Undercover Jihadists: A New Kind of Operation

Recently, a 19-year-old American, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, planned and engaged in a plot to explode a van-full of explosives during a Christmas tree lighting event in Portland. He thought that that he was recruited by a Yemen-based terrorist group. Mohamud's so-called fellow Jihadists were none other than a few undercover FBI agents. Apparently, Mohamud was said to have proclaimed, "I want whoever is attending that event to leave, to leave either dead or injured." The "explosives" in that car were neither Mohamud's nor active. They were inert. The man was arrested for allegedly having "antisocial thoughts" and "attempting to detonate explosives." But did he commit these crimes on his own or did the FBI agents brainwash him into it? Are agents allowed to arrest people whose ideas we do not agree with? These are just two of the many questions that are to be answered by the court in which Mohamud's trail will be held.  

According to court papers, Mohamud planned to detonate the van remotely, by mobile phone. He was under the impression, according to the charges, that he was working with fellow jihadists – who were in fact FBI agents. The court papers say that just before the tree-lighting, an agent gave him the mobile phone and started to read the numbers to him, "but Mohamud appeared so eager that he started to read and dial the number off the paper [the agent] was holding faster than the [agent] could recite it. After he dialled, the FBI confirmed that the call went through and the inert bomb did not detonate." More>