The FBI is amazingly good at halting terror plots dreamed up by the FBI

(NaturalNews) The Justice Department announced again recently that the FBI had managed to thwart yet another domestic terrorism scheme, but a closer examination of the plot reveals, once more, that the nation's top federal law enforcement agency is pretty good at disrupting self-made plans.

As reported by investigative news site The Intercept, a recent Justice Department press release stated that "the Joint Terrorism Task Force has arrested a Cincinnati-area man for a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol and kill government officials."

The alleged terrorist was furthered identified as 20-year-old Christopher Cornell -- an unemployed, lives-at-home young man who spends the bulk of his time playing video games in his bedroom, still calls his mother "mommy" and considers his cat his best friend.

The release also described Cornell as "a typical student" and "quiet but not overly reserved" by the principal of a local school from where he graduated in 2012.

The "evidence" is flimsy, contrived

According to this Justice Department affidavit,^[PDF] the FBI is alleging that Cornell "posted comments and information supportive of [ISIS] through Twitter accounts." According to investigators, the bureau supposedly learned of Cornell's activities through an unnamed informant who, as the FBI said, "began cooperating with the FBI in order to obtain favorable treatment with respect to his criminal exposure on an unrelated case."

The Intercept reported further:

Acting under the FBI's direction, the informant arranged two in-person meetings with Cornell where they allegedly discussed an attack on the Capitol, and the FBI says it arrested Cornell to prevent him from carrying out the attack.

Family members say Cornell converted to Islam just six months ago and claimed he began attending a small local mosque. Yet The Cincinnati Enquirer could not find a single person at that mosque who had ever seen him before, and noted that a young, white, recent convert would have been quite conspicuous at a mosque largely populated by "immigrants from West Africa," many of whom "speak little or no English."

What gives?

On cue, the Justice Department's announcement generated scary headlines on a number of mainstream news sites, all of which were complementary of the FBI. On CNN, the headline read, "FBI says plot to attack U.S. Capitol was ready to go." MSNBC dutifully followed suit: "US terror plot foiled by FBI arrest of Ohio man." And The Wall Street Journal trumpeted: "Ohio Man Charged With Plotting ISIS-Inspired Attack on U.S. Capitol."

And, also on cue, many political leaders took the opportunity to praise federal agents (after all, the "attack" was allegedly to be directed against them). House Speaker John Boehner appeared to celebrate the NSA's serial violations of the Fourth Amendment by claiming that "the National Security Agency's snooping powers helped stop a plot to attack the Capitol and that his colleagues need to keep that in mind as they debate whether to renew the law that allows the government to collect bulk information from its citizens."

Boehner, R-Ohio, further warned, "We live in a dangerous country, and we get reminded every week of the dangers that are out there."

Talk about your set-up

But, as The Intercept noted, the facts surrounding the case appear to fit a well-established pattern of the FBI literally creating terrorist cases out of thin air; not entrapment, per se, but more like judicial fabrication, to put a phrase to it.

First, agents target a Muslim, though not due to any specific evidence of intent or capability to conduct the claimed attack, but instead for the "radical" political views he espouses.

"They then find another Muslim who is highly motivated to help disrupt a 'terror plot': either because they're being paid substantial sums of money by the FBI or because (as appears to be the case here) they are charged with some unrelated crime and are desperate to please the FBI in exchange for leniency (or both)," The Intercept reported. "The FBI then gives the informant a detailed attack plan, and sometimes even the money and other instruments to carry it out, and the informant then shares all of that with the target.

"Once they finally get the target to agree, the FBI swoops in at the last minute, arrests the target, issues a press release praising themselves for disrupting a dangerous attack (which it conceived of, funded, and recruited the operatives for), and the DOJ and federal judges send their target to prison for years or even decades," said the report.

Read The Intercept's full report here.

Sources:

https://firstlook.org

http://www.justice.gov

http://www.justice.gov^[PDF]

http://www.cnn.com

http://www.msnbc.com

http://www.wsj.com