Quote:Original post by Valderman
Find someone guilty of thoughtcrime, then set him up as a dangerous nukuler terrist and arrest him - sounds great, except that someone who was only guilty of being pissed off had to take the fall for it. Wanting to commit a crime is not a crime, not even in The Greatest Beacon of Censorship and Blind "Patriotism" in the World.

Quote:Original post by Talroth
It is very hard for someone to actually act alone on such things, they need validation from others that what they are doing is actually right, and they usually need support of others to actually build up the courage to act on such ideas.

Quote:Original post by Talroth
The Oklahoma City bombing was done for just a few thousand, but could have been done far far cheaper for the same effect. Given that the target in this case was a crowd of unprotected people in the open, then a little bit of forethought and design effort could have seen a horrible mass murder done for less than $1000 in materials.

Quote:
...
In the 10 years since the April 19, 1995, bombing in Oklahoma City, in fact, the radical right has produced some 60 terrorist plots. These have included plans to bomb or burn government buildings, banks, refineries, utilities, clinics, synagogues, mosques, memorials and bridges; to assassinate police officers, judges, politicians, civil rights figures and others; to rob banks, armored cars and other criminals; and to amass illegal machine guns, missiles, explosives, and biological and chemical weapons.
...

Quote:
BALTIMORE -- A 21-year-old construction worker who had recently converted to Islam and told an FBI informant he thought about nothing but jihad was arrested Wednesday when he tried to detonate what he thought was a bomb at a military recruitment center, authorities said.

Antonio Martinez, also known as Muhammad Hussain, faces charges of attempted murder of federal officers and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

The bomb he is accused of trying to detonate was fake and had been provided by an undercover FBI agent.

"There was no actual danger to the public as the explosives were inert and the suspect had been carefully monitored by law enforcement for months," the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland said in a statement.
...
According to court documents, he has been on the FBI's radar screen since October, when he told a confidential FBI source he wanted to attack and kill military personnel.

The case is similar to one in Portland, Ore., where authorities said they arrested a Somali-born teenager the day after Thanksgiving when he used a cell phone to try to detonate what he thought were explosives in a van. He intended to bomb a crowded downtown Christmas tree-lighting ceremony, but the people he had been communicating with about the plot were in fact FBI agents.

After that case became public, Martinez called the FBI source he had been working with on the Maryland bomb plot, according to court documents, which said he seemed worried about another person that source had introduced him to. The person was an undercover FBI agent.

"I'm not falling for no b.s.," court documents quote him as saying.

After meeting with the source, however, Martinez decided to continue with the plot, according to the court documents. On Wednesday he drove an SUV with the dummy bomb to the recruiting center and parked outside the building, authorities said. When he attempted to detonate the device, he was arrested.
...