Project SALAM has been tracking instances of FBI stings against innocent Muslims that have put more than a hundred men in prison for crimes they did not commit. In many cases, the men did nothing at all except talk to an FBI agent provocateur, and in a few cases, they actually attempted to carry out the plot defined for them by the provocateur using resources supplied by the provocateur.   In no case did the convicted parties come up with the idea for the crime they are accused of on their own.  In most cases they were poor, uneducated individuals who agreed to the agent’s plan for a price.  In some cases, such as that of Yassin Aref of Albany, the individual was targeted for obscure reasons, and the sting merely created an appearance of complicity in the appearance of a crime. But, despite the fact that there was no crime, and Yassin was unaware of even the fabricated crime he was being targeted with, he is serving a 15 year sentence.
These unfortunate men are serving their sentences in Federal Communication Management Facilities (CMUs), which means they are in solitary for the duration.   Yassin, whose stated crime was that he happened to be in the room while the agent discussed an illegal weapons sale with another man, had been targeted because someone wrote his name in a list in Northern Iraq, where he lived before coming to the US as a refugee.   Because he was the named client in a Project SALAM suit claiming the CMUs violate the civil rights of those incarcerated there, he was released into the general prison population about a year ago in a bid by the state to undermine the case.  However he remains in a federal facility half way across the country from his wife and 4 young children.  The rest remain incarcerated in CMUs, labeled as terrorists until a broader case can be assembled.
Even after following several of these internal cases of FBI sting operations where crimes were manufactured and criminals targeted or drafted for reasons to convince the public that the War On Terror has substance, I must say I was shocked by the case of David Coleman Headley, which clearly indicates US involvement in the infamous Mumbai attacks.  If Headley, an admitted American operative, was deeply involved in the planning of the event, then the US was complicit.  The US was warned by Headley’s ex wife in a detailed message, but somehow no one followed up on the information she provided. He wasn’t picked up until the UK arrested him in conjunction with a planned bombing in Europe.  The Indian government wasn’t allowed to extradite Headley, or even to interview him without an FBI agent present. And, according to the Guardian, the judge decided against the death penalty because he found Headley to be truly ‘repentant’.
I have, in the past, written of a number of Israeli plots concocted along these lines, and conversely, tall stories concocted about their adversaries actions, and proved by a series of bizarre actions by the Mossad or other Israeli agents.    On the one hand, they really are out there assassinating their perceived opponents, and on the other they are concocting crazy implausible stories about how others are action out scenes from their own spy vs spy nightmares.   You can read a couple of those stories here, and here.  The Hariri Tribunal is another instance of this kind of wild story telling (here and here) being held up as a legal basis for attacking others.
So, today, when I turned on the computer and the breaking news was an Iranian plot to do something totally pointless that would, in essence, paint a bulls eye on their backs, I should not have been surprised. Even so, there was the kind of shock of yet another attack straight out of the delusional abyss of American mainstream news.  A plot was uncovered by the FBI . . . Iranian expats . . . under the direction of the ‘Quds Force’ . . . to murder the Saudi Ambassador in New York and . . . more.  Sounds like a terrorist plot doesn’t it? Sounds like an international hit. In fact, there is no evidence of any formal connection to the Iranian Government, or even the leadership of the ‘Quds Force’. But, there is an FBI informant, indeed, a provocateur involved.  According to John Glaser’s article on Antiwar.com today, the Iranian American charged with the crime was thinking about kidnapping the ambassador, but after talking to an undercover DEA agent, he had decided to kill him.
Glaser points out that “The FBI has made a protocol of cradling disgruntled individuals, posing as operatives in extremist groups, and encouraging them to engage in violence.”  After listing some of the many US and Israeli provocations against Iran (documented here, by yours truly), he concludes that
“This failed plot, apparently concocted at least in part by the FBI, and apparently traced to some rogue individual within the Quds Force (not to the Iranian government), is the only tangible action that the US has been able to claim came from any Iranian elements.”
Why am I not surprised? People have taken to the streets all over the US.  Large encampments are growing in New York and Washington DC.  Restless and unemployed youth are gathering to express their angst, just like in the Middle East. Elections are approaching, the Republican presidential candidates are the usual bunch of losers, and Obama’s ratings are in the trash bin.  The promised recovery did not include society, only corporations.  People are becoming more restless every day. They have noticed that, not only has the economy crashed on their backs, but the democracy they have believed in all their lives does not exist. “Peace, Justice and the American Way”are defunct. Superman committed suicide, 50 some odd years ago, and then died again of an infection in a bed sore after 20 years as a quadriplegic.  The veil is lifting.  Time for yet another desperate attempt to instil some fear into the masses.  But it looks like they are too late.  No one cares. They want jobs, medical care and a chance at a comfortable old age. Those wild and crazy Ayatollahs are old news. Terrorism is loosing it’s glamor. The piper has come for his fee.