The Bronx Bombers, part 1

It's an admirable thing for government agencies to pro-actively infiltrate terrorists cells so that they can be stopped before anything terrible happens. However, it's something else entirely for a covert government informant and his handlers to brainstorm a terrorist plot, then bribe a group of bumbling idiots to enact it.

In May 2009, four American men were arrested in New York for plotting to blow up two synagogues in the Bronx and to shoot down military airplanes flying out of the New York Air National Guard base. The LA Times reported:

Prosecutors called it the latest in a string of homegrown terrorism plots hatched after Sept. 11.

"It's hard to envision a more chilling plot," Assistant U.S. Atty. Eric Snyder said in court Thursday. He described all four suspects as "eager to bring death to Jews."

Time magazine described the plot as being one of the most incompetent in memory. The four Bronx Bombers "spent six days trying to procure firearms before eventually settling on a single pistol. The plot's purported leader, James Cromitie, said he was stoned for many of the operations."

Richard Dreyfuss of the Nation magazine wrote that "the alleged perps -- Onta Williams, James Cromitie, David Williams, and Laguerre Payen -- were losers, ex-cons, drug addicts. Al Qaeda they're not. Without the assistance of the agent who entrapped them, they would never have dreamed of committing political violence, nor would they have had the slightest idea about where to acquire plastic explosives or a Stinger missile."

On behalf of the US government, a FBI informant recruited, bribed, and directed this group of four (which included a purse-snatcher afflicted with schizophrenia); 2) equipped them with inactive military weapons; 3) sent them off on a 'terrorist' mission in return for promises of marijuana and money; and then 4) got them arrested apparently for broader political purposes.

Maqsood, the FBI informant, claimed to be representing a Pakistani extremist group, Jaish-e Muhammad, a bona fide terrorist organization. Not true.

Lorena Mongelli and Lukas Alpert wrote an enlightening article in the New York Post regarding Maqsood and his relationship with the bumbling would-be bombers.

"Sources say Maqsood was really Shahed Hussain -- a Pakistani native who runs hotels upstate and has worked for the FBI since 2003 after getting into trouble in a fraud case. He played an integral role in unraveling another terror-related case in Albany in 2004."

Whether his name is Maqsood or Shahed Hussain, the informant unsuccessfully attempted to recruit others before targeting the future 'bombers'. He first approached ringleader-to-be and career criminal James Cromitie roughly a year before the arrests in the parking lot of the local mosque. In the following months, the informant became acquainted with Cromitie's three friends, and enchanted them with gifts of money and drugs, along with promises of good jobs and even a Mercedes Benz.

According to Kathleen Baynes, long-time girl friend of James Cromitie, the informant was "very persistent and every time he came for James he took him away. They said they were going out to eat dinner," she said. "Whenever we needed anything Maqsood would help -- like financially --he gave us money to pay rent.

"He was just constantly around. It was like he was stalking him.... Maqsood gave him a lot of marijuana," she said.

According to Cassandra McKoy, girl friend of co-conspirator David Williams, the four were fooled into the plot with the lure of a cash payday and that religious hatred had nothing to do with it.

Williams' mother, Elizabeth McWilliams, said her son fell under Maqsood's sway in April with promises to help with medical bills for his sick brother.

"Maqsood said, 'Don't worry brother, I am going to help with your brother's hospital bills,'" she quoted him as saying. "This man did nothing but set these guys up."

Sometime before the attack, Cromitie supposedly was offered $50,000 by Maqsood, whom the mainstream media still refers to as an 'informant'. Arguably this man, flush with taxpayer funds and marijuana, was operating far beyond any mission of being a pro-active informant. He was acting as an aggressive agent provocateur, no doubt under heavy direction from his FBI handlers. We are told public officials hailed the arrests as a law-enforcement coup — the result of a "painstaking investigation" over the course of nearly a year. Instead of an "investigation", the event reads as a complete set-up. Not to mention an example of government-sponsored terrorism.

The case of the Bronx Bombers not only helped to score points for politicians and security bureaucracies in regards to foiling terrorism, but it also fueled a powerful new talking point. That is, the growing illusion that home-grown terrorism is naturally, spontaneously emerging in America.