I overheard a conversation about the infamous "Christmas Tree" bomber. It sounds like he is finally going to trial and so is in the news again.
I didn't get involved in the discussion as I had work to do and did not want to get in an argument with people who had not looked or listened past the story teaser on KXL.
They were quite upset that the lawyers were claiming entrapment by the FBI. Many people would just like to do away with the trial and throw him in jail for life.
I think I would tend to agree if an average citizen had found him depressing the plunger or winding an alarm clock with wires coming out of it and it all came as a total surprise to the FBI.
However, it did not come as a surprise to the FBI as they in fact set it all up. The lawyers are arguing entrapment because it was entrapment.
The fellow came to the attention of the FBI because his father contacted them because his father was worried about his son being interested in becoming a terrorist. So, the FBI groomed him to become a terrorist so they could come in a the last moment and arrest him. Sure it is a fine line which the general public is apparently too stupid to comprehend, unless it just happens it is their relatives being set up for a meth bust...
A link: FBI Considered Making Pitch to Suspect in 2009
Making a pitch? As in recruiting him?

And of course there is a missing tape. There is always a missing tape in these set ups. I can't find the story where this was mentioned but it is in one of the earlier stories. All the meetings with the guy were taped except for the first one where he was recruited.

I found this link to the complaint.

And this commentary about jury selection. You get out of the jury pool if you distrust the government.

Now heres the deal...
Terrorists should be arrested and prosecuted.
Stupid and crazy people should not be recruited for elaborate crime plots by law enforcement. It is immoral. It is also probably counter productive. However, it gets the stupid people and the ill informed full of patriotic excitement.

A few years ago when I got my tools stolen by the local methhead who turned out to be a police informant, the local law enforcement really wanted to know about his employer who they suspected of having a meth lab. They were pretty low key and polite about it but it was pretty obvious what was going on. Now obviously I was not going to rat out my neighbor, who just happened to owe us $30,000 but I got excellent insights into how "the system" works.

So the earnest recent immigrant to the US calls up the FBI because he somehow believes they will keep his son from becoming a terrorist. Next thing he knows his son is going to Jihad school, a private FBI sponsored Jihad school...

So the earnest African prince calls up the CIA because he is worried about his son becoming a terrorist. Next thing he knows, his son has burnt off his wiener trying to explode a jet airliner.

So a couple good ole boys down south are discussing the overthrow of the gubment in Denny's... Next thing you know... (The link is to the press release generated story, can't find the anti-climatic follow up where it turns out they were just trying to sell a city fool castor beans)

And then there is the first world trade center bombing where if you listened to the news during the trial you discovered that the people involved were all known to the FBI and there were questions raised that the FBI was going to arrest them at the last moment. The only reference I could find with a quick search was to the conspiracy sites and so I didn't provide a link.

And then there was Flight 800 and the live witness reports of a rocket hitting the plane which I heard on the radio while driving around in circles on a tractor.

And then there was the "Fast and Furious" scheme.

Not to be a skeptic or anything... But, perhaps we should look at things with just a bit more of a critical eye. Don't look for the crazy conspiracies with the CFR and the Jewish conspiracy or what ever is currently popular. I'm saying that taking into account your experiences with local government, stupid high school kids, the teachers you had in high school, the idiots on the local city council, the episodes of Hogan's Heroes, and any time you read an article in the News Resistor and realize the news event did not happen that way, what do you think is really the truth...