FBI: We Totally Stopped Another Terror Attack, You Guys

FBI: We totally disrupted a completely real ISIS plot against George W. Bush by a real ISIS terrorist that we totally didn't set up ourselves so we could get a positive headline and Demonstrate Value in the DENNIS system.

Tom Winter @Tom_Winter

NBC News: Shihab Ahmed Shihab, of Columbus, OH, is in custody after the FBI says he wanted to smuggle 4-6 individuals from Iraq into the United States through the Mexico border to kill former president George W. Bush, court documents and law enforcement officials say.

MORE: Shihab allegedly wanted to conduct the attack on Bush in the name of ISIS.

At all times, court documents show, Shihab was talking to a FBI confidential informant and under some form of surveillance, meaning the physical threat to Bush was low.

W/
@KenDilanianNBC

Oh, Fusion Ken contributed? Gold standard. Now I believe.

Notice the wording here: First of all, he "wanted" to do these thing. It does not say he took actual actions likely to result in these things happening.

Also notice he was "talking to a confidential FBI informant." Just one?!?! What, is the FBI facing a staffing crunch? Why not a dozen?

To get a conspiracy conviction, you only have to establish two things: One, an agreement with another person that a crime should be committed. Note that you yourself don't have to agree to commit the crime; you can agree that your co-conspirator (or your FBI Informant) should commit the crime.

The other thing required, to prove that this isn't merely hot talk and gassy dreams without real intent, is proof that you've undertaken some overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy. But that "overt act" can be very minor and completely non-criminal. It could be something as minor as "I googled George Bush's home address."

Back during Bush's term, the FBI would sometimes admit these plots were "mainly aspirational." Are they no longer categorizing them in that way? Is every "plot" now supposedly real?

I'm not saying I don't trust these guys but... also, I am saying that.

I think we'll eventually learn that the "FBI informant" was more eager to advance this plot than the "ISIS terrorist." The FBI only busts the "terrorists" and "insurrectionists" they recruit themselves.

But hey, the FBI has branded me an "insurrectionist." Self-interest alone requires that I oppose their efforts to apprehend other "insurrectionists."

That's sort of the problem with making half the country Persons of Interest in a vaguely defined Conspiracy.

posted by Ace at 02:45 PM

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