These are the infamos entrapment cases, in which they get alienated teenagers and help them along or basically dragged them along in terror plots, like they did with a Somalian Teen in Portland a couple years ago...

Carl Sagan wrote that the #1 function of any government agency is to perpetuate itself.

If a government agent encourages someone to perpetrate a crime, it's not entrapment unless the accused had to be CONVINCED. If an undercover cop says "hey man, can you go buy some smack from this dealer for me?" and you go "golly gee whiz, sure!", you weren't entrapped. That's one of many myths about entrapment out there...

Finally TheStranger writes about something of substance. Thank you for not writing yet another fluff piece.

@2 how strange when I try to google it, your post is the first/only relevant result...

I've certainly wondered if this was the case. Many of the cases I've read about were spun up from almost nothing into "terror" cases.

Aside from the question of whether it's entrapment is the very real question of whether this kind of tactic is cost effective. Is it worth our time and money to entice people to commit a crime that they never would have committed without encouragement?

On top of the many cases they trumpet as successes there have got to be many hours spent trying to entice people who weren't dim enough to fall for the bait. Plus all the time spent surveilling anti-war and environmental groups.

And then there's the possibility of the knock on effect of creating a distrust of law enforcement. When you've been duped by one mole who was always trying to trip people into saying something anti-government how likely are you to go to law enforcement if you actually are worried about a real plot?

Got an iPhone, iPad, or using the MacOS?

The NSA already has backdoors to illegally get all your data even if you use a strong password, in all US editions.

Yup, what Rights?

Just say hi to the Red Coats quartered in your pocketses

@6, @2: I don't know about Carl Sagan but there's a concept in sociology called goal displacement, where people or organizations change their goals solely in order to justify their continued existence.
The classic example is March of Dimes which was created to help eradicate polio but rather than disband after that was achieved changed it's goal to the much more vague "fighting birth defects, arthritis, and virus diseases".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_of_Di…

@10: related to mission creep

When all the semi-responsible journalism in the US dies for lack of funding, I hope the Guardian still exists.

For an example of blatant FBI entrapment, check out this bullshit from two years ago in Portland:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Defen…

For which, unbelievably, Mohamud was convicted.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Man-c…

@6

How strange is it that you don't read and rely on Google for your information?

The Demon Haunted World.

Read it. And then open your fucking mind.