Human Rights Watch: 'All of the high-profile domestic terrorism plots of the last decade, with four

OurStudio
Jul 22, 2014
1 min read

Some remarkable statistics in a new report from Human Rights Watch and Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute:

And then there's 'The Sting 2,' starring Jackie Gleason. All I remember about it is that it included a scene on a roller coaster.

Universal Pictures

All of the high-profile domestic terrorism plots of the last decade, with four exceptions, were actually FBI sting operations—plots conducted with the direct involvement of law enforcement informants or agents, including plots that were proposed or led by informants. According to multiple studies, nearly 50 percent of the more than 500 federal counterterrorism convictions resulted from informant-based cases; almost 30 percent of those cases were sting operations in which the informant played an active role in the underlying plot.

The four exceptions are the Boston Marathon bombing, an attempted car bombing at Times Square, a plan to bomb the New York subways, and a shooting at Los Angeles International Airport. (The last of those took place in 2002, so it isn't really "of the last decade.")

For a pdf of the full report, click here. To sample Reason's coverage of these stings, go here and here.

#Terrorism #PoliceAbuse #FBI