Thread: FBI Celebrates Duping Another Mentally Ill Man Into Fake Terror Plot

Thursday, 14 February 2013 15:14

FBI Celebrates Duping Another Mentally Ill Man Into Fake Terror Plot

Written by Alex Newman

Following a series of similar widely ridiculed so-called “sting” operations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced last week that it had foiled yet another “terror plot” that,like virtually every supposed “terrorist” case in recent years, was created and managed from start to finish by the FBI itself. This time, the dupe was a 28-year-old California man, Matthew Aaron Llaneza, with a documented history of mental illness, who apparently believed his government handlers were helping him wage “jihad.” Critics, however, say the whole scheme smacks of entrapment and a waste of taxpayer money.

Llaneza was arrested by federal agents on February 7 in Oakland after he supposedly tried to blow up a bogus bomb the FBI helped him create. According to authorities, the mentally ill San Jose suspect planned to detonate the fake explosives outside a Bank of America branch. The alleged plan, officials said, was to start a “civil war” by making it appear as if the attack had been carried out by “anti-government militias,” sparking a crackdown by the government on right-of-center dissidents.

“Unbeknownst to Llaneza, the explosive device that he allegedly attempted to use had been rendered inoperable by law enforcement and posed no threat to the public,” the FBI admitted in a press release celebrating the arrest of its mentally unstable stooge. The man was charged in a criminal complaint with “attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against property used in an activity that affects interstate or foreign commerce.” If convicted, he could face life in prison.

According to the government’s court filings, the mentally ill man met with an undercover FBI agent late last year under mysterious circumstances. The federal official somehow managed to convince the naïve dupe that he was connected to the “Taliban and the mujahidin in Afghanistan” — Islamist forces that were originally armed and trained by the U.S. government before becoming official enemies. From there, federal handlers worked with the man to develop the half-baked plot and the fake bomb to blow something up.

“Llaneza’s stated goal was to trigger a governmental crackdown, which he expected would trigger a right-wing counter-response against the government followed by, he hoped, civil war,” the FBI claimed in a statement applauding its work defending the Homeland from its own plot. “Llaneza’s arrest was the culmination of an undercover operation during which he was closely monitored by the FBI’s South Bay Joint Terrorism Task Force.” State and local officials also participated in the scheme, the FBI said.

Despite the Justice Department’s celebration over foiling its own bogus plot, as has become typical in this sort of case, critics are raising serious concerns. Among the most widely expressed: Official documents and family members confirmed that Llaneza has a long history of mental-health issues. Hospital and medical records obtained by local media outlets revealed Llaneza had previously attempted suicide, was taking medication for psychosis, and that doctors considered him “delusional” and suspected he may have been suffering from schizophrenia.

The suspect’s former attorney, Cameron Bowman, told NBC Bay Area that Llaneza was a “troubled individual” in many ways, and that this was well known — it was in the public record, in fact. "His family had a lot of concern for his mental health,” Bowman explained. “The court had a lot of concern about his mental health issue.... Outside experts felt that he was bipolar, possibly schizophrenic." At a hospital, documents showed that Llaneza himself had told doctors he was depressed and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Despite supposedly having converted to Islam, which strictly prohibits the consumption of alcohol, official reports also show that the suspect had substance abuse problems. His father had, for example, expressed serious concerns to authorities one night when the younger Llaneza, highly intoxicated, had been taken to the hospital and placed on a mental health hold for strange and aggressive behavior, according to news reports.

Executive Director Zahra Billoo with the controversial Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) told reporters that the whole operation smelled of entrapment, adding that it was especially troubling in light of Llaneza’s well-documented mental-health issues. "Did the FBI take a [mentally ill] aspirational terrorist, make him an operational terrorist and then thwart their own plot?" heasked. "CAIR has been saying this for years now: It's the FBI's job to stop operational terrorists. It's not the FBI's job to enable aspirational ones."

Across the Internet, in forums and comment sections of press reports, citizens ridiculed and slammed the FBI operation as yet another set up, blasting the agency as well. Critics in the media also lambasted authorities for the half-baked plot, criticizing everything from the squandering of taxpayer resources to the highly controversial tactic of prodding mentally unstable people into perpetrating crimes — especially when there are so many real issues to deal with.

