk driver any less of a horror? The only difference is the matter of revenge.

[hunter]

16. Drunk drivers scare me.

Ineffective blowhards buying fake weapons from the FBI, not so much.

[NYCGirl]

39. How do you know they're ineffective beforehand? NT

[scarletwoman]

43. Think about it -- where would they have gotten explosives and missiles if the FBI hadn't supplied

them? And if the plotters COULD have obtained explosives and missiles from another source, why didn't the FBI let the plot play out far enough to bust the weapons source?

They already had an informant in the alleged terrorists' confidence, why didn't they go after far bigger game? Busting a black market supplier of C4 and anti-aircraft missiles would be a LOT more impressive than arresting four losers who were egged on by a provocateur.

This was a canned hunt, nothing more than posturing bullshit.

sw

[nichomachus]

11. So far, most of the homemade terror plots

seem to be of the Ensign Pulver variety. (Pulver was the character in "Mr. Roberts" who was always bragging about what he was going to do to the captain, but was too cowardly and inept to actually do it.)

The real domestic terrorists just do it. The guys who get arrested do so because they are mostly blowhards who try to impress people by shooting off their mouths about how tough they are.

[ramapo]

13. After growing up in the '60s, this is all BS

If you want scary, the Cuban Missile Crisis was scary. Fallout shelters, drills, and the prospect of somebody pushing the button, maybe even by mistake, were all scary.

Thinking about a couple of dozen nuclear weapons targeted on the NY metropolitan area (where I have lived my whole life) was scary.

Wondering what it would be like to see a mushroom cloud appear on the horizon was scary. Not some bullshit fear mongering about Iran or Korea throwing a lone nuke, but the all to real possibility that the Russians and the Americans decided to have at it.

Might some terrorist someday succeed in popping off a small nuke in a population center? Possible but I believe very unlikely. As horrific as that might be, it pales in comparison to the threat of all-out thermonuclear war.

When the rhetoric was high in regards to Iraq having nukes, my response was "So What?". No way these weapons would be used because I think it is well understood that large sections of any country that launched such an attack would be turned into glass.

Are we safe? Not completely, never can be either but I sure as hell will take today's situation over that of 45 years ago.

[slay]

15. But.. but.. don't you realize you are supposed to be afraid ALL THE TIME?

How else are they going to keep us in line? All fear - all the time! Look out gay's are getting married! Look out terroists are right outside your door! Look out we'll bail out the bank, but you're about to lose your house! Sigh...

[dorkulon]

17. Is it possible the FBI just did its job and has no interest in frightening you?

They can't control what the MSM does with the story.

[walldude]

18. You're not scared? Goddamn it these people spend a lot of money trying to

make you live your life in fear. The least you could do is be a bit nervous. :evilgrin:

[Mari333]

19. the only terrorists that concern me are the Military Industrial Corporatists

that seem to be the people who run every administration thats in the WH and Congress.

[2Design]

26. exactly

[Individualist]

28. Hear, hear!

If it isn't neocons, it's DLC.

[Fuzz]

21. Bring 'em on?

[underpants]

22. The FBI is good at what they do

[ColbertWatcher]

23. One of the alleged terrorists was interested in doing "something to America"!?

Was he going to team up with Merril Lynch? Bear Stearns? ExxonMobile?

[2Design]

24. they did not protect 911 and could not handle katrina - they are

clueless except collecting huge paychecks and benefits - the rest of the shenanigans are BS - fingerprinting and invading peoples luggage, purses, etc is BS

[2Design]

25. training young people to shoot and kill people is increasing terrorists

in our own country - example - timothy mcVeigh - the guy who was shooting people in Virgina a few years back was also military trained to kill -

[Beam Me Up]

27. The real "home grown" terrorist threat is hiding behind the cloak of "national security."

So, please be careful what you wish for, Burt.

[jmg257]

29. Yep. Guys willing to buy stingers and plant bombs at synagogues ain't shit.

(as long as your not flying out of Stewart, or praying at the synagogues, I guess.)

[scarletwoman]

30. I think you're missing the point. Those losers most likely would never have actually DONE

anything had they not been egged on by the "informant".

Their entire "plot" was designed by the FBI -- catching these guys was nothing but a canned hunt.

sw

[mrbarber]

31. Wow, I thought DU would be ecstatic over this.

After all, these were "homegrown" terrorists.

Of course, any time anyone does anything right in this country, it must be some nefarious plot orchestrated by an out-of-work vice President. Yeah, it couldn't have just been a bunch of extremists who wanted to blow up Synagogues and shoot down planes.

