Following up on the JFK bomb plot story, this article on an informant’s role in breaking up that particular terror ring contains other nuggets of info worth considering (or re-considering, as the case may be):
Last year, informants played a major role in two other terror cases. In June 2006, an informant posing as an al-Qaida operative helped bring down a plot to blow up the Sears Tower. Five of the seven men arrested in that . . . terrorist group were U.S. citizens.
In May 2006, an NYPD informant’s testimony led to the conviction of a man plotting to blow up the busy Herald Square subway station in midtown Manhattan.
There’s also this story from Saturday concerning another, ongoing terrorism case:
A federal judge ordered a man held without bail while he awaits trial on charges that he provided al-Qaida fighters with equipment to attack U.S. soldiers [in Afghanistan].
Syed Hashmi, a 27-year-old former New York resident, was arrested in England last spring after one of his . . . collaborators began cooperating with British authorities…..
Those and other recent items should place various aspects of the war on terror into their proper perspectives, e.g., stepped-up law enforcement powers, wiretaps, surveillance, FISA warrants, warrantless searches, etc.
On the other hand, said perspectives will be unobtainable if, well, you know, you’ve been snortin’ whiskey and drinkin’ cocaine….