“Court documents made it immediately clear that the federal government spent a considerable amount of resources on the case,”noted Robert Gammon, calling the whole operation a “waste,” in a piece published by the East Bay Express. “However, court documents also showed that the foiled ‘bomb plot’ was not really a bomb plot. Instead, it turned out to be a sad affair involving the apparent entrapment of a mentally ill man who was coaxed by the FBI into attempting to set off a fake bomb that it had given him.”

Of course, this is hardly the first time in recent memory that the federal government has used similar strategies to convince naïve and often mentally unstable individuals to participate in criminal activity. The New American has documented multiple cases just in the last year where the FBI used taxpayer money and even convicted felons to coax fools or mentally challenged individuals into committing fake acts of terror. Oftentimes federal agents lead the plot from start to finish before arresting their stooge and calling a press conference to pat each other on the back.

In October of last year for example, federal agents convinced a naïve 21-year-old Bangladeshi that he was a member of al-Qaeda,giving the alleged entrapment victim fake bombs to blow up the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank of New York before swarming in and arresting him. In reality, there was no al-Qaeda, there was no threat, there were no bombs, and the only alleged “plot” the FBI “foiled” was the one it hatched with its stooge, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis.

Earlier that year, the FBI concocted a similar half-baked plot, using a convicted felon to trick a group of young self-styled left-wing anarchists into trying to blow up a bridge near Cleveland. Again, the whole plot was run from beginning to end by federal agents and their “confidential informant” — a convicted criminal and con man.

A separate case in 2009 in which a government informer also convinced mentally unstable individuals to plant fake bombs in New York even drew criticism from the judge who oversaw the case. “The government made them terrorists,” the presiding magistrateobserved. Even the establishment press — the New York Times included — has been forced to speak out about the increasingly absurd “terror” plots invented and “foiled” by federal officials.

Analysts say the FBI is becoming increasingly discredited among the public as it continues to entrap ever-more vulnerable fools into committing bogus crimes. While the precise motivation remains unclear — authorities claim to be “defending the Homeland” — some experts have said the burst of fantastical headlines about “foiled” so-called “terror plots” helps to keep paranoia alive among gullible citizens while ensuring that the taxpayer money continues flowing.

Others have questioned whether the focus on creating and busting fake terrorists is actually endangering the public by diverting resources from working on real crime. However, even as the federal government purports to be waging a “terror war” all over the globe, even on American soil, the Obama administration has been publicly supporting, funding, and arming self-styled al-Qaeda leaders everywhere from Libya to Syria.

Llaneza’s public defender did not immediately comment on the charges against his client, who made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu on February 8. The suspect also appeared in federal court for a bail hearing on Wednesday. Some analysts expect that, like the Bangladeshi student who pled guilty last week, Llaneza may ultimately end up pleading guilty to the charges if prosecutors offer a deal just to escape the potential life sentence.

Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, politics, and more. He can be reached atanewman@thenewamerican.com.

Related articles:

FBI Celebrates Foiling Its Own Terror Plot, Again
FBI Dupes May Day Anarchists into Bogus Terror Plot
The FBI Imagines Crimes and Then Arrests the Criminals
Manufacturing Monsters to Mash
“Drug Lords” Targeted in Fast & Furious Worked for FBI
Obama's Terrorist Ties and Radical Roots
Justice Department Trained Police to Link Political Activism With Terror
Terror War Expanding, Shifting to the Right
UN, Obama Fighting Alongside Al-Qaeda in Libya
Al-Qaeda & the West Back Syrian Rebels Against Assad
Bin Laden & Al-Qaeda: U.S. Govt. Creations

More in this category:« Cop-killing Ex-LAPD Officer Praises Obama and Gun Control

Yet another terrorist bomb plot turns out to have been dreamed up by the FBI

Friday, February 15, 2013 by: J. D. Heyes

(NaturalNews) As unbelievable as it sounds, the nation's premier domestic law enforcement agency is treating terrorism as a job-justification program, creating one phony "threat" after another to create cases out of thin air.

The latest case of what is nothing less than federal entrapment originates in Oakland, Calif., where the FBI announced Feb. 8 that another "bomb plot" had been foiled by agents. According to the East Bay Express newspaper, the supposed bomb was just a fake device that endangered no one because it never would have exploded.

