Riverdale Terror Plot. Do Jewish temples make a good honeypot?
The big news lately is the foiled terror attack on two Jewish targets in Riverdale, Bronx (NYTimes links). Several (mostly black) guys with criminal backgrounds planted what they thought were car bombs (with fake FBI-supplied explosives) near the Riverdale Temple and the Riverdale Jewish Center. They also planned to shoot down military planes with disabled Stingers.
Of interest here is what does all this mean to security of American Jews and Jewish institutions. Next day NYTimes/M.Wilson cites Eric Snyder, an assistant United States attorney, saying that “These are men who eagerly embraced an opportunity” to “bring deaths to Jews.”” What is the role of FBI? More importantly, does picking a few lowlife terrorist wannabes off the street justifies reinforcing anti-semitic threat pattern?
From NYTimes article it appears that the FBI informant involved in the case was the leader of the group. He was recruiting potential jihadists in a mosque, claimed to be a member of Jaish-e-Mohammed and "offered at least one of [the members of the mosque congregation] a substantial amount of money to join his “team.”"
FBI is frequently involved in hatching of such terror plots (see Lakhani case in NJ). This rather common practice gives rise to claims of entrapment. Louis Proyect compiled a “Dossier on FBI entrapment in “war on terror””, and Dru Stevenson offers legal analysis. Whether or not the FBI operation indeed qualifies as an entrapment is likely to be debated in the courtroom. But, if, as appears, the FBI informant was actively influencing if not spearheading the plot, was he or his handlers influencing the choice of the targets as well?
The honeypot in the title refers to the popular network management way of attracting and thus exposing “bad guys”. One definition: “A honeypot is [a …] resource whose value lies in unauthorized or illicit use of that resource.” In effect, this is how these Jewish institutions were used in the sting. But “[h]oneypots should have no production value…”. Which is not how I would describe a Jewish temple!
Which brings us to the questions of framing. Perhaps these guys could have been steered to target federal or police or financial installation instead. Assuming they were al-Qaeda wannabes, the headline then becomes “aQ targets Jews” or “aQ targets police” or “aQ vs. government” or “aQ vs. airplanes”. Such media headlines when repeated become a self-sustaining narrative and a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since "everybody" now knows that al-Qaeda targeted airplanes in the past, attack on airplanes appears more attractive to al-Qaeda wannabes in the future. And so shepherding a plot aimed at a Jewish temple may not have placed this one at risk now, but by generating headlines would make it more likely that some other Jewish temple, rather than a police station or airport or an office building would be targeted elsewhere in the future, perhaps without FBI involvement, perhaps abroad (Mumbai).
So - who is responsible for terror target selection in the FBI? Should Jewish organizatons object to using temples as honeypots?
Perhaps US gov’t should build fake temples attended by fake Jews for purposes of attracting wannabe terrorists using fake explosives? At least the headlines would still be real..
Of interest here is what does all this mean to security of American Jews and Jewish institutions. Next day NYTimes/M.Wilson cites Eric Snyder, an assistant United States attorney, saying that “These are men who eagerly embraced an opportunity” to “bring deaths to Jews.”” What is the role of FBI? More importantly, does picking a few lowlife terrorist wannabes off the street justifies reinforcing anti-semitic threat pattern?
From NYTimes article it appears that the FBI informant involved in the case was the leader of the group. He was recruiting potential jihadists in a mosque, claimed to be a member of Jaish-e-Mohammed and "offered at least one of [the members of the mosque congregation] a substantial amount of money to join his “team.”"
FBI is frequently involved in hatching of such terror plots (see Lakhani case in NJ). This rather common practice gives rise to claims of entrapment. Louis Proyect compiled a “Dossier on FBI entrapment in “war on terror””, and Dru Stevenson offers legal analysis. Whether or not the FBI operation indeed qualifies as an entrapment is likely to be debated in the courtroom. But, if, as appears, the FBI informant was actively influencing if not spearheading the plot, was he or his handlers influencing the choice of the targets as well?
The honeypot in the title refers to the popular network management way of attracting and thus exposing “bad guys”. One definition: “A honeypot is [a …] resource whose value lies in unauthorized or illicit use of that resource.” In effect, this is how these Jewish institutions were used in the sting. But “[h]oneypots should have no production value…”. Which is not how I would describe a Jewish temple!
Which brings us to the questions of framing. Perhaps these guys could have been steered to target federal or police or financial installation instead. Assuming they were al-Qaeda wannabes, the headline then becomes “aQ targets Jews” or “aQ targets police” or “aQ vs. government” or “aQ vs. airplanes”. Such media headlines when repeated become a self-sustaining narrative and a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since "everybody" now knows that al-Qaeda targeted airplanes in the past, attack on airplanes appears more attractive to al-Qaeda wannabes in the future. And so shepherding a plot aimed at a Jewish temple may not have placed this one at risk now, but by generating headlines would make it more likely that some other Jewish temple, rather than a police station or airport or an office building would be targeted elsewhere in the future, perhaps without FBI involvement, perhaps abroad (Mumbai).
So - who is responsible for terror target selection in the FBI? Should Jewish organizatons object to using temples as honeypots?
Perhaps US gov’t should build fake temples attended by fake Jews for purposes of attracting wannabe terrorists using fake explosives? At least the headlines would still be real..