Winston Ross, of the Daily Beast, has written an article discussing the pre-trial maneuverings of prosecution and defense in the case of Mohamed Mohamud, the Christmas tree bomber. You can read it here.
The whole thing stinks like a god-damn frame-up to me. As Ross points out in his article, defense attorney Stephen Sady says that Mohamud was lured into his crime by federal investigators eager to teach the Rose City (my city, god-damn it!) a lesson about opting out of its Big Brother Joint Terrorism task force. Sady says Mohamud, after initially making contact with someone whom he believed to be a terrorist operative (but who was, in fact, an FBI agent), lost interest in the scheme and had gone as far as to line up a fishing job in Alaska in the summer of 2010. But then, the FBI, directed by a Justice Department positively salivating for a terrorism conviction, lured him back into the scheme. They gave him $2700, set him up in his own apartment, and convinced him that he needed to help "the brothers."
Now that the discovery phase of the trial is underway, it turns out that many of the crucial recordings of the early conversations between undercover FBI agents and Mohamud do not exist. Someone "forgot" to turn on the recording device. Sets it up nicely for the prosecution, doesn't it? I mean, who are jurors more likely to believe? FBI agents or an embittered and confused Somali kid?
This case points up all that is wrong with this country in the wake of 911. The Federal government brings to bear its resources to target and entrap a Muslim kid (because everyone knows Muslims are terrorists) and uses the case to get a free-thinking city to fall into line with the New Order. Muslims are alienated, Portland One-Worlders are chastened, and some hot-shot Federal prosecutor adds a gold star to his resumé.
Let's see what the trial reveals, but things don't look good for Mohamed Mohamud. Or for any of us.
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