Saturday, May 23, 2009
Agent provocateur
Two days ago when I first wrote about the New York terror plot, I wrote that I'd "let the facts settle" before commenting further. There was a solid reason for that, of course. The first news reports on such plots are always based on government pronouncements. The original press reports in that case, as in the latest one, always describe the person as an "informant," but when you wait a few days, you find out that "informing" was the least the person did.
Later, the real story starts coming out. And now, precisely as was the case in the recently-convicted Liberty City 7 case, we learn that this plot was almost entirely the work of one man, not a member of the "gang," but an agent provocateur, preying on people who wouldn't in a million years have committed an act of terrorism had it not been for the agent.
The Nation and The New York Times have the full story about the current agent provocateur.
