The FBI is obviously quite pleased with itself over its arrest of a 19-year-old Somali-American, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, who -- with months of encouragement, support and money from the FBI's own undercover agents -- allegedly attempted to detonate a bomb at a crowded Christmas event in Portland, Oregon.This is Greenwald doing what he does best-insinuating that the evil government creates terrorist where none exist. But he goes way beyond insinuation:
But it may also just as easily be the case that the FBI -- as they've done many times in the past -- found some very young, impressionable, disaffected, hapless, aimless, inept loner; created a plot it then persuaded/manipulated/entrapped him to join, essentially turning him into a Terrorist; and then patted itself on the back once it arrested him for having thwarted a "Terrorist plot" which, from start to finish, was entirely the FBI's own concoction. Having stopped a plot which it itself manufactured, the FBI then publicly touts -- and an uncritical media amplifies -- its "success" to the world, thus proving both that domestic Terrorism from Muslims is a serious threat and the Government's vast surveillance powers -- current and future new ones -- are necessary.Those evil bastards!
To Greenwald's credit he admits that it is possible that the whole thing went down just as the FBI claims,
though reading the article, it would be hard to make the case that Greenwald actually believes that the FBI really thwarted a terrorist plot. Of course that is okay because Greenwald is merely questioning authority and maintaining a healthy level of scepticism. Scepticism and questioning authority are good qualities. If you are a Progressive. If you happen to be a Conservative, well, that's a horse of a different color. Conservatives who question authority are called "Tea Partiers" or if you are of Greenwald's ilk, "Tea Baggers".
Greenwald should have stopped writing before he showed his hand. In Greenwald's estimation it doesn't really matter if Mohamed Osman Mohamud would have plotted to kill 25,000 Americans at a tree lightening service without the FBI's encouragement. Had Mohamud planned and carried it all on his own it would still be America's fault:
We hear the same exact thing over and over and over from accused Terrorists -- that they are attempting to carry about plots in retaliation for past and ongoing American violence against Muslim civilians and to deter such future acts. Here we find one of the great mysteries in American political culture: that the U.S. Government dispatches its military all over the world -- invading, occupying, and bombing multiple Muslim countries -- torturing them, imprisoning them without charges, shooting them up at checkpoints, sending remote-controlled drones to explode their homes, imposing sanctions that starve hundreds of thousands of children to death -- and Americans are then baffled when some Muslims -- an amazingly small percentage -- harbor anger and vengeance at them and want to return the violence. And here we also find the greatest myth in American political discourse: that engaging in all of that military aggression somehow constitutes Staying Safe and combating Terrorism -- rather than doing more than any single other cause to provoke, sustain and fuel Terrorism.So there you have it. We are the terrorists.
The problem is that only through total submission can we stop provoking them. Nothing less will do. Greenwald, as a gay man, may be okay with that but I'm not okay with it for him. I'm not okay with it as a woman. I'm not willing to give up one iota of my freedom for a false sense of security based on supplication. We provoke them because we are. Greenwald doesn't except that premise but as long as enough of us do we'll continue to be free.
Congratulations to the FBI for a job well done.
They kill us
