News of the Riverdale Bomb Plot-- or is it not the news?

Jonathan Mark of the New York Jewish Week comments on the Riverdale bomb plot. His take? The major media is out to lunch covering the story and has been replaced by alternative media such as the Village Voice, The Nation, The Amsterdam News, and on Air America. We could expand the list by adding The Worker and the countless bloggers who believe the would-be bombers were entrapped by the FBI.

As is usual in “entrapment” stories, Jews aren’t interviewed for their understanding of entrapment, or how the Riverdale plot seared Jewish sensitivities.

The Voice might have spoken to Samuel G. Freedman. A writer for The New York Times, he has written with great sensitivity about ethnic profiling and the humiliation felt by one Muslim girl when she was stopped by airport security. Freedman told The Jewish Week, “The fact is, you can’t be entrapped unless you participate in your own entrapment. There’s a big difference between profiling, say, a high school girl, and profiling people who are demonstrably criminal with histories of violence. There’s a huge, huge difference there.”

As Mark well understands the story is far from over. Read the The Chill is Gone.

Riverdale Bombers, continued

Previously, I noted that the entrapment defense will be raised by the Riverdale bombing culprits and their supporters.

In a letter to the editor appearing in LoHud.Com, a Mr. Paul Brodhead did just that. "Last week's indictment of four "terrorists" in White Plains ("Accused terrorists plead not guilty" June 3) is the outcome of an FBI sting operation that is transparently fraudulent."

The men drawn into the conspiracy were obviously incapable of doing much without the help of the FBI. One is described by his lawyer as "intellectually challenged" and on medication for schizophrenia. The family of another of the accused states that he expected to use his $25,000 to pay for his brother's liver transplant. And so on. The FBI's "terrorist" scam entrapped people who needed society's help, not victimization.

I thought this kind of thinking was worth an on-line comment. Here's what I wrote:

I think it's too early to jump to Mr. Brodhead's conclusions about the nature of the FBI investigation of the Riverdale bombers. If these guys were entrapped by the FBI, the trial will bring that fact to the surface.What strikes me as important to remember is that none of the "intellectually challenged" or big-hearted plotters thought it important to go to the FBI to report the informant's overtures to turn them to a life of terror. Let's face it, these guys had a choice to make between terror and minding their own business. And they chose terror.

And I stand by that statement.