Today we have a story that triples down on the irony.
The FBI recently announced that they had uncovered a terrorist plot to build explosive devices in New York City. But the more you look into it, the more it looks like a couple of stupid kids who had little or no chance of actually doing anything until an undercover FBI informant arrived to “help” them with their plans.
But that didn’t stop Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) from responding that this shows that we should ban the book “The Anarchist Cookbook” from the internet (because they had a copy).
Yes, you can download a book from the Internet that has instructions for building bombs. But that’s not the only place you can get it. You can buy it at many bookstores, including Amazon. And the book was originally written using information available in any library. Removing The Anarchist Cookbook from the internet would not only not stop people from getting this kind of information, it would violate the First Amendment (according to the US Department of Justice, banning it would likely be unconstitutional).
Censoring the internet is not something that should be considered litely. We are dismayed when countries like China try to censor the internet.
Just to bring this story full circle, it turns out that it was the FBI informant who told the two would-be terrorists about The Anarchist Cookbook and downloaded it for them. The criminal complaint against them even has them thanking the undercover agent for introducing the book to them. In other words, neither of them downloaded anything from the internet, the government conveniently did it for them. And for this we should censor the internet?
5 Comments
That story has the great makings of a good conspiracy theory, a tail wagging the dog type of story. If they gov’t wants to censor the internet but can’t justify it to the public, then create some national security / terrorism incident caused by the use of the internet, to justify the censoring. After that then the censor creeping can begin and in ten years we’ll only see what they want us to see.
Isn’t that what China does?
I am hoping you will not be surprised to know that this is rampant. There have been numerous cases in which FBI with help of some informant (who has criminal background, so they promise him for clemency) entrapped muslim youths who are clueless or sometimes even mentally challenged (Glen Greenwald has article on it) to come up with attacks. They brainwash (if the person is half hearted), to the point that person actually agrees to commit a terrorist act, and then they come at right time to save the day. Hence get more funding, and keep laws like patriot act and others justified by suggesting they are needed every day.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/26/fbi-manufacture-plots-terrorism-isis-grave-threats/
This is one, perhaps it has links to other articles.
PSgt, you mean like when the US blew up their own ship in Havana harbor so they could attack the Spanish (who controlled Cuba at the time) and install a dictator there? Of course, that backfired when Castro overthrew our guy.
Is it still a conspiracy theory if it is true?
Hassan, no, I am not in the least bit surprised. I’ve reported on such cases. Are you surprised when I post something that is negative about Democratic politicians?
… many of the “recipes” in The Anarchist’s Cookbook are more hazardous to the maker than anyone else. It’s a wonderful book for making extravagant political claims about would-be terrorists and useless — or worse — for anyone else.
Censoring it would, at best, prevent a few people from blowing themselves up.