According to federal court papers, the inert device was assembled by an undercover FBI agent and supplied to Matthew Adam Llaneza, 28, of San Jose, who is now facing charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, despite the fact that it never posed a threat to anyone.

In addition, the paper said, "the court documents also raise questions as to whether [Llaneza] had the wherewithal to plan and carry out a bomb attack were it not for help from the FBI."

First, find the perfect fall guy...

The "case," as it is, raises further suspicions among many observers that the FBI is manufacturing "terrorist" cases in order to either justify its existence or lay the groundwork for the adoption of oppressive federal measures at some point in the near future. Why else would the nation's top domestic law enforcement agency feel the need to create these kinds of cases out of thin air?

The "suspect," Llaneza, is the perfect fall guy for such an operation because a) he's got a history of felonious behavior and mental illness and b) he is a military washout (Marine Corps). Throw in a little terrorist bomb plot conspiracy and voila, the FBI becomes a hero agency with incredible foresight and detection capabilities.

But just how did the FBI come by the "intelligence" pointing them to Llaneza as a potential terrorist? No one really says. The San Francisco Chronicle reported only that the FBI began tracking Llaneza after he served a short jail term in Santa Clara County, Calif.:

The FBI did not say how it first contacted Llaneza, but he had been subject to law enforcement monitoring since serving a jail sentence in the 2011 criminal case in San Jose involving assault weapons charges.

In April 2011, San Jose police were called to a trailer where Llaneza lived with his father, Steve, according to court records. Described as suicidal and combative, and shouting "Allahu akbar" - "God is great" - he was held for observation for 72 hours.

Two days later, his father told police he had found an AK-47 assault rifle and a 30-round extended ammunition clip in the trailer. Officers found two more 30-round clips and other items, including a military-style camouflage sniper suit.

Llaneza was not arrested immediately, but a judge ordered him into custody when he appeared in court in May 2011. He pleaded no contest five months later to transportation of an assault weapon and was sentenced to six years in jail, with all but one year suspended, after agreeing to seek mental treatment. With credit for good behavior, Llaneza was released on Nov. 30, 2011.

Would the culprits commit the act were it not for the FBI setting it up?

That is vague, to say the least, but somehow the FBI - out of thousands of criminal cases that occur every day - somehow managed to single out this would-be terrorist who would later, mysteriously, try to blow up an Oakland-area Bank of America branch using a car bomb.

"The sworn affidavit by FBI Special Agent Christopher Monika detailing Llaneza's activities indicates the FBI played a hand in formulating the plot from start to finish, not only furnishing the inert chemicals used in the car bomb, but also renting the storage facility Llaneza and the undercover agent used to prepare the attack," the East Bay Express reported.

This scenario has played out over and over again, with the FBI playing the role of hero after singling out genuine "terrorist suspects" from thousands of criminal profiles. Even media that is traditionally friendly to big government agencies have taken notice.

Writing in The New York Times in April 2012, David Shipler, author of "Rights at Risk: The Limits of Liberty in Modern America," wrote that a series of "narrow misses" have seemingly been averted over the past few years, allegedly thanks to the FBI - except that the agency hatched the plots itself.

"A would-be suicide bomber was intercepted on his way to the Capitol; a scheme to bomb synagogues and shoot Stinger missiles at military aircraft was developed by men in Newburgh, N.Y.; and a fanciful idea to fly explosive-laden model planes into the Pentagon and the Capitol was hatched in Massachusetts... Without the FBI, would the culprits commit violence on their own? Is cultivating potential terrorists the best use of the manpower designed to find the real ones?"

We say no.

Sources:

http://www.eastbayexpress.com

http://www.sfgate.com

New York Times openly admits domestic terror plots masterminded by the FBI

http://www.nytimes.com

Yet another terrorist bomb plot turns out to have been dreamed up by the FBI

Articles Related to This Article: • FBI nabs five mastermind geniuses after teaching them how to blow up a bridge in Cleveland • 'Minority Report' facial recognition system being installed across USA by FBI; everyone to be tracked • FBI in the process of creating a system for monitoring all conversations on social networking sites • FBI wants a wire-tap-friendly 'back door' to all internet providers • FBI seeks developer for app to track threats on social media • Government whistleblower: FBI has email archives of nearly all Americans, including members of Congress