No wonder people consider this site to be the left wing equivalent of the extreme right wingers. Everyone is cut from the same cloth, seeing the world through their narrow, hateful view, demonizing "those people".

Well, I am done with it. I am done with this site and participating in these hateful circle jerks. You all can live your life seeing the world in black and white, but I'm not interested anymore.

TLDR version: You are all batshit insane, and I'm out of here.

[TimesSquareCowboy]

33. These weren't 'homegrown' terrorists, these were greenhouse-grown by the FBI.

[mrbarber]

34. I rest my case.

[Robb]

36. If only.

:hi:

[jmg257]

35. Depends what came 1st doesn't it? The scumbags' desire to blow things up, or the

informant's involvement in ratting them out to the FBI?

I think you might be missing the whole story, or maybe indeed I am.

I will have to find out by those who will know better.

[scarletwoman]

40. It was the informant that egged them on. It was the FBI that supplied them.

Without the FBI involvement, they would have just been four disgruntled losers sitting around talking smack. Where would they have gotten the explosives and weapons if the FBI hadn't supplied them?

I'd be impressed if the FBI broke up a ring of criminals selling C4 and anti-aircraft missiles. But busting some stupid suckers who would have been nothing but talk without the FBI's "help" really doesn't mean shit.

sw

[TimesSquareCowboy]

32. Repiblican running for re-election; terrorist plot foiled. Same old song.

Just before his last election, Bloomberg said there was a high alert on the NYC subways due to terror threat. Even Homeland Security questioned that announcement. I guess this time he figured he had to have bodies.

[Dorian Gray]

37. What does the GOP have to do with it?

If there are threats, there are threats. I live in NYC, I saw the destruction of the last attacks here, and I am happy the police are on top of it now.

[lucretia54]

38. It takes me beyond scared and sorrowful that approximately 15 young people PER DAY...

between the ages of 10-24 are murdered, thanks to handgun and other types of violence.

We spend billions on anti-terror efforts; I can't help but IMAGINE if that money were spent on programs for our children.



Source: Youth Violence Facts at a Glance, Summer 2007, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

[votingupstart]

44. 10-24 people dying per day is nothing -

37,248 fatalities per year in car crashes alone - that 102 PER DAY - if we want to make an impact, start with the biggest problem, i am constantly amazed how we / people get distracted by historically insignificant arguments (ie gun violence) the NUMBERS arent there, if we / people want to make a difference then we need to make hard decisions about things that impact OUR daily lives (ie.educating our childern / vehicle saftey / regulations, second hand smoke, carbon emissions, flu vacines) we kill ourselves by constantly trying to refight the old battles and not focusing on the new ones.

(www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov - for 2007 most current)

[ecstatic]

41. I'm more afraid of bird strikes and faulty planes

underpaid pilots than of another terrorist hijacking.

[Joe Fields]

42. FINALLY!!! Thank god I'm not the only one who feels this way.

I never felt the slightest bit if unease at the so-called terrorist threat. WE ARE AMERICA, by GOD, and we don't let a few hundred malcontents (which there were at the time) turn into the bogeyman under the bed. Reagan tried to pull that bullshit on us about the communists. The whole goddamned scenario was blown way out of proportion, and yet the govt. had its citizens going out buying duct tape and plastic sheeting. When I wasn't laughing I was screaming at the mindlessness of our citizenry and the utter sell-out of our entire govt.

[Kablooie]

45. Actually this was the FBI doing their job correctly. Got these jerks off the street.

[Marr]

46. If I'm not mistaken, this is actually our second "war on terror".

I seem to recall the Reagan Administration using the same thin, all-purpose excuse for the use of military force and exorbitant "defense" spending with their buddies' companies.

[LooseWilly]

47. I drove a taxi in Oakland CA for 10 years.

Terrorists? meh... I could give a shit. I drove pimps and dealers and hookers and thugs around town with cash in my pocket in a city with a police force that can't be bothered to respond to anything but a murder that's already done...

Hell, when I went into the yard on 9/11 and the dude in the cage was watching the footage of the flaming towers that still hadn't collapsed, I just asked "So, they know who did it yet?"

He said "No."

I just shrugged and took the keys for my cab. (big mistake. business sucked that day)

If I can drive a taxi in a city that has a murder every 3 days, on average, on a slow year... then I really ain't gonna be scared by some fucktard terrorists.

Especially since, at the time, Bush and co would've just cheered had there been an attack on Oakland... so it was hardly likely to be a target for any but the dumbest terrorists...