FBI 'Terror Plots' Keep Finding Gamers, Not Actual Terrorists
When the FBI's counter-terrorism unit 'uncovered' a plot in Michigan, former Trump administration official Kash Patel hinted at thwarted Halloween horrors. Yet, defense lawyers claim the accused were just online gamers, drawn into a fantasy by an informant. This isn't an isolated incident; remember the 2020 Michigan 'plot' to kidnap Governor Whitmer? An exposé (e.g., from The New York Times, 2022)
revealed government informants played a critical role in orchestrating, not merely monitoring, the alleged conspiracy. Or the “Newburgh Four” in 2009, where impoverished men were given fake bombs by an informant and then arrested for a 'terror plot' (reported by The Intercept, 2015). It appears the FBI’s budget for 'thwarting' domestic terror often leads them to individuals with more access to
Xbox Live than actual weapons. One might wonder if real threats are harder to 'discover' when you are busy fabricating them with vulnerable individuals. How many tax dollars are spent creating and then 'disrupting' these ghost ops, while actual, self-motivated violence often slips through the cracks? Perhaps the real terror is the chilling effect these entrapment schemes have on civil liberties.